Kiddie Academy of South Arlington

Anonymous _{on Google}

Jun 30th, 2023

Please go somewhere else!
There is extremely high turnover and the teachers left are overwhelmed. The owner is rude and hostile. She informed me of another child being on the Autism spectrum which is confidential information when discussing my child. What does another child's Autism have to do with my child and how wearing his shoes wasn't happening? If she speaks about other children's confidential information, what is she saying about my child to other parents?
Nearly every day for 2 months, the adult restrooms had fecal matter in them that couldn't be flushed the toilets consistently either over filled or couldn't be flushed. That's right, the plumbing was broken for 2 months. It was disgusting!
Many staff are subs from a sub agency who are not consistent and don't care about the children. This is after the owner treated staff horribly for no legitimate reason, made major payroll mistakes and blamed every one under the sun for the failure of her business. She is the common denominator but will not accept responsibility for anything that happens in her business.
The best staff members left in April and May and the owner refers to former employee's in disgusting ways even calling them cancers. It was these "cancers" that loved on my child, helped cover ratio when teachers quit(she pissed many off) and addressed the parent's concerns(because she often would brush parent's concerns as if they didn't matter). Now that these parents have posted true and bad reviews, the owner has seen it necessary to attack them even saying their requests became "aggressive demands" when the parent only asked for their child to be properly supervised, protected and for them to be notified when their child got sick. All of which the school was cited for by state.
Please do your research before enrolling your child. This school has been cited 16 times in less than 4 months. Due to their repetitive violations the state has deemed it necessary to place their permit on extended initial status. This means that they have 6 months to get their act in gear or their permit to operate will be pulled.
As much as an experienced director can do, this center will never change as long as the owner is there. The owner may be qualified on paper but lacks social skills, is paranoid, thinks everyone is out to get her and fakes that she cares. This is horrible especially in a field where children and their well being are at play.
Definitely not the way to do business!
While I notice the owner has responded to the other reviews with blanket apologies and statements she has not responded to my review, not even by stating I wasn't a customer, apologizing for what I experienced or any denial.
Nothing! This speaks volumes to me and should also for other parents.

Joseph Izydorski _{on Google}

Jun 27th, 2023

If you are looking for the worst daycare in DFW you found it! My daughter started here back in February when they opened. My wife and I expected there to be some kinks in the beginning but we expected them to eventually get better and they never did. If fact things got worse, after the daycare received several violation from the state, we had no choice other than to get our child out of there ASAP. It is extremely poorly managed to the point that employees are walking out. The owner has no experience running a daycare. Its a matter of time before this place is shutdown.This place is dangerous, keep your kids away!

Evelyn Rasor _{on Google}

Jul 2nd, 2023

If you are reading these reviews, they are very much true. This center is horrific. The ownership is dishonest and of very poor character. If you care about your childs well-being and safety, stay far away from this place. We started at the center when they opened. It is fresh and clean and pretty-that is the only positive thing about this place. If you dont want an auto ACH draft from your bank account, you have to pay a credit card fee, and there are no other ways to pay. Also, ACH drafts are processed randomly throughout the week, and there is no consistency. The director ended up quitting due to poor ownership, and when she did, she sent out her resignation letter to a few parents letting them know all the bad things happening behind the scenes. When we started at the center, we knew there would be some growing pains in the beginning. However, the problems at the center were never fixed and continued to get worse. The owner does not want to spend the money to staff the center appropriately, so she tries to make it work with temps. I received an email on 5/19 that my daughters class was closed because they did not have enough teachers. I had reported the center 2x to the state. The first occurrence was that my daughter had a fever of 103.7, and the center never notified us. When I brought it up to the owner, she did not care. She asked me What do you want me to do? She told me that she just learned of the temp at 2pm and just had not had the opportunity to take my daughters temp to inform us. She lied. It was found out in an investigation that the teacher asked for a temp check at 9:30 am in the morning, and the owner never checked the temp or notified my husband or me. The center received a violation for this. The second time, I had to report the center to the state because my child (15 months old) received a head injury in their care. The incident was investigated, and the findings found that the incident was preventable and that 4 teachers (including the owner) watched it happen. My husband and I were never informed of the injury. The center received a violation for this as well. I even spoke with the owner after this happened, and she never brought it up to me. Due to all the issues, we were on a waiting list for a new center and upon the center receiving the 2nd violation the owner kicked my daughter out of the center with 2 days notice leaving us without childcare. Reported to state Fri 5/12, investigation Monday 5/15, asked to leave Tuesday 5/16 at 7:10am via email last day was 5/18 due to closure on 5/19- lack of staff. She did this as retaliation. This was also reported to the state. Instead of trying to fix the problems with the center, she decided to get rid of my child. This place is so reckless. We had access to their cameras until 6/7, and we left 5/18- which is illegal and violated the child protection act. If you care about your child, run away! Dont let a new and pretty center fool you. it's not worth your childs life. Check the center's violations at the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services website.
I was expecting my daughter to be following an educational curriculum as advertised, which did not happen. Every time I logged into the cameras, all the kids were running around playing. My daughters breastmilk was overheated several times, and 1 time the center actually sent home a deformed Dr. Brown bottle from being overheated. My concerns here were never addressed. New temp teachers daily, no structure or consistency, high turnover. The week before we left, the owner called me to tell me we owned $1500 because she forgot to bill us, fyi we were on weekly ach auto pay (the only option). Im sure I could go on even more, but if you have read this far, Im sure you get the point. STAY AWAY!!!!
Update: The owner of this place must be a pathological liar. I never asked for a fridge. The center did not have sufficient staff to store breastmilk in another fridge, so she bought a fridge when I refused to move my 15-month-old daughter to whole milk per her request.

Caitlin Alford _{on Google}

Jun 11th, 2023

This place needs to be shut down and the owner is a grimey crook. So much to say but not appropriate to type!!!

Korri Romero _{on Google}

Jun 3rd, 2023

Please, keep your children out of this center. The care is subpar and the environment is unsafe.
We pulled our daughter out after just a month and a half. In the span of two weeks, two incident reports were written due to my child being bitten by another student. While this generally wouldn't be a big deal (small kids bite), one was never addressed - we found it crammed in our daughter's cubby a week after it was filled out. The other was given to us days after it was written. Both of these instances are in violation of codes written by Texas Health and Human Services. Many days, my daughter also came home with multiple scratches and bruises.
The center is also chronically understaffed with incredibly high turnover. In fact, our daughter class was suddenly cancelled one day due to the "abrupt departure of two teachers" (per one of the owners). Of the teachers and substitutes who are there, some act completely inappropriately, screaming and snapping at children. Some don't seem to care, failing to log daily reports or engage children in activities.
When we tried to bring these - and other - issues to the owners' attention, we were met with lots of hand waving. Some issues were never answered, and some were deflected. Generally, we received passive aggressive comments like, "I understand you're disappointed with excellent care."
The kicker: Over the last two weeks my daughter was at this center, the owners failed to bill us. Instead, we received an invoice for two weeks of care, right as we withdrew her.
Save your money. Save your sanity. Most of all, protect your kids from this facility.