Stepping Stones Child Development Center

Reviews 5

MA

Marilyn Monroe Taylor

I have to say this is the worst daycare I have ever taken my child to, and we have been to number out ones, in Virginia and other states. My daughter was six years old and at first she really liked it. However, I started noticing changes in her behavior and attitude toward the caregivers there. At first I really liked the center (if you call it that) because of the available hours they are open and also being able to provide Saturday care as I work on the weekends. The price is not too bad either. I paid $85 a week and an additional $20 for Saturday care. The location is great but the layout is not catered for a child development center. Once my daughter was attending there, I started noticing the unprofessionalism of the caregivers, especially during business hours; the office personnel and the behavior of the children were unbelievable. First off, none of the rooms except the two front rooms, have windows. The office is located in the back of the center and their paperwork filing (administrative staff) was horrifying. The ones that worked there had no clue or were always with the "I need to talk to Ms. K) so I had to be extra vigilant on how much I paid for the year and keep track of my receipts (bank statements) because after paying over $2,500 for the year, they gave me a statement letter saying that I only paid $600-for the year!!. Only after discussing with them over and over and showing proof of what I paid, were they willing to change the statement. I thought I was going to have to get a lawyer. My daughter started dreading going to the daycare. This broke my heart as I was not able to find another center with flexible hours. At one point I would meet her at the doors before she went inside after the bus dropped her off from school-still paying the 85 bucks! Theres only one benefit! There is a shuttle bus that will take your child to their school. I had to speak to the teachers a couple of times so they can watch their attitude and verbiage. Sometimes they would use inappropriate words in the classroom and my daughter would mention this to us. Apparently they also had inappropriate conversations where my daughter would bring up the subjects to me and her dad. To get into the daycare was an issue as well. Either the doorbell was not ringing or the staff was not nearby to open the door for parents who did not have a magnet key. And when a friend picked up my kid, the staff did not verify!!! I also noticed that the walls down the primary hallway was always dirty. At first I thought it was OK because the children were playing and of course they touch walls with dirty hands, especially the little ones like toddlers. However, after a few weeks, it was still the same, if not worse. I never received receipts for the payments so that is why I ensured to use bank statements and check copies provided by the bank. I rarely saw the caregivers come up with activities for the children to do. They were either all in front of the television, screaming at one another across some tables, yelling to one another. One time I kid spit on my daughters face!! Another time there was another fight with a couple of kids. And another time there was a child that bit another one. I do not think that the caregivers were attentive enough to notice when aggression starting among the kids. It was not until after it was too late. As for the Saturday care, that was much better. The teachers involved provided activities for the children to do. My daughter did look forward to Saturday. The other disappointment were the caregivers for the infant room. If my daughter would have been an infant, I would never had brought her there. The staffs fingernails were so long! If youre going to be in caregiving, having long nasty nails like that should not be permitted-talk about disgust!

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Lyn S

Complaints and investigations of all licensed providers are public record. Do a search for Virginia Department of Social Services and from there you can search for your daycare. I would post a link but I think it flags my review as spam. While I found a couple members of the care team, including the director, to be genuinely interested in the care of my infant, I felt the cold, uncaring and gossip-laden staff to overshadow our entire experience. I heard parents complain regularly about missing items (properly labeled), missing diapers, infrequent diaper changes, and feeding schedules. I personally found the daily care sheets to be a joke because most sections werent filled out and they often showed only 3 diaper changes during a 10 hour day (which means they arent logging them or diapers are not getting changed often enough). The feeding log was also inaccurate on a regular basis, sometimes showing that he consumed more than mathematically possible based on what was leftover, which is concerning (whose bottle was he drinking?). Drop-offs seemed understaffed with often only 1 person tending to check-ins while ignoring anyone else in the room. (I note they were always legally compliant with the 1:4 ratio, however this seems ridiculous at a time when the caregivers attention is so divided.) In only 1 months time my infants weight percentile dropped by half, so Im not sure what was happening but he sure wasnt eating enough while in their care. Since moving him to a new (much more caring and organized) daycare, he doubled his milk intake and bounced back onto his normal growth curve. If you are sending breastmilk, be aware that some staff members are completely disgusted by this. I would never recommend this place to anyone.

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Yvonne Tejada

Daycare Staff very rude! They complain about the children and/or parents to other parents. Not professional at all! The Daycare hides the mistakes instead of addressing the problem. I do not recommend this Daycare!

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Anonymous User

Great daycare. Cameras in every room. Very secure building. And great hours for parents with flexible work schedules. The staff are friendly and treat the children as family. My children love going there

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julie james

If i knew then what I know now this daycare should be investigated and/or closed.Speaking for children that cannot speak for themselves.Very poor management!!!!

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