Ivy Prep Early Learning Academy

My son has been at this location since he was 4 months old (he is 2 1/2 now) and we love it. The staff is amazing and extremely caring. All of the educators are professional and greet both my son and I each time we are walking through the halls. My son comes home happy and wakes up excited to "go to school". This is an indicator that they are doing something right. He learns new content each day (he knows his shapes, colors and is beginning to recognize his letters). They also provide opportunities for extracurricular activities during the day (sports and animals) for an additional cost. I receive 1-5 pictures a day through Tadpoles so that I can see what my son is doing and review the day with him when I come home. The center is the cleanest that I've seen (I visited 8 other centers prior to choosing this one). Another driving factor in choosing this location was that staff must keep all personal items upstairs in a locker (including phones). I feel safe bringing my son to this place each day.

We started to use this daycare in the beginning of September 2016 and decided to switch to Ivy League Early Learning Center of Bayside due to proximity to my work. Everything seemed ok in the beginning but four weeks in, I had an issue with the daycare as my child was complaining that one of the teachers (Ms. XXX) has hit her. Initially the daycare did seem very concern with this allegation and claimed that they did an investigation and that it was a misunderstanding. But ultimately I did not feel like they took my concerns very seriously as they did not immediately honor my request to remove my daughter from Ms XXX’s supervision and to this day my daughter continues to adamantly claim that Ms. XXX has hit her (she’s 3 years old but this is the first time she has ever mentioned anyone laying a finger on her). Needlessly to say as a parent, I was not comfortable with the situation and ultimately decided to take my child out of their care and that was when they showed their true colors…the staff immediately became RUDE, UNPROFESSIONAL and straight out DISRESPECTFUL to me.

Of course as I was left with no choice but to take my child out of their facility, I expected a full refund of my deposit and unused days. I am not paying for a service where my child claims she’s being mistreated. I received one voicemail stating that my deposit will be refunded and will take 2 weeks. This was fine but there was no mention of my unused days. So I called again and had to leave numerous messages at the office as no one was returning my calls nor answering my questions. I was basically given the run-around. I was told that only the executive director can approve refunds. After a week of this, I was finally able to get a staff member to speak with me and they tell me this: the staff members were instructed not to speak with me and that it is not their policy to refund unused days and then she HUNG UP on me! It is also not a parent’s “policy” to pay for mistreatment of their child!!