The Children's Center of Brighton

I have 4 kids and have used a variety of childcare facilities in the area over the years based on our scheduling needs (our oldest is 9). There are a few things that stand out about CCB that make this my favorite childcare place to date. PROS: The staff is on the floor engaging and playing with the kids. This is something that stood out to me immediately. I don't know why I never noticed this at other facilities (the lack of true engagement with the kids). My daughter LOVED Miss Erika in the baby/todder room. She truly loves the kids and I felt comfortable leaving my daughter seeing her run up with open arms to her. The outdoor play spaces are super unique and I love that it's not just another run of the mill play structure. I think the philosophy here is a great blend of montessori and play based learning (from my observation). The menu is great and my two kids who have attended here are our best eaters. I noticed some comments about worker turnover but this is something that is consistent across the board at every childcare facility we have ever attended. My two kids have been thriving while here, so much so that I regret pulling my 4 year old when he got into our local UPK program through our district. Potential Con: There are no cameras, which I do think would be beneficial to have in each classroom. On the other hand, my kids have attended daycares with cameras and apps where I can login and watch. I could see the staff taking photos and uploading them and tracking all the meals and progress. This is great, but also takes away the time of interaction with the kids. There are pros and cons with technology. When I first started our childcare journey 9 years ago I may have overlooked this place because there are seemingly no "bells and whistles". What it lacks in technology I think is far made up with warmth and staff engagement. Overall I have been really happy here and would recommend.

This was our experience at CCB in the toddler (2-3 year old) program. I am writing this with experience as an early intervention provider who pushes into 7-8 childhood development centers in the Rochester area. Some very wonderful pros: -the food was always healthy and home cooked. I have never seen that at a center, and they should pride themselves in providing nutritious food for the kiddos! Very happy about this. -I always felt like our daughter was safe and well cared for. I always got a call or an incident report if there was a small injury or bruise. They were also very responsive on the phone if I ever needed to call in. - We did love both of her teachers and main float teacher very much. Some difficult times from this year: -Our daughter's 2 main teachers were absent a lot. It is understandable that people get sick in this line of work, being around children all day. What was disappointing, was that there was a new floater teacher almost every single week. from December through the end of May when we decided to pull her out. This made drops offs very difficult, and it would be helpful if they could have the same 3-4 floaters in certain rooms (at least for the first 1/2 of the day). - The "centrum" and play areas out back are not accessible for every classroom. My daughter's class did not have access to the "centrum" area for the first half of the year. Just the "construction zone" room at the end of the day. -The outside playground areas have several zones (maybe 6-8 different zones) that allow for different gross motor exploration. Her class was assigned to 1 or 2 of the zones for the whole year, so they do not use each zone like we thought when they toured. - We were excited about the opportunities for "PE time", art, library time, and music, and the only class we were aware of that started at all for her class was music time. I also believe they did art class on a day she was not there. PE or library time never started because of staffing issues. -The year started with providing parents a menu for the week, as well as "lesson plans" for the class. This gave us something to talk about with her so we could have some insight into her day. We never received a lesson plan after the 1st of the year, so we really don't know what her days looked like. -Her daily log was almost never filled out (mostly because there was floater teachers there every day). - Halfway through the year, we were hit with a tuition increase, without any increase in programs or consistency in staffing.

We were at CCB for almost 8 years. My older children have had some amazing teachers over this time. As a mom of a child with anaphylactic food allergy, I have always thought they excelled at providing a healthy and safe food environment for kids with allergies. They also used to have a "sick room" which allowed for your child to attend when sick with minor illness, which closed during COVID and did not reopen. After the pandemic, CCB seems to have struggled in maintaining high-quality caregivers to staff their center and an increasing lack of transparency from management regarding safety incidents occurring at the center. We ended our time at CCB abruptly after an incident that led me to feel that I could not trust them with the safety of my infant child. The owner/director's response felt defensive, prioritizing the reputation of her business over the care and safety of children. Sadly, this place is not what it used to be 5+ years ago. If you are considering CCB, please review their OCFS (Office of Children and Family Services) page first.

I sent both of my children to CCB for several years. A disclaimer that, during that time, we interacted with some wonderful teachers and staff members who have had lasting impacts on our family. However, towards the end of our time at the center there were multiple serious concerns about child safety protections and administrative state (OCFS and CPS) reporting standards. For parents looking for childcare, I would recommend looking at the OCFS website (for this center, but for any center/provider you are considering). Ask questions about these reports as you consider centers. In retrospect, I would recommend asking about the lack of cameras in the classroom at CCB, and would ask myself if the responses I received regarding this lack of infrastructure (parents did not want cameras, was the answer, if I remember correctly), really makes sense.

If you’re considering sending your infant to this place, please do your research and check out the OCFS website first. We have friends who send their toddlers here that have had decent experiences however unfortunately ours wasn’t so great. Here are just a few issues we’ve had over the last couple months. First, the place has serious staffing issues, where it’s a revolving door and no consistent person watching these babies. The center actually sent an email to the parents asking for referrals or anyone they knew, which seemed odd. There also is a major lack of supervision. Me and my husband have witnessed many times dropping or picking up where kids are screaming/crying with zero supervision or attention. I was picking up my son one day and there was an 8 month old up sitting up against the door. The teacher told me to just push the door into him to move him. I didn’t feel right about it so I waited a good amount of time until she grabbed him by the hands and dragged him on his back across the floor. There is also no supervision when feeding babies. I have pictures of kids sitting by themselves at 8 months old eating solid foods with no one watching them. Then there would be food all over the floor and kids crawling over to it, eating food off the floor. We also have had a few instances where our son has come home with a blistered butt from not being changed timely. The daycare had nerve to claim that my child was malnourished but there were many days the center would send us home with bottles not drank, and food that wasn’t given to him. Two weeks ago I got a call that my son was sitting on the floor and fell forward and hit his forehead and that there would probably be a bruise. But no one was watching him so no one could tell me what he hit his head on. He ended up with a good size bruise under his eye for a good week. Didn’t seem like that would be from hitting your forehead on the floor. Lastly, there’s this car seat hanging from the ceiling that they put the infants in from time to time. It’s very weird and doesn’t seem safe. This place is pending license revocation. There’s a lot of complaints on the OCFS website about them that haven’t been resolved/addressed. The lady who runs this place is a whacko and things only seem to be getting worse, not better. We pulled our son from this place immediately. And will never look back.