Kiddie Academy of Carrollwood

My daughter started at Kiddie Academy about 2 years ago. She absolutely loves it! The owner, director, and assistant director have been helpful to me and are great at communicating. They have a positive attitude and are welcoming. The teachers are loving and take pride in their job. They take great care of her and always find creative ways to help her learn and grow. My daughter has lots of friends in her class and I have really been impressed on how much her social skills have grown since starting at Kiddie Academy. Her teachers helping the students learn the importance of being kind and respectful to each other. She loves to come home and tell me about her day. She tells me about the fun things they did with the teacher, the games she played with her friends, and the fun she had on the playground. I feel at ease knowing that I’m sending my child to a school she is enjoying and all of the school staff is making sure she is well taken care of.

To start Charlene is great never had a problem with her. Linda the director is very unprofessional. After a month of my son being there she withdrew my son because of son typical toddler tantrums. The big concern was resolving itself and I informed her about working with a specialist to get to the bottom of some of the behavior. She said it was fine and she would work with me for a few weeks. I came to this daycare because the previous one was hitting my son. I could not be more disappointed. She told me before unenrolling my son we would have a meeting in her office to come up with a plan then another meeting for the unemrollment. No meetings happened she said the phone calls were meeting. 5 minute phone calls. When I wasn’t able to pick him up early one day she proceeded to tell me “this is ridiculous I can’t handle him” proceeded to tell me he can not attend anymore. On his last day an hour before I typically pick him up she called me and told me a child bit his finger and my son scratched him in return she further told me today would be his last day because she “doesn’t know what to do with him”. Upon picking him up I brought him how she gave up on my son so easily she said she didn’t give up just didn’t know what to do with him. As an educator and director your job is to help kids and tech them as the parent I was doing my part to help ensure positive growth and development. What good is my work if she is not holding up her part. She may say she didn’t give up on my son but she did. After a month of little communication constantly sending him home early there was no hope. She set my son up for failure. She then proceeded to tell me my niece last day was the next day then proceeded to ask for $700 for my niece that also attends after a relapse in her school readiness. I informed her it would be fixed by the coming Monday she then pulled out a paper stating the cost breakdown.$700 for a day or two lapse is absolutely ridiculous. She failed these kids. I can only imagine how they fail other parents

I have mixed emotions, but most are negative. Speaking specifically to the infant room. We got to the point where we were uncomfortable leaving our child here and had to remove him. He would come home with no voice because he’d been screaming/crying so much (he didn’t scream/cry much at home). The teachers seemed pretty overwhelmed and their solution to crying children was rocking them back and forth (not very gently) with their foot. I don’t necessarily blame the teachers, because I genuinely think they were understaffed/undertrained for the infant room. When we tried to discuss this with the teachers, the language barrier made it difficult. Any inquiry was answered with “it’s okay” which is not sufficient. Bottom line, we were uncomfortable leaving our infant in the care of this establishment, and greatly regret we had to for the time we did. In general there is a lot of yelling by the staff, manager included. My wife and I were adamant we didn’t want our child growing up in this environment. Staff yelling at staff, one instance of the manager publicly berating a teacher, and teachers yelling at kids to get them in order. If you’re looking for a place that will nurture your child, this isn’t it.

First and foremost you will never find a daycare that is a complete 5 star cause nobody will be able to care for your children the way a parent does. What I will say is everyday I take my children to kiddie academy I know they are going to be safe, fed and well taken care of. The staff are amazing people who know each child by name and know some more personally. I have about a 6 1/2 year relationship with the people here and I am glad to have found them through my sister who also had her children here. I currently have two kids here, one in VPK and I am about to place my third child here as well. Keep being the loving and caring people you are cause our kids love you all!!

Thank you to all of the staff at Kiddie Academy Kiddie Academy for showing the kindness, patience, and love toward my children on a consistent daily basis. Each of my 4 children who have gone to one of your programs, (summer fun, daycare, and VPK) has loved going, even sometimes missing it over the weekend. Our youngest still goes there and, as with all of our kids, you continue to go above and beyond for not only them but for my husband and I as well as we prepare yet another one for success both socially and academically for kindergarden. Thank you! You are BEST!!!