Little People Day Care School

If you have a child with a disability, special needs, or Autism - PLEASE don’t even “try” to send your child to Little People Daycare in Kingston. My son and I toured with the assistant Director. I thought everything was good to go! However, the Director was not available the time of my tour and acceptance, therefore, we wouldn’t meet her until my sons first day. Totally caught off guard, the Director stopped my son and his dad at the door and explained that they must have made a mistake. She would need to call the state and see what the guidelines are for taking a child like my son. She then continued to tell us ALL the things they don’t or won’t accommodate in regards to my sons or our needs. As working parents, can you even imagine how that made us feel? My son has been in daycare for quite sometime now. His prior one, unfortunately, will not be reopening. I needed help! I needed a new daycare. I thought this one would be the best, why wouldn’t it? Additionally, one major thing (amongst many minor things)stuck out the most to me that just confirmed why our services had to end after a very short 3 days. My son needed verbal cues and minimal assistance to potty. Giving his disability this wasn’t unreasonable to ask. Two of the three days he was there he came home pull-up soaked and not changed. Mind you, we have him potty trained, I was afraid to send him in underwear. I asked and even wrote on a piece of paper what to do. I was told, “we don’t do help with potty; he needed to do it on his own.” I explained how to accomplish this so we didn’t loose our progress, but obviously it was too much to ask them to provide verbal cues or direction. God forbid they helped him or changed him! My son, after being continent for over a year now, was totally incontinent. Which, by the way, the acceptable response to this is listed in the ADA guidelines for child care. I just call it heartless and neglect. We did NOT feel welcome. I don’t believe they were willing to make ANY reasonable accommodations. I wish I knew this prior to his first day! We’re realistic - we would have worked with them or never even tried and moved on, but instead we tried and I guess you can say so did they. Unfortunately, I couldn’t help that the first day impression made me feel that they were only going to work against us. They made that abundantly clear on his first day. By the third day, I had enough trying. A parent of a child with special needs doesn’t need to go through this. The inequalities and ignorance to discrimination these days are getting ridiculous! It’s time people get with the times and start watching what they say and do! My son don’t have a voice to speak up, in fact, he can’t communicate how any of this would make him feel, so for him and every child or parent that needs a voice just know that there is an army of people who do and will.