My daughter and I hung out this morning at the Green Lane School and were happy with what we saw. They have an opening that we're going to jump on.

The teachers do seem to really care about the childen and they stick to the ratios pretty strictly. In my daughters room (age 2) the ratio is 5 to 1. The only concern I have is the academics. I know they are only 2 at this age and so academics shouldn't be such a large focus. From what I understand, Green Lane has a laid back schedule as to academics in the summer. We can all use a break - especially such young children - but I'm hoping they spin in some learning with colors, letters, shapes etc.

Anybody, maybe geminigirl1, have any input on that for me? Do they teach the children colors, letters, shapes etc?

Another perk of Green Lane, besides the great ratios, was that they seem to do a lot of arts & crafts that they send home daily. During free play, some of the children were coloring. One of the teachers went around and wrote the names on the papers to be sure what they colored went home with them that day. They also made foam decorations for their bedroom doors that went right into school bags when they were finished.

On the flip side, my daughter has done a minimal amount of arts & crafts at Les Petits. The minimal that she actually did do, not all of it was sent home. I would see the room decorated with Easter crafts the children did and then never see that Easter craft go home with her. The children made a craft for mother's day too and that never went home. Did they trash these crafts? I don't know.

Speaking of sending things home, with Green Lane, I already have a newletters. With Les Petits, they gave me one "monthly newsletter" one time in the fall and I thought that I would get one every month. Not the case. There was another time they gave us one labled "weekly newsletter" back in March and I thought again, they're making changes and I'll get something like this weekly. Nope. Besides those 2 newsletters, another was never sent home.

I really think Green Lane will be a good fit for us. Like I've said before, I want a safe, happy place and with the shortage of staff, I don't think LP was offering that. I understand that they lost 3 members of the team but now that they've filled those positions, why would I walk in this week to a room of 19 children to 1 teacher? I held out until they hired new staff and the problem still existed.

You've soft balled it Fountain! My child was at L.P. for about 2 years. We really liked some of the staff and thought that it was a great group of kids and a nice environment. Although we often felt uncomfortable with the quantities of children stuffed into the "transy" room and that usually before 9:00AM, there was only one worker watching 8 or nore infants. We now know that the ratio should NEVER under any circumstances exceed 4:1 with that age group (0-12 months). They were rarely staffed to ratio. We didn't know they were breaking the law and creating an unsafe enviroment for our child.

Things went downhill very fast there after their director quit in December. Without exaggeration, nearly every day between 8:30 and 9:00AM, since we've started there, we would see up to 20 kids from age 10 months to 35 months being watched by one worker while the other one changed diapers. When the director was there, it would be somewhat under control but other days, it was total chaos. It depended on who was working and how good they were keeping a crowd of children calm and playing. At 9:00AM, the additional staff would trickle in. The staff just couldn't keep up and one day, 2 walked off the job and the other gave 2 weeks notice. In our time there, every staff member who worked with our child has quit with the exception of 1. It's a revolving door.

Our conversations with the owner went nowhere. She made promises of fixing the problems but after 6 months, things had gotten much worse. We witnessed several parents storm out saying that they would not be returning and that the place should be shut down. The staff we spoke to all threw up their hands and said that it was an awful situation. The owner brought in some new people who were "more professional" but the few we saw were far from professional. It appeared to us that she was just bringing in bodies to appear staffed to ratio.

We're a lot wiser now. For those who don't know, age 13-24 months should have 1 staff member to every 5 kids and 25-36 should have one staff member to every 6 kids. Les Petits routinely violates the PA code. They were inspected by the Department of Public Welfare after a complaint was filed against them a few weeks ago. The field worker arrived at 9:30AM after L.P.'s staff had a chance to trickle in. The staff we spoke to said that had the inspector arrived 30 minutes earlier, "they would have been screwed." We abruptly pulled our child out of there honestly fearing for her basic safety kicking ourselves for not doing it sooner.

Everyone who's child attends a daycare should have this phone number. It is the Department of Public Welfare's Philadelphia contact number 1-800-346-2929. If you're at a good daycare, you'll not need it. But if your child attends Les Petits, you'll want to put it on speed dial.
I mean this very sincerely, DO NOT use this daycare. It has irresponsible ownership and management and there is little hope for it to improve. We have since found out that the owner has a reputation for violating the ratios and getting away with it. It is a crime that her greed puts so many children's health and safety at risk.

We tried to do something about it. We went to the owner repeatedly as did some other parents we spoke to. She promises positive changes but it looks like it's a pervasive problem with her operations. Staff doesn't turn over like that without cause. As everyone knows, the daycare is only as good as its teachers and I am highly suspect of the credentials of the people they are bringing in. I have my reasons for that as well. If people only knew all the dirty little details.

I cringe to think that we left our child in there as long as we did. We just didn't know. Now we do. This is the kind of place that you hear about in the news. It's criminal and I mean that literally.

Call the DPW. Spread the word. If you know a way to get the DPW in there without prior notification and during L.P.'s many lean time periods, please do something. We don't know what else to do.

I've met a lot of parents that feel the same way as Verdigris Rabbi and as she said, I was soft balling it. I stuck it out at Les Petits much longer than most parents did and after awhile, I started feeling like a fool. Why put my child through that? They enroll more and more children every day without the owner caring about how many people she has on staff. The staff just roll their eyes and continue taking care of more and more children.

The day they were inspected, my husband picked up our daughter that afternoon and he saw a bunch of random teenagers hanging around. He asked one of the staff members what that was about and she informed him that they were just some bodies that the owner could quickly round up to meet the ratios for that day. Pretty dissapointing. After that one day, he didn't see these teens again at pick-up. I guess inspection was over and the owner didn't care anymore.

I do know they've hired more people who the owner claims are "professional" but I don't really know. Where were these professional people this week when it the ratio was 19 to 1? Like Verdigris Rabbi said, it wasn't an isolated incident.

I know they are having a "meet and greet" this weekend so the parents can meet the new staff. I planned on attending when I had the mentality of "things will get better" but really, I hit my breaking point. Like I said earlier, I started feeling like a fool for sticking it out as long as I did.

I'm glad my daughter is out of there.

For those posting about Green Lane School, I have to tell you that I had my 2 daughters at GLS from Nursery thru Pre-K. The staff are WONDERFUL, as is everything about the school. It is affiliated with a church, so that may concern some parents; however, I can tell you that other than the Christmas Show, religion was not a focus. While my daughters attended GLS, we moved out past King of Prussia. I kept my daughters at GLS and drove through Roxborough every morning on the way to work, which was out of my way, just to be able to keep my daughters there. It is truly a wonderful school and I highly recommend it. It is small, the staff are long-timers, and they all truly care. Academically, I couldn't have asked for more. Summer camp there was very small and there was not alot of focus on academics, but my children were very happy, busy and loved going each day!

MysteryKAB, thanks for the info on the Green Lane School. It really does look like a place that's going to work out for us. I really, really don't want to switch my daughter around from school to school at this young of an age. The reassurance I'm getting about GLS is putting me at ease. I, along with other parents, have been burned by LP and are more leery now looking for a new school. I've heard from other parents too, that I'll have nothing to worry about at the GLS, from academics to social development. A safe and fun place to learn is what I'm hearing. I appreciate the info b/c, really that's why I came here. (Okay, and to sling some dirt on LP.

I've heard a lot of great things about Jane Munn's school too. A friend of mine is considering this school - another person burned by LP. Since she's also a burn victim and therefore is extra special cautious, I was hoping we could supply her with some input. Got anything to share? Hopefully good things? Obviously no place is perfect but is anything glaringly wrong there?

Thanks!

Our oldest (who is in first grade) went to Jane Munn for 3 mornings a week and we now send our (almost) 4 year old for the same.

The school is accredited. The classes are small and the teachers are kind and caring. They offer music once a week (for an extra cost). Our daughter (who is rather shy and quiet) is thriving at the school, both in her learning and her social growth.

Like all schools, it is not without its issues, but overall we are happy with the experience that we have had with the school.

If anyone has any specific questions, feel free to PM me.

If anyone has any info on Time for Tots on henry ave, i'd appreciate it - esp. geared towards the infant room.

My friend's daughter-in-law worked there for 4 days before quitting. She didn't think that it was a good daycare setting. I don't recall the specifics. Other than that, I have never heard anything about Time for Tots. Hopefully someone with more information will respond to your post.

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