Full time day care in Ballston or DC..How are Bright Horizons NSF and Crystal City?

[roops]

I live in Ballston and work near Children's Hospital and am looking for full time day care for my 1 year old son. Any current thoughts on Bright Horizons NSF, Crystal City or 1111 Pennsylvania Ave? How about La Petite in Alexandria and at the VA? Any experiences of current parents or even second hand info would be appreciated. Are there any other recommendations for full time day care that I should be investigating?

[Anonymous]

I toured the BH at NSF and really liked it. unfortunately, I was on their waiting list for two years and never heard from them. If you live in Ballston, the Bright Horizons at FDIC and at the Virginia Hospital Center would also be close to you.

[Anonymous]

We're very happy at Bright Horizons Crystal City in the infant room. The teachers are wonderful and caring, and the center itself is sunny and spacious. I don't know anything firsthand about the toddler rooms yet though, which is where your son would be probably be soon...

[roops]

I am thinking of trying to apply for an infant spot to get him settled in gradually before he has to go full time. Which teachers in the infant rooms have you had good experiences with? Are there any that teachers that you have had issues or concerns with? I am relieved to hear that you have had good experiences. What if anything have you had trouble with at the center?

I have read that bright horizons does not necessarily attract staff with the educational background and an interest in childcare and development that other center's might attract due to its low pay rate. However, I have also read that this is more true in the downtown locations and that the suburbs tend to attract a better applicant pool. What are your thoughts?

[Anonymous]

If you're just applying now, you might have better luck with Crystal City. NSF/FDIC have waiting lists that they told me are over a year or two long (I got on at 2 months pregnant and have not heard back from either, my DD is 13 months).

[Anonymous]

re: BH Crystal City. I haven't had a bad experience w/any of the infant teachers (I don't want to say names because I don't want to announce what room my child is in). You can read about their educational background on the website, click on faculty. Honestly, I worried a bit when I had my intro meeting w/one of the future teachers...she didn't read that well. But frankly, it hasn't mattered at all. She can read books to my infant just fine. And is so caring and loving towards my child and all in the classroom . I might worry later on about education at the preschool level, but I decided not to stress at the infant and toddler level because it doesn't seem to be what makes a great teacher.
They do read to the infants, they paint with them, they play with water, they have circle time...all the stuff I prob wouldn't do even if I WAS a stay at home mom!
Oh, and I appreciate the 3:1 ratio. I didn't see that in other centers that I toured (mostly in Alexandria).

Drawbacks: parking for pick up and drop off can be a pain, and it's a rather expensive center (more expensive than all of the other VA centers, dont know about the DC centers). oh, and communication was tricky when we were on the waitlist (let's just say you will need to do ALOT of following up if you want a spot).
Good luck! I know it's stressful.

[Anonymous]

Just want to second the need to follow up with Crystal City. I called them pretty much each month during my maternity leave and each time they claimed to have lost my paperwork (I had gotten on the list when I was 1 month pregnant). It kind of left a bad taste in my mouth, so I was pretty glad that we found something else.

[Anonymous]

We tried LaP last Fall. The two weeks were horrible experiences for me and for our daughter (1yr-3months at the time). I observed and dropped in/out at various times for two weeks. In the end, my daughter and I left there in tears. In summary, I took time to transition my daughter to daycare after full-time home care. The staff was not professional. The staff was not verse in common child development skills. The typical daily schedule that they post was NEVER adhered to.

Strike #1: another new kid was crying constantly and hysterically. They chalked it up as separation anxiety, but offered no proper handoff to/from the parents and did nothing to comfort him when the parents left. He just cried alone in the corner or on the floor by the feet of the lead teacher. On the third day of my coming and going (Wednesday of our first week), I suggested that the kid's crying fit was more than separation, but he was sick. He just didn't seem well. The morning of the 4th day, the kid throws up everywhere and turned out that he had rotavirus. When I returned on Thursday morning, the cleaning crew had not been ordered in, b/c they said "it wasn't their week to come." That was Strike #2.

Then, I didn't leave my child and I told them that they need to have the professional cleaning crew to come and we returned on Monday. During the first week, my child had changed, not for the better. She was unhappy. With other childcare providers and babysitters, my return to pick my child up was greeted with a big hug, a smile, and a lot of happy babbling. During this first week, when I would pick her up, she would turn to me from playing (alone) and burst into tears with an expression of desperation and relief. Being optimistic and hoping for the best, thinking this is going to be a transition for all of us, I returned the second week. The second went from bad to worse, for example, my daughter not having lunch at the scheduled time for toddlers (I think it was 11:30a). I returned to observe at 1p to discover that her class of 8 kids that day had not been fed, Strike #3.

And, the Strikes escalated from there when I began to inquire and demand an explanation. And, in the process, I observed their short tempers and mishandling of the remaining 7 children, who were cranky and difficult (because they were hungry toddler, who would blame them). I finally said to myself (and the Director and the teachers in the toddler class): If this is the way that you run this place and treat these children when I am here, what are you doing when I'm not here. Finally, I questioned the Director about the fact that not one day had I observed them follow any structured activities of the day as posted outside of the classroom (which I noted to her was dated 200; and then, in the presence of the Director, I questioned the staff's disciplinary tactics with the other children while I was there and one staff (who would be caring for my child) told me that she "did not work for me and I can keep my opinions to myself. [She knew] how to handle kids." I was livid. And, the jumps in to tell me that she's going to reassigning teachers with suitable skills for this age group, blah, blah, blah.

All this is to say, it was not a pleasant experience and I would highly NOT recommend the place. BTW, check their credentials and state certifications (or lack thereof), not a pretty picture.

In closing, after two weeks of de-traumatizing our daughter with a load of TLC, due to toddler resilience, bounced back like a champ to return to my healthy, happy, friendly, and joyful little girl. And, as you may or may not know, daycare spots are tight in the DC area, so we opted for a nanny share, which turned out to be an excellent decision for her growth, maturity, and development. The nanny is a loving, nurturing, and well-experienced/trained child care provider, who we are forever grateful to. Now, our daughter is moving on to preschool, which she is super excited.

[Anonymous]

I’m a former BH parent and would not recommend the center especially for its high price tag. Tuition for infants and toddlers next year (beginning in September 2011) will be over $2K. They also raise their tuition by 4-5% every year.

The center is very chaotic. Previous posters have talked about removing children for this reason. For example, I often witnessed my child and others eating markers and drawing all over one another in the morning with now real supervision over what was going on during the transition of children coming into the center.

They have a high teacher turnover rate. In my two years at the Center I saw over six teachers leave my child’s classrooms. Consequently, they are always shuffling teachers around to meet ratios and often times do not have rooms fully staffed. Currently, they only have two teachers for eight toddlers and rely on floaters who don’t really know the children. Finally, I believe they had a major violation in the fall when an infant was given another child’s breast milk. You might want to check out the violations against the center.

It might be right for you, but not our family. I know a lot of people think it’s a great place, but wonder if these people hype it up to make themselves feel better about spending $2K/month for childcare.

[Anonymous]

I'm the previous poster and was referring to BHCC

[Anonymous]

NSF CDC has huge issues going on right now. You probably want to talk with someone that's involved with the Parent Advisory Committee.

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From: Zak (email address removed)
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2011 15:51:26 -0400
To: NSF CDC Parents
Subject: [parents] Fwd: Important Licensing information from Melissa Davidson

From the NSF CDC Parents listserv:

In case you haven't seen it, the Arlington County Child Care Office inspection report that is the basis for the below letter from Melissa is attached. Bright Horizons refused to scan it and email it to me, so I took pictures of it (along with the May 2011 report). It's posted on the board outside Leslie Humes' office.

The quality isn't great, but it should at least give you an idea of what is in the report in advance of the 5p meeting today.

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Leslie Humes <[e-mail]>
Date: Tue, Jun 21, 2011 at 6:57 PM
Subject: Important Licensing information from Melissa Davidson
To: Leslie Humes
Cc: Melissa Mangano , Patricia Berl, "[e-mail]", "[e-mail]", "[e-mail]"

Important:
Please affirm that you have received this letter by signing the check-in sheet available at the front desk



June 21, 2011

Dear Families and Staff,

Last week we had our annual licensing inspection by the Arlington County Child Care Office and the Commonwealth of Virginia’s Department of Social Services, both of which independently license all child care centers in the county. In the course of the annual inspection some lapses in reporting, record keeping and processes were identified, and we want to make you aware that we are working diligently to correct these issues immediately. We also want to make you aware of the action the county has taken as a result of these issues. Below outlines the nature of these concerns:


* First, during the inspection we discovered that not all staff files were complete and up to date. While all staff members had approved GSA Federal Background Checks, there are twenty four out of thirty staff members whose state background check had expired. In addition, three staff members are currently suspended by State licensing because they started working without proper state background checks. There are several staff members with expired TB results and some who do not have a TB test on file. We have submitted all necessary paperwork to bring the background checks up to date and we are working with the teachers to get current TB tests completed and on file.


* Second, we discovered that some children’s files were also missing proper paperwork documenting their physicals, immunizations, TB tests and two local emergency contacts. We are in the process of contacting families whose children’s files are among those missing paperwork, and it is critical that those families bring the paperwork signed by the child’s physician to us for our files. The county could require us to deny care for any child whose medical records, including TB tests and immunizations, are not up to date and properly recorded on file.


* Third, it became clear during the inspection process that we have misunderstood the breadth of incidents that need to be reported for review. It has always been our intent to follow a philosophy and approach of being open and forthcoming and to report any possible licensing violations to the county and the state. However, in reviewing the center’s files, the licensors found several incidents that should have been reported for Child Protective Services' review, but were not. First, I want to assure you that in these cases we had discussions with the families of any children involved and reported the incidents to our client representative, and our failure to report those incidents was in no way a deliberate effort to keep this information from our licensors.

As a result of these serious inspection findings, rather than renewing our license for a full 12-month period, Arlington County Child Care will be issuing a provisional license for three months while we implement an action plan to correct these issues and to assure they will not happen again in the future. The provisional license is subject to suspension if corrective action is not met. We will be eligible to have our license renewed again after that three month period once all parts of our action plan have been implemented. The Corrective Action Plan will remain in effect until 2014. We will be working diligently to implement all aspects of that plan, which include improved record-keeping and retraining on issues including reporting requirements and guidelines.

Because of the findings reported above the center is currently under an investigation by Child Protective Services. The Virginia Department of Social Services (State Licensing) will be addressing these matters separately.

We have scheduled parent meetings for Wednesday, June 22 at 5:00 pm and Tuesday, June 28 at 5:00 pm to give all families an opportunity to ask any questions you may have, and to share with you the specifics of our action plans. We will also continue to keep you updated about the situation. I will also be at the center to support Leslie, especially as she is coping with a difficult family loss at this time as well. If you have any questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to call me or to come see me in the office. I will be at the center throughout the week.

You may also contact the Arlington County Child Care Office at [phone] if you have additional questions on the Arlington County licensing requirements.


Sincerely,



Melissa Mangano Davidson
Regional Manager
Leslie Humes, Director
Bright Horizons at the National Science Foundation
Child Development Center
4201 Wilson Blvd., Suite 180
Arlington, VA 22230
phone: [phone] fax: [phone]
Bright Horizons Children's Centers LLC., 200 Talcott Avenue South, Watertown
MA 02472 USA
Bright Horizons Family Solutions Limited (Co. No. 2328679), r/o 2 Crown
Court, Rushden, Northamptonshire NN10 6BS UK

[Anonymous]

It might be right for you, but not our family. I know a lot of people think it’s a great place, but wonder if these people hype it up to make themselves feel better about spending $2K/month for childcare.


Huh? noone is forcing anyone to send their kid to a 2K daycare. there are plenty of other options w/shorter waitlists in that area. while your feedback re: your experience is useful, comments like that are obnoxious.

[Anonymous]

BH - Ballston/NSF: My child attends BH - Ballston/NSF. When BH - Ballston/NSF refused to investigate a safety issue we had encountered at the school. It involved lying to us as parents about the situation and trying to cover it up. Due to circumstances Child Protective Services got involved 2 weeks ago to investigate the incident with our child and a teacher. It is still under investigation.

2 days ago I hear about the provisional license status at the school.

I bring these issues to light so that parents can make an informative decisions about day care for thier child(ren).

[Anonymous]

I am on the priority waitlist for BH NSF after almost a year and my daughter just started recently. All the comments I have read here made me feel that I have to see for myself how true or not they could be. When I met my daughter's teacher, she instantly made me feel comfortable. As far as the posted documents are concerned, they are more of the administration's fault and not the teachers. I would be more worried if my daughter's teacher will be gone or the center will not be granted full license because it is hard to look for a convenient center again. I am not sure about you other parents what will you do if that happens?

[Anonymous]

We were given a spot at NSF for our child starting later this summer. After reading all this information, I am rethinking this decision. Especially since our child is an infant so can't report out on the daily happenings. I have read that the infant room has a high turnover rate for teachers. Does anyone have any feedback (good or bad) on that room? Should I be scared for the safety and care of my child? Or is all this more of an administrative problem? I'd appreciate any insights you may have.