The Children's Courtyard on West Pleasant Ridge

My children have attended The Children's Courtyard for 5 years. The teachers are great, and genuinely care about every child. The director, Amy, is fabulous! She is very hands on and always on top of every situation. It is evident that she has very high expectations for the staff, from the way that they greet every child by name when you walk in the door. The CCY is an exceptional facility, and I would highly recommend it!

We have been attending this child care facility on and off for eleven years and I have to say Mrs. Debra is the reason that we keep coming back to The Childrens Courtyard! I love the clean facility with a variety of toys and activities as well as the cameras so I can watch my son throughout the day! But above all that is the LOVE that Mrs. Debra has for my kids that I value the most.. My oldest is now eleven and she always treated him as if he was a part of her family and now we bring my youngest to this facility also because we know he is in good hands with The Children's Courtyard. I am so thankful that I can call to talk to them and feel safe leaving my child in their care knowing that he is treated with compassion.

Disregarding And Incompetent Management. Always want the last word, even when wrong. I have begged my sister to take my niece out of this place. Completely ignored some very personal things when it came to my niece..Also upon pick up ,I've seen the favoritism with my own eyes.

I love the school, the parents, the teachers and the director. My daughter is happy and well educated and has never had a bad day there. My only grief would be that they put the children in Uniforms. Some parents like it, some parents do not. I personally encourage freedom of expression. None the less, I am thrilled with the time and attention my daughter got at the school, the parental community and the friends she has made. It takes a village to raise a child and I am very pleased with the progress my daughter made during her school year.

My daughter was 2yrs old when she started here. She had just left a horrible month-long experience at a daycare not too far where she screamed and cried everyday I dropped her off and was sad when I picked her up. Immature, lazy, off-task staff that yelled at the kids. The FIRST day I took her here, I used a free day pass and when we walked in, she looked at me and smiled and said I want to go play. And walked off comfortably. The ambience was so peaceful and welcoming, we were at ease. She's been there for 8mths now and is excelling past her age level. She doesn't want to leave school some days. She LOVES her teachers and friends and talks about them daily. I don't have any major complaints. I just hate the wood chips on the playground. It's not safe nor is it easy to pluck out of clothes. They should switch that to soft rubber ground. And get a more secure perimeter gate and lighting outside. Other than that, GREAT school! Update Jan 2017: The reason we left was because over a year or so, there was an obvious lack of cultural diversity in the curriculum and in plain view (books, dolls, pictures, etc.) and my kid was said to be a grade level ahead but they couldn't move her up to PreK. Also, my then 3yr old child came home telling me that she wants to be peach and have long white Elsa hair like her friends at school. That broke my heart in a million pieces! When I talked to her and made closer attention to her teachers, I saw that a teacher was regularly playing with certain girls' hair everyday saying they had pretty Elsa hair while my daughter stood and watched. I talked to the director and teachers about what happened and wanted to help find solutions for the absence of people of color in the school curriculum and materials. Nothing done until a new teacher was hired. The new lead teacher brought lots of structure and diversity to the 3yr old class but her posters and pictures kept mysteriously getting taken off the wall and trashed. I talked to a few other parents of all cultures and they all loved what the new teacher brought to the classroom and noticed positive changes in their kids as well. When she announced she was leaving, I and a few other parents knew we'd be withdrawing our children upon her departure. I say all that to say this, it's a safe place with fun activities for the kids, and healthy/tasty meals. High priced for child care with no teaching (until PreK class). If you want your child to see and learn using one mainstream race/culture in their daily work, that's what they offer. Maybe it's changed since we left but it's a decent child care center overall. Just not for me and what I wanted for my child's early childhood education.