Children First Learning Academy

My child had attended CFLA for a few years. At first it was wonderful. The staff was clean, they offered live webcam, during summer there was water days, and his teacher was wonderful. Then it all went down hill and started to take it's toll on my child. The teacher assistants were always changing as well as his teacher.Even if i packed my child's lunch, they didn't even open the lunch box or use the snacks that were provided. Any time i had questions or concerns it was immediately met with rude responses from the director (who is also the pre-3k teacher.) She was very sarcastic and not nice. She openly spoke about other children, which broke my heart because these are CHILDREN who cant defend themselves. My concerns were never met and the blame was put on my child. I witnessed her yelling at multiple children on different occasions that they were "very bad" children, telling them they ''wouldn't be there for much longer'' and i would still see those same children there. I also witnessed her pulling (multiple) children's arms. It was awful, and even when i confronted her about it she told me she did not care, and she does not regret it. Along with her, the theme there was screaming. Every time i picked my child up, one of the staff is screaming bloody murder. The director was the main reason i pulled my child out. She had an "i don't give a ****" attitude. It was always the child's fault and didn't even bother to listen to any other side of the story. It was a very stressful and sad time for us. My child is now happily attending another school with rave and positive reviews and is a whole new person. So happy we left.

The quality and care of this center, the director, and the staff have diminished significantly over the last year. I have had my children in this center for four+ years. In the past, parent concerns were met with professionalism. As the center has grown larger, the director and her fiance are no longer concerned with individual students. Instead, they give excuses they hope the parent will want to hear and ignore parent requests and input. Both the director and her fiance speak ill of former clients in public.

When I sent a healthy, homemade lunch for my child daily, it often happened that the teachers would refuse to open the items for her, even though she is only two and incapable of opening them on her own. They instead sent a note home claiming that the my child would prefer school lunch (pizza, chicken nuggets, and fish sticks) to the healthy lunch I sent. Of course, I am intelligent enough to see that it is not my child but the director whose preference that is, since she is the one making money off of school lunches.

When issues arise (as they often will) with bullying and teasing, the director refuses to address them directly. When I requested that my children be kept away from a student who had repeatedly hit them and thrown items at them, my request was ignored. Instead, the director told me to my face that she allowed them to play and they got along that day. Although I am happy to hear that they were able to get along, I am saddened and insulted to find that my request was ignored.

Other things the center could improve include the playground procedures. Students are kept outside in the hot Florida sun for hours every afternoon. Although small Styrofoam cups of water are available at intervals to the kids, they are stacked TOGETHER and reused every afternoon for the week. It is very unsanitary. The kids are hot and thirsty, and germs spread like wildfire with these practices.

The director of this school has many good traits. She attends children's birthday parties, looks professional, and has a fun loving nature. I am sad to say that the lack of professional actions has forced me to leave after all these years. I wish them the best and hope that they read this and question the loss a loyal customer.

Owner is very unprofessional and does not care about the parents’ concerns. Instead she would like to use what's called her 101 book of excuses. Our son was bite by another classmate and when addressed, there was no incident report so we asked our son who bit him. He told us who it was right in front of the owner, who had nothing to say at that time. The next day my husband went up to the owner and her boyfriend asking that we have a parent teacher conference. They had the nerve to say “Well maybe your son bite himself" REALLY??? Owner preceded with this boy doesn't bite, he's only known for hitting other kids. Which my husband couldn't believe that was her come back. After all said and done, my husband said no need to sit down and talk then since there was not an incident report and told them to have a good day. After turning his back and walking out the door, Owner stated "Well then today is your sons last day here". So instead of being professional and saying, "We have cameras, so what I need to do is go back and review the footage and if I see anything out of the ordinary, I will have it addressed with either parent or both if need be" Our son is a very respectful little boy. Even by the owner, we have been told how good he is, how respectful he is, he is a little gentleman, etc. So for her to get rid of our son to keep an aggressive child is beyond us. But she has done us a huge favor! We have had other concerns with the High Turn Over on staff since the 2 year olds moved up from the 1 year old class, there have been 5 or 6 teachers within the last 4 months, and anytime we need to sit down with her and her boyfriend it's a 101 book of excuses. She has told us countless times, she doesn't care what people think of her. The kids play out in direct sun and heat during the summer time at the hottest time of the day. The list goes on...But if you catch my drift...I do not recommend anybody taking their kids here.