Gail's Family Childcare

Between my kids, we have been enrolled with Gail for just over 3 years. Child care decisions have always been so stressful for me. Are the kids safe? Loved? Learning? Happy? And luckily for us the answer to these important questions has always been yes. I feel confident recommending Gail to anyone with little ones looking for a place that provides more than just someone to watch the kids. They provide structure, routine and curriculum. When my daughter started preschool I was confident in her social skills and what she had learned because of the foundation that she received with Gail and Kendra. They also helped me navigate transitions (potty training, etc). I feel fortunate that Gail and staff have been a part of our kids lives.
Nov 12th, 2019

We took our daughter here from October 2016 through April 2017. We removed her immediately after observing an abusive incident with Gail's husband and an 18 month old. We have reported this to Child and Family services and will update this review with the results of their investigation. When we first met with Gail she seemed very experienced and organized. We loved the fact that it was a smaller group compared to other daycares. All of the girls who work for Gail are very caring and professional, and it is a clean and well organized environment. Unfortunately, Gail's husband Joe is extremely aggressive with the children. In February 2017, while dropping our daughter off in the morning. My mother witnessed Joe grab a 3 year old that wasn't listening and slam him down on the ground. He then aggressively told the boy not to move. On several other occasions Joe was observed yelling at young children for being too loud or running. All of the children who attend this childcare are very respectful and play together appropriately. In my opinion Joe treats these toddlers as if they were much older children. Holding them to unrealistic standards for their age, and punishing them innapropriately rather than calmly redirecting them. The final incident and reason for our immediate removal of our daughter from Gail's care, took place on April 28th. Gail was out of town so Joe was filling in. When I walked in to pick my daughter up, one of her friends (an 18 month old) crawled over to greet me. She was trying to play with the laces on my shoes which is typical behavior for a baby her age. Joe came over and agressively told her to leave my laces alone shaking his finger at her. A couple minutes later while I was talking to one of the employees the baby grabbed the laces again. When Joe saw this he walked over and smacked her hand so hard that I could hear a clappng noise from the impact. I immediately told him that he was out of line and better never hit my daughter. When he saw how aggravated I was he sheepishly told me that I was right and shouldn't have struck the child. The next day when we brought it to Gail's attention and told her we would not be bringing our daughter back, she lied about knowing what happened and made excuses. She didn't offer any explanation or apology. I would highly recommend avoiding this child care. The price is lower than other daycares in the area and the ratio of children to caretaker is lower. However the potential for physical abuse greatly outweighs the positives. The worst part is, there are several employees who have witnessed Joe's abusive actions and are doing nothing about it. So they are enabling the innapropriate behavior to continue.
May 9th, 2017