First Baptist Church (Dupont Circle) - recent experiences?

[Anonymous]

My 12 month old has been in a nanny share but we're thinking of switching him to daycare for a little more stimulation. Has anyone had recent experience with the Child Development Center at the First Baptist Church at 16th & O, NW? I've seen the older threads, but couldn't find anything more current than 1+ years ago.

I'd be really grateful for any thoughts - thank you!

[Anonymous]

I have two kids there - none in the 1yo rooms right now - and we've been happy. Is it perfect? No, but my kids are happy and well cared for.

[Anonymous]

Ditto on second post - we have two kids there (one is 3 years old and you get a tiny sibling discount.) Loving, family atmosphere, great socialization for the little ones, huge indoor gym for rainy & cold days, private playground, walks, they just had a Rocknoceros concert onsite. 1 lead teacher and 1 asst. for 8-10 kids. Convenient parking lot for pickup & dropoff which in the city is a plus. We like it but we are looking into DC public & charter 3-year-old programs structly because of the cost. You have to pack your own snacks and lunches.

[Anonymous]

We have been very happy there. I'll be sad when it is time to move on. Because it is not a chain and is associated with a church, it has a family atmosphere that is very nuturing. Many teachers have been there for a long time. There have been some past issues, but they were generally related to administrative items and not the care received by the children. If you are lucky enough to get a slot, I would definitely go for it. As the PP noted, the parking lot, outdoor playground and indoor gym are great amenities that are difficult to find in the city.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We have been very happy there. I'll be sad when it is time to move on. Because it is not a chain and is associated with a church, it has a family atmosphere that is very nuturing. Many teachers have been there for a long time. There have been some past issues, but they were generally related to administrative items and not the care received by the children. If you are lucky enough to get a slot, I would definitely go for it. As the PP noted, the parking lot, outdoor playground and indoor gym are great amenities that are difficult to find in the city.

Agreed. I find the director almost entirely unpleasant and she seems to have an antagonistic relationship with the parents. But in the classrooms, the kids are happy and the care is generally good.

[Anonymous]

Thanks to all PPs - I really appreciate it!

[Anonymous]

I'm also researching daycare options and wondering if anyone has any experience and feedback from within the last year at the First Baptist Church Child Development Center?
How long is the wait list for infants if you are not a church member?

I have tried to call them 3 times throughout the day in the last week and each time it goes straight to vm... not sure if that is a good or bad sign.

[Anonymous]

You should know that the entire Center was recently closed due to flooding and that 4 classrooms remain closed (one infant, both 12-24 month and one 24-36 month). Those classrooms have been closed since early June and, if we're lucky, they may reopen by early August. You should read the thread called something like, Annoyed/Amazed About Memorial Day Flooding, as it's about the FBC-CDC. Many of the impacted parents in the closed rooms are leaving the Center due to poor communication and any timeline of when the rooms will re-open. If you wanted to get your toddler in, now may actually be a good time since there will be at least 6 toddler families leaving. I agree that the director is a nightmare, but many of the teachers are loving, have been at the Center a long time and make the Center a loving/nuturing environment. Stopping by the Center is likely the best way to talk to the Director -- she never returns phone calls.

[Anonymous]

The wait list for non-church and non alumni infants is about 18 months.

[Anonymous]

I have a child in the closed 1-year old room. There are two one year old rooms and one is certainly better than the other (teacher quality, engagement, learning structure, etc). The lesser of the two one year old rooms is the room that has the majority of the parents leaving the Center and finding new care. As far as I know, all of the parents in the preferred one year old room are returning (and eagerly waiting for the room to reopen!).

[Anonymous]

We left FB CDC last September after one year in one of the two-year old classrooms. I don't think we realized how bad it was until we left and had something to compare it to. I'll admit that it may not be equally bad for everyone, but we discovered that the teacher(s) singled out our daughter for extra harsh treatment (other parents shocked us by what they told us they had seen done to our daughter). The teachers went so far as to suggest that our daughter had developmental problems (coming from someone totally unqualified to make the determination). We took this seriously, but found out later from people qualified to know that this was total hogwash. We didn't confront the school because we had already decided to leave. As I say, I know others have had a better experience, but it shouldn't happen to any child. Also, FB has more or less given up on any serious effort to renew its now expired NAEYC accreditation. In part, this is because it seems to hard for them to meet the teacher education requirements. But even in the ways they tried to meet certain standards (e.g., like having a real curriculum), I think they failed. For example, we'd get the monthly lesson plan (complete with spelling errors) about halfway to three quarters of the way through the month, giving us no opportunity to share in our daughter's activities by reinforcing at home. Even at that, the activities were pretty mundane (e.g., "cooking week" was making lemonaide on Wednesday). The purpose of basically every activity was "to improve gross/fine motor skills". It just seemed so reflexive to say that that we wondered if anyone knew what they were talking about. Parent teacher communication was a wreck (in our particular classroom) with notices about plans or needed supplies often going out at 6pm the day before you were expected to take off work to chaperone, pay money, or provide X. On the flip side, I'd get phone calls at work telling me that my daughter (I kid you not) had a hangnail. I once got a call telling me that I needed to have a talk with my daughter because she had a potty training accident and that she did it on purpose and it was unacceptable. Really? The list goes on. My daughter started putting herself in time-out at home because she was disciplined so frequently at school that she expected it (she now has no disciplinary problems at her new school). I just think I would think long and hard about sending my child there. It's close, cheap and convenient, but our experience was pretty dang awful. In many ways, I'd call it custodial care as opposed to anything else. In other words, they make sure the kids are dry and fed and don't kill each other--nothing more. Nap times are way longer than necessary and that is for the teachers' convenience. The kids were never brought outside as often as is required by DC regulations (2 hours a day). I feel like I could go on, but I think I've made my point. I didn't know it could be better or else I would never have left my daughter there as long as I did. I would keep looking if I were you.

[Anonymous]

I agree with PP that some of the classrooms are better than others. A new parent to the school doesn't have the internal experience to know which classrooms to request and which to avoid (and there are a few!). We have two children at the school and, yes, sometimes it's a misspelled mess, but we have been pleased with the care that our children have received. But, we also know the teachers and request certain rooms for our children -- that is really the key to success at FBC. It's true that the Center cannot get NAEYC re-accreditation due to losing teachers due to the educational requirements and, frankly, I don't think the director could do all the necessary paperwork!

[Anonymous]

14:52:I disagree that the nap times are too short. My son plays hard at the Center and needs that 2.5 hour re-charge, much like he does at home on the weekend. I would hate for his nap time to be shorter because he, and the other children, need to rest. They are small and growing after all!

[Anonymous]

To 15:16, (14:52 here) I agree that some kids need longer naps and that may work well for some, especially the younger kids. Not all the kids need that long no matter how hard they play. But regardless, I think what is more troubling is that FB uses nap time as the teacher break time and one teacher is routinely permitted to leave the room while the other teacher remains alone with the sleeping kids. I have since learned that this is in violation of DC's basic certification requirements (forget about NAEYC, this is basic licensure stuff). This is a violation that is planned into their staffing model, not the result of short-staffing on a day-by-day basis. If something happened to one of those kids and the sole teacher had to take care of that child, there would be no one left to take care of the others. I don't even mean emergency. I mean if the teacher is taking one kid to the bathroom, then she cannot be paying attention to the other kids. This is a basic safety precaution. Maybe this has changed since last summer. I sure hope so.

[Anonymous]

Definitely read the annoyed/amazed post. We like some of our teachers but are underwhelmed by the center overall and the director so we are moving our child.