Kiddie Academy Of Cary

The facility is nice, and we especially liked the teacher of the younger infant class (Ms. Acecily). She was very caring and sang or did activities with the kids when there wasn't a baby to be fed or changed. However the management at Kiddie Academy of Cary is dysfunctional and untrustworthy. On our tour, we were told that our child would never be moved out of his room. From the very first day and everyday after that (without informing me first), my child was moved from the younger infant room to the older infant room at 4:30. Prior to signing the contract, we asked about the vacation policy (2 weeks off at half tuition after being there for 6 months) and mentioned that we take vacations in December (only 3 months after we started). The director told us that they make exceptions, and that that should not be a problem. We also asked about the policy with the deposit; if things didn't work out (due to, for example illness) and we couldn't give 4 weeks notice, would we lose the deposit. She again said that it is a case-by-case basis and she has never not refunded a deposit. Needless to say, everything we asked about prior to signing became an issue. The owner and director are not on the same page; the owner is a stickler for his contract, and in retrospect it seems like the director says whatever the customers want to hear to get people to sign.

We ended up taking our child out of daycare due to health reasons; he was far too distracted to feed well there; he started daycare at the 10th percentile for weight and ended up in the 3rd percentile after 4.5 months. We walked in first thing on a Monday morning to talk to the director to inform them that our son would no longer be attending the daycare effective immediately. We didn't question her when she said the deposit would be taken (despite what was discussed about the deposit prior to signing). We did however ask if the tuition we paid for that week could be refunded, and she said that that shouldn't be a problem. And of course, it was a problem. The owner refuses to refund us the tuition, and he hasn't given an explanation as to why.

Another area of frustration was that whatever requests we made were always initially denied. We had to have at least 2 or more conversations with the director before she stopped to actually think what we were asking for. We saw that we weren't the only parents who had to do this. Example: When our child first started solids, we asked that his food be heated. The teacher was new and told us to ask the director. The director told us that there was no way for the center to heat up baby food, and that baby food does not need to be heated. Thus we sent our child with only fruity purees because he wouldn't eat his veggie purees cold. Later on, we found out that the teacher in the older infant classroom was heating up baby food in the bottle warmers, so we really don't understand why we were told that it could not be done. Another example: When we asked why our child's food was being transferred from his tupperware to a school bowl when it can easily just be fed from his own bowl (and thus minimizing food waste from transferring), the director said that it was a sanitation regulation. Except I checked with another 5 star daycare, and it isn't. We're also told that kids cannot be in sleepsacks without a dr's note because it is a state regulation. Again, it isn't. The state allows sleepsacks in daycares without a doctors note. The over-the-top restrictions that the teachers have to follow at this particular daycare makes me think that they care more about maintaining a perfect sanitation grade than what is in the best interest of the children.

It's a shame that the management was so poor for an otherwise nice facility and teachers.