Reply to Feedback on Bridges PCS?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]What is aftercare like? Reviews seem mixed.[/quote]

We've been periodically unhappy with aftercare, in contrast to some others.  Pre-K 3, so it's possible this doesn't extend to other age groups, since ages are generally separated, though I believe some of these issues impacted Prek 4 and K too.  It started out fine - they seemed to have a good schedule and structure and a mix of activities.  There were some staffing changes and it all went down hill.  No structure or activities.  Then staffing slipped, to the point where they, at least several times, were ridiculously out of a ratio (like 1 staff for 20 kids, or 2 staff for nearly 30, when they've promised 1:10) and I felt it was a huge huge safety issue.  Exacerbated by the fact that staff weren't really supervising at all, so it was a chaotic free for all for most of it.  And they'd combine groups so groups were huge and there weren't enough seats for kids in a room during snack etc.  And my kid was completely overwhelmed.  Also they're not licensed-  they should have been by November, but there's no way with the ratios and lack of programming that they could have gotten it.

We should have said something sooner, though frankly I think the program should be well run enough that it never should have gotten to that point of ratios so inappropriate - parents shouldn't have to be watching out for that (and wouldn't have any way of knowing most of the time.  They immediately addressed both issues (ratios/safety and then chaos/lack of structure or programming), to their credit, but I'm still disturbed it was allowed to devolve for so long. (The school admin at least said they were similarly disturbed by the situation, I have no reason to think they weren't/didn't follow through on some additional oversight they said they were going to do).

I'm surprised after the issues last year that Bridges remained with them - for the cost, which is higher (though I guess lower than last year?), I expect more.  And they do offer some enrichment classes - but for an additional fee.  I was far more impressed with the YMCA run care elsewhere, for a similar fee, which included some of this enrichment type stuff as part of the program (that said I heard other people grumble about that and were unhappy with them, so clearly that wasn't a resounding success either).  I'm still not at all sure what they do all the time, though they apparently have some sort of curriculum/programming - there's virtually no information or communication.  Thing have improved, not quite to the level as before, but back to acceptable.  But it's the one part of the program I'm not happy about and we won't be using it next year if we can avoid it.  We contemplated pulling our kid this year, but the logistics of finding replacement care, particularly with the Wednesday early dismissal (which I hate, from this perspective), made it too challenging.  But, had they not immediately improved, we would have figured out how to do something else no matter how expensive.

I do think parents may not have been aware of some of these issues - I'm pretty sure they didn't inform anyone of the ratio problems, and we happened into the info by luck or happenstance (for a while it just seemed  like utter chaos at pick up, and I just couldn't even make contact with a staff member, who never seemed to be near by, but it wasn't clear the ratios were so out of whack and so I had a sense it wasn't going well, but no specifics to pin it on).  But I have heard some concerns about lack of activities, use of videos on a more than occasional/fun Friday type basis at the other campus too - totally second hand though.  And it's possible the non-3 year old groups run better.

(Can I just say I think it's sad that a school who didn't do well by a general ed kid is considered a good option for special needs kids, because there are just do few?  Not a criticism of the parent who made the comment at all - I think it's true actually, just that I wish the state of things for kids with special needs were such that a school with not good experiences general ed side weren't one of the better options, like some of those really great for general ed kids also made the (legally required) effort to serve special needs kids well - I know some do, but many don't.)[/quote]

I'll second all of this.  We actually pulled our PK-3er out of aftercare beginning in November because it was so bad, without having any other option aside from the work-at-home parent picking him up at the regular dismissal time.  We had no confidence that the staff knew where our child was at any given time, or even knew who he was.  We weren't specifically aware of how badly they were out of ratio, but even my pretty easygoing husband found the situation to be out of control and worrisome at pick-up.

We had to use aftercare for a week in December due to travel schedules, and had a fairly serious problem on the very first day.  Dr. Gray called me within 15-20 minutes, which I did appreciate, but 1) he's gone now and 2) none of the staff seemed particularly interested, engaged, or attentive the rest of the week.

We were also pretty surprised to be told by the aftercare staff that they did not know how to "control" our developmentally-normal 3-year-old. We have an older child, too, and both were in daycare, so we're pretty familiar with what's in the range of expected behavior at that age--nothing they mentioned was all that unusual and was probably at least in part due to the lack of supervision and overcrowding the PP mentioned.

As far as the rest of the school goes, I honestly don't have much of an opinion one way or the other.  It's been fine.  I like the teacher and I think she gives the kids enough time to be kids during the day.  I do wish they had more unstructured time outside each day, although that should be resolved with the new location. We aren't planning to be around for that, though, assuming our little one lotteries into our older kid's school for PK4. [/quote]

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