The female director is very mean. Whenever a parent calls the center she acts like she forgets and doesn't give references for the Assistants who worked there. And the parents gets all confused.
They don't care, cold people.

OP, our kid started there about a year ago and we are very happy with the place. It's true that their management is not perfect, kind of "amateur" actually. But they are very loving with the kids. It really depends on what you value the most. For me, a loving and caring environment was key, and I can assure you that my kid is getting that. If you rather have a very professionally-run center where the focus is on academics and communication to the parents, then you might look for something else. I'm happy with them, it fits my kid's needs and I wouldn't change it for a "picture-perfect" center.
Ask to talk to some of the current parents in your kid's age bracket. That should help you make up your mind.

Parents at Maria Teresa's recently got this email from her son. This last line is absolutely ridiculous. I cannot believe that they expect working parents paying nearly 2000 per child to stay with their child to watch them at the daycare making them late to their own jobs if Tony and Maria Teresa have not managed to figure out the teacher-student ratio.... Just an idea of how they run their business.

Dear parents,

reminder


8) SNOW POLICY: The Center will  follow the Arlington County Public School inclement weather policy to determine the Center’s hours of operation.
For example: If Arlington County Public Schools are closed, the Center will generally be closed. If Arlington County Public Schools are operating on a delay, then the delay will be applied to our start time of 7:00 am.   If Arlington County Public Schools are operating on a 2 hour delay then the Center would open at 9:00 am; 1 hour delay the Center would open at 8:00 am and so on. Parents should remember that they may need to stay a few minutes to maintain ratio if a teacher has not yet arrived.

thanks

Tony

I just pulled my two children from Maria Teresas. I have been trying to leave for over a year while I have been on a waitlist at another school. I am so happy my kids do not have to go there anymore. Maria Teresa and her son are terrible managers. Every good teacher leaves. When a teacher leaves, Maria Teresa and her son do not feel it is necessary to inform parents that their child's teacher is no longer there. This caused my kids great distress and stopped my child from being potty trained successfully. There are a few wonderful teachers, but I have witnessed they are treated very badly anytime I have ever asked or complained about something. The staff in the morning do not speak enough English to communicate well with parents who only speak English. This is very hard as a parent who sometimes has to communicate information such as if my child is not feeling well or if I just want to say something and pass a message along to my child's teacher. I asked Maria Teresa for a meeting in January and she offered me one time which was during my workday. I asked her if there was another time she could do it when I came to pick up my children. To this day she has not written me back. My children are very happy and very flexible, but when I arrive to the school each morning they hide in the car and tell me they do not like school. My children are still confused why their teacher from December has not returned. This place is overpriced and I feel terrible that my kids have had to go there for the last three years. My breaking point came when my son fell down the flight of stairs and nobody noticed except for me. I had dropped him off and gone back to my car to get my second son. When the teacher opened the door to let another parent he he ran out and fell. I heard him crying from my car and ran up to help him. The door was open and when i brought him inside none of the teachers knew he was outside. To give the best perspective on this situation, there were two teachers and only two kids at the time. The fact they didnt notice with a ratio that small is mind blowing. If i wasnt there, he could have gone into the street. I told them to put a fence in case a child happened to leave when a parent was entering the front door and to this day it remains open most days I go to pick up my child. I also told them they should put a fence around the entire property seeing that they are on a busy road, but That has never happened. The way they teach is also not well researched. They have my two-year-old doing activities that kindergartners at my school would not be expected to do. My husband and I look at their artwork and projects half the time and laugh knowing that the teachers probably just did it for them. There was a teacher there who had the most preschool experience, but she left. All I want is for my kids is for them to go to a school and be extremely happy. This did not happen at Maria Teresa's. On our last day, Maria Teresa tied to ask me why I was leaving. Considering she had never answered my emails or set up a meeting with me , This last attempt was laughable. I hope all the teachers working at her school are able to find a new job working somewhere that they are appreciated and not overworked.

Hey! We send our 5 month old to Maria Teresa's. It sounds and appeared like a dream place, and then I found these reviews after we had signed. I went into panic mode, and messaged the two people personally who recommended this daycare through the Nextdoor App. They both had reassuring things to say, and many of these negative reviews came at a time they were transitioning from an in-home small daycare at Maria's home, to a larger home that is licensed as a non residential establishment. Obviously a lot of growing pains.

That being said, so far things have been going pretty well. They are always on top of his needs (when we need refills of diapers, formula, extra change of clothes, my son is never crying when I drop off or pick up, and I do pick up early sometimes so it's not as if they are always expecting me.

A few negatives, the staff in the infant room really don't speak great english. I find it hard to converse or hear how my son is doing. I get the sense the caregivers that are expected to communicate with children who are also speaking will speak better english and maybe they put the caregivers with the least amount of english skills with the infants who can't talk.

I also do not like that you have to set your hours, so we chose 7:30-4:30, but if we want to do 8-5 one day we need to email them. We can't just pick any 9 hour block during their open business hours because they have set staff working as it relates to the pre-selected times. Those are my only two negatives.

My son also got sick his 2nd day, but I hear that happens at a lot of daycares because they are exposed to so much.

Thanks - I haven't asked for any recent references, I will do that. It seems like most daycares have violations when they're inspected, and I'm not sure if the recent violations here are serious or normal for a place this size...