Little Ranch Preschool

I REALLY don't like leaving negative reviews, but I wish I would have known this before enrolling my child here so I hope this might help someone else. My daughter and I had just moved to Arizona when she started going here so the adjustment to a new school wasn't easy for her. But her teacher made no effort to make her feel welcomed/loved. In her first week, she got bit THREE times. I understand once, maybe twice, but three?? I believe that is just carelessness. All these incidents happened in front of the same teacher. When I went to go discuss the incident with her teacher, she put her head down and completely ignored me. She did not say hello to my daughter, give her hugs, or really just show that she was happy to see my daughter! After each biting incident, I got no phone calls and zero communication from her teacher about what happened/what will happen to prevent another incident. I understand biting is unfortunately a "normal" toddler behavior, but I also believe it is mostly preventable if the parent, child, and teacher work together. I was calling almost everyday to check in on my daughter, especially in her first week and every time someone on the phone would tell me "she's fine" but then when I went to go pick her up I would get a different story of how she did. I just wanted them to be honest. All in all, I decided to take my daughter out of this school for the lack of warmth from her teacher, poor communication from all staff, and my daughter was honestly just miserable every day at drop off/pick up. If I have one positive thing to say is that the director was the nicest and most understanding. She understood my concerns and felt bad about everything that was happening. Unfortunately, she is not the one watching the children so that didn't make a difference at the end of the day.

I love this place ! You will feel right !!!.. right when you walk in the door !My kids are responsive and comfortable with there caregivers . The staff are caring and very engaged in all these children's life's . This is a no-brainer.Little Ranch goes above and beyond to ensure children's safety and provides a nurturing environment . Just by there daily routines proves the stability they have and how much these children are thriving . Thank you for providing a friendly atmosphere for our children where they can learn and grow. All your teachers and workers are reliable, respectful, caring, and fun-loving. You're truly the best!! Highly recommended! If I can give 1000 stars I would .

Edited to add:We went to the doctor today. When he started at little ranch he had a dramatic drop in his weight percentile. That's a big deal to a small child with special needs. The drop continued on until we switched him a month ago. He's now had a huge increase in his weight and the only thing that's changed is his school. Obviously they weren't feeding him at little ranch. His doctor's data doesn't lie. Literally the worst daycare. My special needs son was completely ignored all day. We would look at the video and every single time he was either under the table or pushing cubbies in and out. They let his obsessive behaviors get out of control. The final straw was when he was left in a diaper all day. When he came home his diaper was completely soaked with urine. They also have a lack of teachers and the ratio of kids to teachers is often 11:1 in his class. We haven't taken him back since the diaper incident and enrolled him at a school called small Marvels.

My daughter went here for about a year. I mostly liked the teachers there I had a limited amount of problems. They always kindly listened to my concerns. Mya was amazing I wish she was still there. There's a high turn over in staff and managers. They mostly have had great workers the kids are always taken care of and are always doing art. It was kind of going down hill and this one manager started there and was cleaning up the place. She really took pride in the place and made it really cute started arranging to get class pets in each class room but she's gone now and I ultimately left cuz they lost some kids in my daughters class. They were 3 y/o due to not fixing the broken fence where kids could get out and into the alley way. They had to call the police and find them. And when they did they were on the street and not well so... besides that hick up. The teachers were very caring and loving for the most part. You know there's always 1 or 2 every once in a while who weren't great but that's anywhere. I LOVE the teachers in the young 2s class and Fabian they're so great.

I just removed my kids from this school and to another due to the lack of leadership and proper amenities for the price that they are paid. For the 6 months that my kids went to Little Ranch, the director has changed 3 times. With that of course the policies changed, and the communication would break down between parents and teachers. The food that is served there is no where near what it should be for the price they are paid. Since moving my kids to another school in the same company it is night and day difference. I wish I would have done it sooner to be honest. They need to really sit down and figure out what is going on.

This is an amazing preschool.Im so glad we found Little Ranch Preschool. My son is 2 has been attending for about two years and he loves it. He has learned so much.

DO NOT ENROLL YOUR KIDS HERE. If I could rate this place half a star or no stars I would. The only helpful staff member is Renee and she is new. This place cares more about money than they do children. My daughter has been coming to this school for 4 months now and has gotten sick EVERY WEEK. We enrolled her full time into their Javelina class (2-3yrs) and she has probably been able to attend 3 MAYBE 4 full weeks. The rest of the time she has only been able to go for 3 days or less. Why? because the people watching the children don't pay close enough attention to kids who are SICK. On my daughters birthday I came to pick her up, she looked like the energy was drained out of her (not in a good way). I touched her HAND and it was on FIRE. I didn't have to feel her forehead to know she had a high fever. On top of that her teacher ,(Miss Celeste) who I find to be the most incompetent child care "professional" I've ever crossed in my life (I used to work in childcare.), wouldn't take off her jacket.... in 85 degree weather!! When I took my daughter's temperature it was 104 degrees!!! That was extremely dangerous and had I come later my child would have gone to the ER.They are also obviously under staffed. But do they stop accepting new kids or cut down class sizes? NO of course not, because they care more about money than children. My child had a HUGE scratch on her face (that turned into a scar) and since I had not picked her up from school that day I did not ask her teacher what happened. So the next day when she came home she had MORE scratches. I was determined the next day to ask Miss Celeste what happened. The next day when I picked her up and asked what had happened. Her response was "Oh I just noticed that today." What do you mean you just noticed it today. She's had a huge scratch right next to her lip. Anyone with eyes could see it or are you not paying attention? Then her reasoning blew me away. "She was probably picking on some tougher kids." Well first of all if my daughter is having behavioral issues let me know, THAT DAY. Not 2 days after I've said something to you about you not noticing what's going on. Second of all do not blame a 3 yr old because your not monitoring your class correctly.Lastly, I was finally fed up and found a wonderful in home daycare for HALF the price and TWICE the quality of care. Knowing that most places need a week or 2 in advance I let Deanna ( one of the asst directors) know that I was going to be taking my child else where because she keeps getting sick, she said it is 2 weeks and that she would make a note of it (with an half eye roll that she thought I could not see). I said perfect because in 2 weeks is when she will be starting her new daycare. So at the end of her last week I called Little Ranch to confirm that they would not be charging me next week because I had a feeling that Deanna did not handle it correctly. Well come to find out I am supposed to sign an official form saying I am taking my child out of their program. I spoke to Renee who insured me she would look into it. Since this last part of my review is current, I will be updating it in a few days when I retrieve my daughters belongings. BOTTOM LINE. IF YOU WANT A PLACE THAT CARES FOR YOUR CHILDREN AND DOESN'T COUNT THEIR MONEY LOOK ELSEWHERE.

My friend asked me to pick her daughter up from daycare yesterday. I went another parents child pit the code to let me into the office, that was empty. I wandered around the office for a few minutes unattended before finding the door to let me back into the classes and play area. I was greet by a staff member passing by telling her it's my first time here to pick up said child. I was give a quick tour of classroom area and playground before encountering another staff member whom let child out of play area and provided me with her bag. I was not required to provide any type of identification. I didn't even provide my name at all! Not was I required to sign the child out. The fact that I can walk into this child care facility and take someone child is of the utmost concern. As well as having access to the office area with I'm sure private information of the child, parent, and emergency contacts. What worse is what if I was an active shooter or kidnapper or worse. This was the most blatant disregard for child safety I have ever seen. Please watch your children and facilities you place them in. They are also DES certified. How? I ask!!

I dropped groceries off at this place, I work for a certain grocery place & just getting there the workers have in the class room with like 1-2 year olds were listening to rap music & not even regular rap like sexual music for grown ups.. the food the ordered for these little kids was heartbreaking, I understand people can't afford healthier food but the food was so bad. I would never recommend this school, teachers were on their phones while little kids are running around just sad.

Update to my review...It's been years since we pulled our son out of Little Ranch and since then we've crossed paths with other former Little Ranch employees and families. To date we have not heard one positive thing about their experience. I checked back with the health department after my son's injury and was informed that they were given a notice regarding a few different findings at the facility. I did not receive a copy of the report and will do so this week because I want to see what was found. The year after my review a former employee let me know the school had gotten in trouble during an inspection for allowing the infants to sleep on their stomachs with blankets in the crib. My son is thriving and doing extremely well at another private school. I hope Little Ranch has worked on improving the central Tucson location and has found more dedicated staff for the sake of other children and their families.I don't believe that the health department did not find any issues with the preschool/daycare when they did an inspection and I WILL BE pulling the records this week to edit my review and post. Whoever followed this up with a comment from the school is wrong. The school was nothing but a revolving door of incompetent staff. We never were allowed a chance to become familiar with any of the classroom staff because they were there for a day or two and gone. I have posted many images of the lengthy citations from the health department inspections. Each inspection averages about 20 citations all the way up to 41!! Many of the inspections are due to complaints to the health department. Please review health department inspection reports BEFORE enrolling your child in any facility. This one truly deserves an F grade.