Injury, subquality care, and deception. Extremely disappointing due to all of the positive reviews and tuition that should have equated to excellent quality care ($24k/year), but more than any other feeling I am so sad that I left my son somewhere unsafe. Below is my email to the center to unenroll our son from the early Toddler classroom, explaining what happened. Note that he had been at another daycare for 9 months and never experienced this type of injury or neglect.
I am reaching out to confirm that as of today we are pulling our son out of Bright Horizons at Allegheny General Hospital. This comes after one day of attendance (2/3) and our son experiencing injury and far sub-quality care, and my husband and I experiencing deception on the part of Bright Horizons staff.
On 2/3, my husband dropped off our son and my husband met his teacher, Mary Ann, for the very first time, as she did not attend our orientation, nor our rescheduled orientation (following her first absence). Before leaving our son, my husband asked about the center's policies for any incidents or injuries, and Mary Ann told him that any type of incident would be an immediate phone call to parents.
We received very few updates regarding my son's day on the Bright Horizons app (1 meal, no pictures) and no messages regarding his transition to Bright Horizons. Concerned, I called the center around 12:00 to check on him. I received a call back informing me that he was doing well, and that I would receive more updates about his day via the app in the afternoon. I never received any messages, nor any other updates about meals, activities, nor any photos of him.
Around 4:15 I arrived at Bright Horizons to pick him up. When I entered his classroom he had red marks and early signs of bruising on both sides of his face and the bottom of his chin. He appeared upset and had been crying, and was covered in dirt and food. He looked like he had been dropped and then dragged in dirt, and no one, clearly, had made any attempt to help him. He is a 12 month old baby. Truly every parent's worst nightmare leaving their child at a daycare the first time.
I asked Mary Ann what happened to him, as nothing was said about his state or appearance. She said that the bruising on his face was from him running into another infant. She also suggested that the red marks could have been red paint. Finally, after more questions I was told that somehow despite his bruises, the other child he ran into was totally fine and had no bruising.
I received an incident report via email (screenshot attached) once I got home. The incident report stated that he ran into another child.
I was very upset and got home and called the Center Director, and insisted that he did not receive bruises on both sides of his face and chin from running into another child. She agreed that seemed very unlikely and said she would ask the teacher what happened and call me back. She called me back and stated that he did not actually run into another child, he actually had fallen out of a wagon and his his face on a bookshelf. I have no idea what actually happened to my son, but between the lie being told by the center and the odd placement of injuries, I seriously doubt that his injuries were only from falling out of a wagon. I would understand one big bruise on his head from something like that.
The nonchalance and lack of ownership displayed by the classroom teacher, Mary Ann, further cemented our decision not to send our son back to Bright Horizons. She was responsible for the classroom, and although he may have been injured while another teacher watched him, she made no effort to find out what happened to him nor took care of him. She took no ownership despite being his teacher. Had her behavior and attitude been different we would have given things a second chance.
This has been extremely upsetting and I am concerned for the wellbeing of the rest of the children who are still in that classroom.