Kiddie Academy of Collegeville

Last week while checking out childcare I was really impressed when touring the Collegeville location. The teacher seemed very interested in her class and was still able to answer my questions.. I know 3 year olds are active but Mare (the teacher) was able to have everything in control… The children were doing a project having to do with the theme of the week and seemed to enjoy their day..as I was leaving the children were getting ready for outside playtime.. I appreciated that the children are able to get outside. I am hopeful the first of the year they may have an opening for my little..

I found the owner to be lacking competence in maintaining a clean and orderly school at Kiddie Academy of Collegeville. The center director appeared overwhelmed, especially in understanding proper state standards for activities like nap time. We ultimately decided to disenroll our son a few weeks ago due to the overall lack of cleanliness, a curriculum with insufficient substance, and poorly maintained playground equipment. While the teachers were pleasant, it was evident that they lacked direct leadership from their center director, which, as a fellow educator, was noticeable. The bright spot in our experience was the Regional Director, Ms. Rahisha. She was sweet to us and our child, demonstrating excellent knowledge and responsiveness to all of our emails and inquiries.

My daughter liked her teachers while there, but the turnover rate is high from both quitting and firing and admin is disorganized as a result. The new admin also refuse to respond in writing with any billing complaints even when explicitly told that I would be unavailable by phone in my 5 emails. My billing complaint was about attempted weekly charges two weeks in a row after my daughter had not attended for three months, and I'd sent an email notifying she would not be back in the fall several weeks prior. I would not recommend this place because it seems as though the (nice) employees are not given the proper tools to keep it running smoothly, and I would not want to support a business that doesn't take care of it's employees or the parents of the children.

DO NOT SEND YOUR CHILD HERE! Kiddie Academy of Collegeville WAS an amazing daycare for my child. For over 6 years, my child received amazing care, love, and education. The teachers were the best and our child learned so much. Even during the pandemic, Kiddie Academy was amazing in working with the families. Then in December 2021, the owner(without any notice to the families or the employees) sold the franchise to the owners of KA of Langhorne. Since then, they have destroyed everything that Kiddie Academy of Collegeville was and have turned it into a corporate entity. In January of 2022 we began dealing with a regional manager who worked both locations. She was condescending and rude towards many of us who had been there for a long time. Two weeks into the new ownership, we began receiving delinquent notices about non payment of our tuition and threats to unenroll our child. The regional manager never bothered to reach out to us to find out about previous agreements and that we paid every two weeks on payday. If she had bothered to look up our account she would have seen that we NEVER missed a payment. It was only when I showed proof of agreement that she backed off on us. There has also been 100% turnover in the staff. All of the mainstay people that our child loved left due to the new ownership. One of the most common themes we heard when we've run into them is that the owners treated the Collegeville location like it was a stepchild that they didn't want. The new people are not the best individuals for childcare either. One of the worst examples of this was during a recent lice scare, I witnessed one of their staff members allowing kids to try on other peoples' hats. Worst of all, faculty members were calling our child by a name that they had never been called before and because our child is quiet, I had to be the bad guy to correct those people. Speaking of management, we have seen 3 different managers since the takeover. None of them have ever possessed any clear communication skills and they fail constantly at informing families when major changes are coming. In the Summer of 2022, we were again threatened with dropping enrollment of our child over forms that were never sent or communicated to us. Worse however was the 80% jump in tuition costs that were never communicated. In previous years, tuition would go up on Jan 1st. We were given 60 days notice of these jumps and the jumps were minimal in order to maintain operations. In September of 2022 when we were supposed to be paying $105 a week for after school care, the ownership hiked rates to $180 a week with ZERO notice and refused to produce a rate chart when I questioned it. The final straw for my family was over their Summer Camp Program. Our child in previous years enrolled in their camp anywhere from 3 to 5 days a week. This year we enrolled our child for 3 days due to the major hike in tuition plus an almost $400 activity fee. The camp provided less activities than normal and all of a sudden we had to provide lunch on field trip days which was never an issue in previous years. Activities like water play used to have slip and slides, water slides, and other activities. Now they spray each other with hoses most of the time. The ownersand its newest manager also tried to charge us camp tuition the week before camp even started and worse we were denied our usual 3 week vacation credits with the reason being we weren't enrolled all 5 days a week for their camp. Again, this was never an issue in previous years and I even provided proof and was still denied. The owners and current director only care about greed and money. They have wrecked so much for so many people. Shame on them! My stories aren't the only ones. Pay attention to the most recent reviews here on google. They are spot on with how things are currently.

Would love to give no stars this one star is just for the teachers that try. Nothing has changed with this place. Saddens me that I ever thought this would be a good fit for any of my children. They don’t follow ratio. They don’t care about IEPs or allergies. They don’t care about the parents and concerns. There are better places that will care for your children! I drop my kid off and there are babies in the room! Babies shouldn’t be with toddlers you would think!