Milestones Early Learning - Jenison

We have been with Milestones for the last 7 years. We started at a different location and then moved to the Jenison center because of where we moved to. Ashley, the director, is very knowledgeable and professional when it comes to talking to you about your child. Having a child with a strong personality, they have given many tools and suggestions for our child's teachers to help support them. The teachers are great and help implement age appropriate activities for the children. We have seen not necessarily a turnover but less staff after summer due to the fact that college kids going back to school or teachers accepting teaching positions in the schools. Anytime we have voiced a concern or have had questions, we receive an answer in a timely manner. The app that Milestones uses makes us aware of the activities being done in the classroom and what our child's day looks like with eating, naps, and bathroom usage. Milestones has an awesome outdoor classroom and nature based learning curriculum that is one of a kind. Those outdoor classroom moments are so of my children's favorite things to talk about. The security and training they offer their staff is also a great feeling to have as a parent. The atmosphere is very family oriented. When we walk in staff are always greeting my children by their name and the directors know the children and parents by first name. The classrooms are very clean and full of toys and activities with a homey feel and neutral colors that provide a calming feeling. I would recommend this center to anyone looking for child care.

We have had nothing but great experiences at Milestones. Our daughter loves it and all the things she gets to learn and create everyday! She has been through multiple classrooms as she been at Milestones for almost 2 years and we have had great experiences with all teachers and staff she has had in her classrooms. We especially love all the fun activities she gets to do daily and especially love that they get to spend lots of time outside including getting to enjoy outdoor classroom which she talks about and looks forward to all week. The directors have always been wonderful and there for us if we have ever needed anything or had any questions. I definitely recommend Milestones!

While we initially had some great experiences here, it has taken an unfortunate turn over the past few months and we have had to remove our children from this facility as a result. There has been a significant amount of staff turnover recently. One of the rooms my child is in has lost at least 4 instructors in the past 3ish months. Two of which were the room lead. After staff turnover and switching to a different room, one of my children began receiving several write-ups a day. This was out of character and I made multiple attempts to discuss and review with the teachers as well as the director. My child would come home every day and express how unhappy she was and she was crying or nervous almost every morning before going to this facility. This past week my daughter has been on the receiving end of inappropriate interactions from another student multiple times over the course of 3 days. Despite the repetition, the staff failed to prevent my child from being with the other in an unsupervised manner even when there was a student-to-teacher ratio of only 3:1.

Safety is not the #1 priority here. My brother was is a classroom with a child who repeatedly hit him, throw things at him, shove him to the ground , etc. because they had behavioral issues. Instead of professionally telling our family face to face about these occasions, they would just post it on an app and report that they addressed it in person. After weeks of this, I tried calling them, but they were unreachable via phone. I spoke to the staff in person and they told me that they gave that child a weighted stuffed animal. I did not send him to school for a month to let things settle down, and I soon as he returned we had more reports that he was being hit at school. Concerned with these behaviors, I spoke to them again and they told me to take him out of school. Instead of addressing the bully, their solution was for us to run away halfway through the school year. They have cameras in the classroom, but I wasn’t allowed to see the footage for media privacy concerns; however, they post pictures of the children on a media app. He would come home from school crying and telling me that children were hitting him.

Overall, we did not have a good experience here. My son was enrolled for a little over a year - from age 2 to 3. Reflecting on that entire year, I will say it started pretty well. The OT teachers (for the most part) were caring and attentive, and seemed to have an understanding of normal toddler behavior and development. A few teachers were a bit cold/distant towards the children but those staff didn't last long. We did have issues with one staff member just blatantly not doing proper diaper changes, we talked to leadership about it multiple times and were told that staff competencies hadn't been done yet, and wouldn't be complete for a few months yet. How anyone could be allowed to care for kids without being deemed competent to do so is a bit alarming, but whatever. We also had multiple calls and conferences to discuss my son's aberrant "behaviors" such as "struggles with transitions," and "doesn't like to share." But in general, the OT class was okay. Then my son moved up to the early preschool room and that was a disaster. We had voiced concerns about him not being ready for that room, and were completely ignored. They progress only by age, apparently, and not the child's readiness - which is the opposite of most daycares. The EP class was a nightmare. The staff turned over multiple times while we were there. The head teachers were really just burnt out mothers themselves with no patience for even neurotypical toddler behavior, and the other full time teacher had no experience with children. I would often find her on her phone and my son sitting on the floor watching an iPad at the end of the day. I totally get it, kids are exhausting - but for > $1k/mo for very part time care, I would expect better than an iPad babysitting my kid. We also saw a ramp up in phone calls in the EP class - and the complaints became more and more ridiculous, it was clear they had zero grasp on classroom management. Some complaints included "didn't want to come inside from the sprinkler to eat carrot sticks" and "we didn't have enough of [insert special toy] so he had a meltdown." Like yeah, if you bring out 5 of the same toys for 12 toddlers to share, you're going to have an issue with them sharing lol A few other notable concerns: At one point, a temporary director from another building observed my 2.5 yo son for 5 minutes and declared him autistic and asked for our IEP. That prompted SO much anxiety for me as a first time parent, so I did jump through the hoops of having him evaluated. In reviewing the incident reports with our pediatrician and a social worker, both agreed that his behavior was very neurotypical for this age. The facility's usual director suggested it again a few months later so we did, again, have my son evaluated and had an on-site observation by a social worker - we were again told that his behavior was normal and the issue lied with the adults not properly managing the classroom, i.e. spending too much time socializing, ignoring the children and then getting upset that the kids were misbehaving, though they were not being coached through peer interactions. The final straw was when my son was sent outside in 20° weather with no outerwear because it was too exhausting to convince him to put on a jacket. What blew my mind is that none of the adults bothered to ask him why he very suddenly didn't want to go outside when he normally LOVES outside time - turned out that he had tripped on a rug in the hallway going to the playground and scraped up his hands the day before. He had scratches that none of the adults even noticed. But I feel like professional child minders should have a few more tricks up their sleeves to convince toddlers to do things they don't want to do, before they just throw in the towel on basic human needs 🤦🏻‍♀️ I would recommend this facility if you have one of those super chill babies that likes to sit still and observe, but not if you have a physically active kid, or one with any social, emotional or behavioral needs because they will not be supported by this staff.