Bright Beginnings Early Learning Center

I'm not sure if the manager, Leah Medo is still working there, but she was absolutely horrible to deal with! She has very poor customer service/people skills, zero compassion and a rude communication style to say the least! My daughter enjoyed going to the location on Sundown CT, but the Abbott location gave me great concern because my daughter would get upset upon arriving there and EVERY time I picked her up she was crying and often times left alone in the classroom! So, obviously something wasn't right with that place! I ended up switching my daughter to The Imagination Station, and she was much happier there!

My young son attended Bright Beginnings at the Old Seward location initially and it was not magnificent but it was decent and convenient. Our family moved to Eagle River and transferred his care to that location when he was 2. The staff were constantly changing and my son was coming home filthy and upset nearly every day. His clothing was constantly being misplaced and there was little explanation for bites and bruising he came home with. I was in between jobs and decided to apply to work at their Eagle River location to get a better feel for what was going on. I was hired on making $12 an hour with zero PTO options and any medical benefits they offered were astronomical in price for the pay. They were constantly going over ratio in classrooms (licensing violation) They do not give staff appropriate breaks for lunch or even consistent bathroom breaks. One time the district manager brought the staff Happy Meals to their classrooms and announced there were no breaks that day. The meals were supposed to make us feel “happy” but please explain why you’d bring a kids meal into a class of kids and eat that right in front of them? My entire classroom started crying at the sight of a McDonalds kids meal box that wasn’t for them. It was absolutely absurd. Any time the center was closed for snow or a holiday, they were still getting paid by the parents. They DO NOT PAY THEIR EMPLOYEES FOR ANY CLOSURES so they just pocket the profit. They consistently raised their rates they charge families, to the point of being unaffordable. As our child got older we were told the price would drop but that never happened due to the price increases. The food they serve to the children consisted mostly of frozen berries and cold sandwiches and plain cheerios, despite being on CACFP. This is a government funded reimbursement program that gives them money for meals. They also never had a consistent kitchen staff, so meals were dependent on whoever they could convince to make food that day. They only give their employees a $150 discount for care of their children. I couldn’t justify the price they charge for their lack of consistent care, constant closures, mediocre meals provided, and run down play equipment and building. There were no lesson plans or projects being done. Just 100% straight free play. That coupled with their atrocious treatment of the employees (which gives these people zero incentive to do a good job or provide quality care) led to us removing our son from their care.

The staff at Bright Beginnings on Sundown Court in Anchorage always seem to go above and beyond to care for my child. My daughter enjoys going to daycare each day and absolutely adores her primary caregiver Kathy. I can tell they do a wonderful job by how my toddler interacts with the staff members. They make sure to always have personal connection with her and I can tell she is cared for and feels safe to express herself day in and day out. I have witnessed so much personal development and growth in my child since she has started attending Bright Beginnings. She has excelled in social development and is coming home with new knowledge of academics that I have been working on with her at home. She has been able to successfully count to 13 and sing most of her ABC’s as well as other new songs that I can tell she enjoys so much. I am grateful that I found this daycare facility and plan on keeping my child there as long as I can until she starts school. Thank you all for everything you do and the sacrifices you make!

For any of the good employees this does not apply to you and you deserve better. Bright Beginnings started off okay at the old Seward when my son was a baby, but it quickly turned into a last resort. Let’s talk pricing: we started at around $1,000-$1,100, expecting rates to drop as my son got older. By the time he was 4, we were paying about $1,200 because of constant rate increases that conveniently contradicted their promises that rates decrease with age. You get funding for food, yet you pay your staff less than a livable wage. How do you expect to keep skilled workers and avoid closing locations like Eagle River? Then there are the numerous issues, like personal belongings going missing despite being labeled. I witnessed two employees actively struggling with addiction. I reported one who was behaving erratically, and I brought my 18-month-old home with bruises that looked like fingerprints. I should have reported this to the authorities right away, but leadership assured me they would handle it. A single father at the time and working 60 plus hours a week I did not have the choice to pull my son. Months later, she was still employed, and I had to pull my son out. We moved to Eagle River hoping for better, but it was hit or miss. There was another employee showing clear signs of meth use—erratic behavior, bizarre comments, and even talking to my son about someone being high. Leadership made excuse after excuse. It took months and many incidents to finally remove someone under the influence of meth, a substance that can easily affect our kids as it can be absorbed by skin to skin contact which I again made leadership aware of. Your organization preys on community members and employees because of the lack of services and paying low wages, making people feel trapped. Upper management's decisions are unethical, from ignoring accountability to failing to hire and retain decent workers. You provide a necessary service, but you need to do better or sell to someone who will uphold quality standards. This is our future generation you’re dealing with, and you should be ashamed. I would never recommend your services and only used them out of necessity.

We were at the Eagle River Location, from Sept 2022- Sept 2023 which has since closed. In the past 4 years at least two of the sites have closed down. While we were there they closed and opened the infant room with one or two weeks notice, and my understanding is that the head office knew the Eagle River location was going to close for months but did not give the parents a heads-up. The staff rarely took the kids outside in the winter or when it was raining. The 2 year old room was significantly too small, it was 1/3rd of a room divided by a low fence. The room was always chaos, and the staff was poorly supported and under-trained. My breaking point was when I found a 2 y/o child unaccompanied in the parking lot. I returned the child to the directors office, and the teacher had not even realized they were missing. My mind still boggles. There was a parent communication app, but did not integrate with the tablets in the rooms, so either the teachers had to send stuff to the director who could push it out to the parents, or the parents have to hope the teacher in your room communicated with you. The staff would let the kids watch videos on their phones, even after multiple requests to not allow that. The staff was under-paid, and the 3 price increases we experienced in the year we were there did not go to the staff wages, I know because I asked. While we were there another parent wrote a complaint about the staff wages and the fact that the employees are not paid for closures. Her child was kicked out of the program. Not because anything she posted was false, but according to the head office because this parent was angry they did not get a job at the payrate they requested. And while it is not verified, there was a thought among parents that this practice was relatively common, so read the reviews with a grain of salt. The daycare situation in Anchorage and Eagle River is dire, we were on waitlists for 6 months before we could get our child out of the program, so if you need a holding space for your child it may be sufficient as long as your kid is not a climber, or has the dexterity to open gates. But if you have an adventure child, you may want to consider a different location or your child may too be found wandering the parking lot and their teacher have NO Idea they were missing. I honestly was going to leave this alone, but I keep getting requests to review.