Bright Beginnings Academy - Cherry Hill NJ Child Care Center

This is the worst excuse I have ever seen for a daycare. The front of house staff is as rude as can be and the director is a joke. I've personally witnessed the director demeaning the staff and speaking rudely and in a loud voice to children. The owner is either heartless or oblivious to the directors actions in his absence. The ONLY thing good about this daycare is the classroom staff. The teachers are amazing and my daughter loved going every day. Aside from the amazing classroom teachers (which are strangely getting fired or quitting) Bright Beginnings Academy has no business staying open. There is mold in the mulch on the playground (which hasn't been replaced or even cultivated since the daycare opened some 4 years ago). The sand box on the playground is disgusting and the sand has NEVER been replaced since the daycare opened about 4 years ago. I strongly urge any parent who is contemplating sending their child/children here to reconsider.

We wanted to say that we find this school very beautifully maintained. What drew us to the school was its cleanliness and the ability of the director to answer all our questions and concerns. Its only been a few months but we have already seen a change in our daughter's behavior and her ability to communicate with us. She really enjoys going to school and is always excited to see her teachers. If you are looking for a school that cares for your children and gives them their highest priority we recommend that you take a tour and enroll your child here. We have been very pleased with all aspects of the school.

As an employee of Bright Beginnings for more than two years, i would like to say: I LOVE my job. I get to be greeted each day by smiling faces of children and staff alike, and that is a great feeling! While we have been through some changes since I've started, we can't expect staff to stay forever. However, I do feel we now have a strong team, that really gets the children involved in learning and other fun activities!

To all prospective parents,

We understand that reviews are very important potential to our clients and after reading the above reviews. You may be hesitant to tour, but we urge you to come in and see for yourself. However, please remember that reviews tend to be very biased for one reason or the other. If you visit Superpages.com you will see lots of reviews about our school. Most are very positive, with some negative and some are just informative. The school was going through some transition last July/August and we firmly believe that we are on a great path and have a great track record in making children happy and providing the best care and education in Cherry Hill area. We are making great strides in hiring the best and most qualified staff as well as providing staff development opportunities. I know some comments are made about us only caring about Money. Very easy for parents to say that when things don't go their way. We at BBA have never been about money. If we were we wouldn't refund people their money, help parents who are struggling due to an illness or job loss, or help our staff with childcare. Our rates have always been fair and we don't nickel and dime parents. The rate you see is what we charge with no hidden fees.
We know we are not perfect and we don't try to portray that we are a perfect school. We all have our own growing pains and we admit me we've made mistakes in staffing and communications. But as time has gone on we have consistently improved on both and are constantly working on improving ourselves.
In regards to students being sick, again we think is a very unfair accusation. In a preschool environment children do get sick some more than others. We have the cleanest schools and invite you in to take a tour to see for yourself as our owner spends good money in getting them cleaned every day. He has used the same company since 2007 at our Sewell location and hired the same company in 2011 when we opened the Cherry Hill location. We do over and above what is required by the state in terms of cleanliness but yes at times rooms can get messy but that is part of preschool environment. We always encourage our staff to keep their rooms clean and that the cleaning company will take care of major cleaning on a day to day basis including bathrooms.
As the director of the school I just urge that you do read reviews, you talk to your confidants, your friends and still tour the school to get the most fair assessment. If we were as bad as the above people described us to be, we wouldn't be in business. We are just asking to be judged fairly. We hope to see you tour our beautiful and loving school in Cherry Hill.

Their hours are good but my daughter is always sick eversince she went in to this school. I will pull her out soon most probably. Wondering always if they really clean up and disinfect. Director also is not very organized. She says one thing and does another. Lacks communication with her staff too. When you talk to her, she doesn't jot down anything nor tell her staff thus, the staff knows nothing about what you discussed about your child. No consistency. They also don't know how to handle common-sense stuff. They will call you each time and bug you at work..giving you no peace of mind wondering what is really going on with your child! Each time they cannot solve a problem, they will ask you to pick up your child! Why would you want that hassle if you are working?

I have struggled internally for days now deciding whether I have just been an over-protective parent or not, but after speaking with many other mothers with more daycare experience then myself, I have decided I am not irrational and this place truly deserves a bad review. I found myself needing immediate and unexpected daycare for my 12mo old son, took a tour of BBA and settled for it. I ignored so many red flags and I hope this review will encourage parents to proceed with caution at this facility. I stopped in without an appointment to get information and everyone was very friendly and welcoming. The facility was clean, the children seemed happy. The director was skilled at addressing and assuaging my concerns big and small, from the teachers' experience and the level of individualized attention my son would get to the food I wanted him fed or not fed and my request that he not have to wear shoes and be able to carry his blanky. All of my concerns were put at ease and I was assured that the teachers are dedicated to respecting the wishes of the parents. Sure...with dollar signs in her eyes, she told me everything I needed to hear to confidently write a check. The first red flag I ignored was that my son was to be put in the 15mo plus classroom-there was no space in the younger room. On his first day I wrote a letter to the teacher explaining my concern that he was much younger than the other children and would they please be gentle-she read it in front of me and laughed. Red flag #2-at the end of our initial tour, the director made a point of bad-mouthing another facility in the area. (I hadn't even suggested I was touring anywhere else) Red flag #3, the director, who likely works an easy 9-5, is conveniently not there when dropping off or picking up. My concerns that were so skillfully eased by her were never mentioned to the teacher. Having ignored the red flags our days went like so: I would drop him off, listen to the teacher's comments about his inadequate footwear and that his blanket was too big. (Couldn't I cut it, or give him something smaller to carry around?) Hand over his food and the MINIMUM amount of milk he should drink in a day (1.5 cups for 8am-5pm) and say good-bye. In the evening, I picked him up and a different teacher would give me the pathetic report card that told me he peed and ate "some" food and drank "some" milk. Then we would sit in the parking lot for 15-20min while my exhausted, hungry and dehydrated baby feverishly guzzled the remaining 3/4 of the milk I had left with him in the morning. I was willing to keep at it-he was new to daycare, I understood it would take some time for him to adjust. So I kept bringing him back...until last Monday. When I walked in to pick him up the first thing I noticed was the giant red welt on his forehead and cut on his nose. When the afternoon teacher noticed my expression she said "Oh, I just noticed that, I don't know how that happened, I'll have to ask Ms ***." I was fine- the kid just started walking, he gets bumps and bruises all the time. I was irked that no one saw it happen, but ok.. I got him home and noticed he was walking a little funny, but passed it off as he was just tired. I undressed him for his bath and discovered that in addition to the bump on his head and deep cut on his nose, he had an inch long scratch down his thigh, a half inch diameter bruise on his butt and 4 perfectly fingerprint sized bruises on his lower back. On his first day the teacher told me she had 3 people pin him down to change his diaper. I can't help but be suspicious. I am not claiming any malicious intent and like I said earlier-I know kids fall, but for my son to have suffered so many injuries from one day with no report from his caretakers is terrifying. He's missed two days now and no one has bothered calling to see if he is ok, or if he has succumbed to the hand, foot and mouth disease outbreak I was informed of on our first day. I don't blame the teachers-I think they have good intentions and are probably great with older kids-kids that are the age they are supposed to be teaching. I think the director is just out for money and is overcrowding classrooms and inappropriately mixing age groups for the sake of a buck, or $1200 in our case. They will most certainly read this review and know exactly who I am-It will be interesting to see what they do about it.