Shawnee KinderCare

Ok let's be real, this place isn't super fancy and the inside is a bit outdated. But what is most important is that there are caring, knowledgeable teacher who love what they do. My son has been there almost a year and I've had very few issues.

If you would have asked me a couple months ago what I thought about this location, I would have raved about them and recommended you send your children here. Unfortunately, things have quickly changed. Our son began attending this location when he was 4 weeks old, he is now almost 4 1/2. Of course, over time, we have seen staff come and go, including management. We know there is high turnover within the child care world and have seen many new directors bring their staff with them. We were foster parents for several years, so we have had many children come through this location and they have always supported us. So, in return, we always supported them and were patient with them when we saw any areas of concern. However, more recently, we have seen a drastic drop in staff and it has gotten to a point where I was seeing my son in a different class daily, with different staff. We were told he was moving up to a different class, our son was so excited and then for days, he would be in the lower class. My wife and I had many conversations about what we were seeing when we were dropping off/picking up. There was a time she dropped off that the teacher was very much out of ratio and was yelling at the children. My wife saw this as her being overwhelmed and went and got the director to help this teacher. Again, we were patient. I arrived last week and saw this same teacher screaming at a child to quit standing on a chair and if he didn't, she was going to make him write sentences. She said this to a child who was 4. I started to become very worried. This past Sunday, we were contacted by someone who had left this center, someone who we always considered an amazing teacher and who our children absolutely love. She informed us that she had sent a fellow employee (from her new school) to this location to get observation hours. The teacher that observed was horrified at what she witnessed in my son's classroom, just while being there for this day. She witnessed the teacher screaming at children, shoving a table into one child's stomach, verbally threatening certain children and even putting her hands on two children by pulling their arms and hurting them. Unfortunately, one of these children was my 4-year-old baby. When we began questioning my son, he confirmed that this teacher specifically had hurt him on several occasions. He also told us that she had threatened him several times that she would call the police on him. Prior to this, I took my son and daughter to a restaurant in our town. Several police officers showed up to have lunch there. My son was so scared, he wouldn't eat and had to be on my lap the entire time. He kept telling me that the police were there to get him. I was so confused on where this was coming from. I now understand. According to this teacher who observed this happening, she stopped and told the director, Jessica, what she witnessed and told her she was going to have to hotline the event. The director did not say anything and just smiled at her. Of course, nothing was done. The teacher and I all hot lined this center. When I showed up to the center on Monday to speak to the director, she did not seem concerned at all. She claims that the teacher never spoke to her and that she had no idea that any of this happened. She said that it was "disheartening" that this happened to my child. She continued to defend the staff and showed no remorse. We have heard from other parents over the concern of the lack of food being given to children and one child even broke a bone due to lack of supervision. This place has seriously gone downhill. We immediately enrolled our son into a new center, as we promised him he would never have to go back to this place. His new center is an open floor concept that has no closed off classrooms, this has helped with our fear of this happening again. The director of this new center told us that they have received several calls from parents with children at this KinderCare location, looking to move their child due to similar issues and concerns. Yesterday, when I picked my child up, there were police cars near the childcare center. My stomach dropped immediately. There were no issues at the childcare center, but there were at the apartment complex nearby. The police stopped in the office to ask if anyone had seen or heard anything. By the time I got my son and got to our car, all cops were gone. On our way home, my son mentioned that the cops were in the office and talked to the teachers. He followed it up with "they didn't take me mommy because the teachers there think I am a good boy". Thank you, Shawnee KinderCare, for traumatizing my child. I pray for each child left in this center. And I have completely realized why almost ALL the staff have left. Good luck to anyone considering this place.

My child received awful care. There's just not enough teachers that truly care about their kids. Impatience seems to be prevalent, which is not a good formula for child care for young children.

Ever since the new management took over it has been nothing short of amazing. The Director and Assistant Director always greet families with a loving smile and happy faces. When my child is having a rough drop off they step in to comfort him and it makes it so much easier. The staff are also so loving and caring and make sure that my son has easy drop offs. Now when I pick him up he cries because he does not want to leave. Best decision I ever made.

This used to be a incredible school to have your kids at , they USED to be all about education and family connections and then when the new director took over it went downhill fast ,I noticed she treats the employees horrible and then started observing her treating the families with just as much disrespect including my own family , the teachers are allowed to be on their phones as much as they want to resulting in no supervision being provided to the kids in their care , the food is horrible and extremely small portions , the whole school smells like cigarette smoke due to the director smoking on the property , the director is never available to help with any concerns you will have , she is always either outside smoking , on her cell phone in the office or not there , I have posted three reviews and they keep getting deleted by the director which just proves that they have stuff to hide , I will continue to post cause the families still there and perspective families have the right to know how bad this school is and that it is not safe to have your children there ... I have pulled my kids and the school we are at now is very focused on their education and making the families happy .....

Absolute disaster for daycare. Staff turnover is well over 100% per year. Their pricing, billing and rates change weekly without notice, regardless of whether or not you have a contract. They barely meet state minimums for teacher/child ratio's. They price gauge - fee's for everything you can and can't imagine, especially for preschool and school age children. the preschool and school age classrooms are VERY small when you cram 45+ kids in each of them..... Do yourself a favor and avoid this facility like the plague.

Awful place to send your kids! I never knew who my child's teachers were going to be each day; The people who were supposed to be my child's teachers would be in different rooms all the time and say they were moved around too much to even know what kind of day my kid had!! Management is AWFUL. Susan and Amy both have a 'better than everyone' attitude and it is obvious that they look down on parents and teachers alike. As a parent I have been talked down to many times, and I walked in on Susan and Amy yelling at a teacher one day as well! I even recently met the District Manager (dont recall her name) but she had the same snooty attitude too! They seem to do well with kids, but I find it a little wrong that kids are always in the office, hallway, kitchen, etc. with managemet instead of the classroom with the teachers that love them. Price is WAY TOO HIGH. I paid Over 200 a week for my preschooler, and You would be much better off with a smaller family owned childcare center. Or a nanny. There are a few amazing teachers that I would love to have as a nanny for my child if I could afford to pay them, but unfortunately it seems they are stuck working at that train wreck of a child care center.