Habibis Hutch Preschool

Where to start! This post is meant to inform and make prospective parents aware of serious concerns, not to attack personally. I am a primary teacher here in Austin and I am aware of what parents expect from me to reassure them that there child is safe in my care.

Communication: Don't expect much communication from the teachers on how/what your child is doing at Habibi's Hutch. If there is communication, it must be pursued by the parent and often times you will have to go to a number of teachers to get an educated response, I use that term loosely. Many responses we received were, "Umm, I don't know." (with no attempt at finding out an answer.)

Potty Training: They say they help with potty training, ha, what a joke. When your child is potty TRAINING, as a parent a certain amount of communication is expected from a childcare center where they spend a majority of their day.We found out after we withdrew our child that she had been having repeated accidents. How are we, as parents, supposed to fix the problem when we arent even aware that their is one?! We now have a new daycare where our child has spent the last 2 weeks, and are VERY pleased to report, our child hasn't had a single accident. My feeling is that an appropriate amount of attention/support was not given to my child's potty training.

Weather concerns: The kids play outside all day which I think is fine until its 109 degrees outside! They do have a few canopys and misters but the misters are so high up that by the time the water gets to the kids level, the water has evaporated, simple science. Again, I work for Austin ISD, there are days when our kids are not permitted to go outside because of the temperature concerns. My kids are older and more resilient, Habibi's have kids ranging from 18 months to 5 years old. Seriously, if my elementary kids aren't permitted to go outside because of weather concerns, then little ones at Habibi's Hutch should especially not be outside!!

Monitoring: Kids are slightly monitored and their are many exits to their playground that are not monitored. On a number of occasions I have found random students wandering around inside without ANY teachers around or aware. There is NO safe check-in or check-out. I have literally walked in and out with my child, only to receive a phone call later asking me if my child was picked up!!

Condition of the daycare: Habibi's Hutch is no more than two old run-down houses. One of the houses is known to flood every time there is a good rain. And this year Austin has actually had rain:) The owner is to cheap to have the problem fixed so they just air it out with fans. Can you say MOLD?!?!!!

Safety: After I took my child out of Habib's Hutch and was looking for a new day care, I found a website that I would like to share with everyone. http://www.dfps.state.tx.us/Child_Care/Search_Texas_Child_Care/CCLNET/Source/Provider/ppComplianceHistory.aspx?fid=504568&wgt=5&tab=2 This is a government website from the Department of Family and Protective Services. On this site you can look up any day care to see if they have any inspection violations. They had 16 violations a few weeks ago but now only showing 2. They finally called and resolved these matters only after we told them that we read their citations. The citations ranged from not having fire Inspections current all the way to failing to have background checks on the teachers. THIS IS A PRESCHOOL THAT WORKS WITH KIDS!!!!! Later, after we withdrew our daughter, it was explained that one of the background checks that wasn't current was a teacher who had been there for years. Doesn't matter, these are kids, those background checks should have been current, period!

Final STRAW: We had the best of intentions when we chose this daycare for our child. But unfortunately, we truly felt as though our childs well-being was in danger. The final straw was a medical issue involving her privates. Our pediatrician requested we keep her privates as clean and as dry as possible. We are not blaming Habibi's for the problem, but do however, blame them for not helping with our/pediatricians request. We asked the OWNER to help follow through with our child. He admitted he dropped the ball and NEVER communicated the problem to ANY member of his staff. We made this repeated request for an entire week. The last day our child was at Habibi's, her dad walked up to the gate, saw our daughter naked in the sand, with her dirty diaper next to her. There was a teacher attempting to put a new diaper on her without cleaning her privates. Number 1, sandboxes are known breeding grounds for bacteria, why would my child be allowed to spend ANY amount of time near sand with NOTHING covering their private parts. Number 2, why was our daughter wearing a diaper?! Oh yah, goes back to lack of communication about her potty training. It was later explained to me that, "No parent wants to hear their child is having accidents everyday!" WOW!! I do, I would actually like to know that. Needless to say, that was our daughter's last day.

The owners actually had the gaul to tell us that we can't just leave. We have to give a 30 day notice and we would have to continue paying. We didn't withdraw our child because of selfish reasons..example: a sudden move, decision to become a stay-at-home, ect. Our decision was based solely on failure to provide the service we were paying them for.

One final note, again, this is solely meant to be a review based on SERIOUS concerns about a preschool where we had our daughter enrolled. The final comment given to us to help explain their failure to provide a safe enviroment.."Habibi's Hutch isn't for everyone!"

That much is true....