Montessori School of Salt Lake

My children have been here for 3 years, starting at age 2 until they entered kindergarten this week. We have been very grateful for Montessori School of Salt Lake City for providing a reasonably priced, loving environment for my two kids. They are extremely prepared and confident entering kindergarten. Additionally, the school has great hours and vacations for working parents, and we will really miss that as we enter the public school system. My son was doing multiplication by the time he left, and both children are doing some beginner reading, very clear writing, and addition and subtraction heading into kindergarten. We were very impressed. The kids really loved some of the fun summer activities such as cooking day and sprinkler day. Additionally, we formed some close relationships with other families there who also had kids in there that grew up over several years. Thank you Miss Needra, Miss Samra, Miss Haven, and all the other amazing teachers and families we worked with over the years. My kids were sad to go to kindergarten this week and leave their friends and teachers.

We are very grateful to Ms. Neidra and the whole staff at Montessori School of SL. We had two children in the school over the past 4 years. Each are very different but both excelled because of the teachers' methods of allowing them to learn at their own pace and with an emphasis on their respective interests. Both children are particularly fond of their teachers and both showed significant improvement from week to week in terms of their school work and socialization. Our son in particular, who always tended to keep to himself gained a lot of confidence as he interacted with his classmates and the teachers. He quickly changed from the beginning of his time and not wanting to say bye to mom and dad in the morning to excitement to see friends and learn. Both children were extremely well prepared to enter Kindergarten after attending Montessori of SL and were well ahead of their peers in terms of writing, reading, and simple arithmetic. To be honest, school was a necessity for us more than a luxury to prepare the kids for elementary school as we are both working parents but we quickly realized just how much our kids were learning and dove full in with the school programs of learning and socializing. Montessori of SL offers the complete package, learning, socialization, manners, learning to resolve problems, etc. We would put our kids in again time and again if given the chance, especially at the comparative pricing which we value as a priority. Thank you so much Ms. Neidra, Ms. Samra, Ms. Haven, Ms. Jill, and all the others who supported our kids in this wonderful school.

I 100% agree with the other posts on here about hyperactive/neurodivergent children. In my opinion, the changes that are discussed in the responses to those reviews have not been made at all. My son is 3 years old and autistic. He has limited verbal skills, but they are improving every day. He also had an rBT that went to school with him for 6 hours per day out of 8.5 hours, and a BCBA supervising his case. In the month and a half we were there, we received ONE incident report early on. Then after that--nothing. And then out of nowhere they tell me he's being aggressive with other children. When I asked about it, they were not able to tell me about any of the incidents, or give me any specifics about what leads up to these incidents. Our BCBA asked, and they couldn't give her any details either. I also found out that they have been berating my son in front of his peers. When he gets upset, the teacher tells the class that this is an example of how you don't behave. I'm appalled that anyone in the childcare industry would treat a child like this. My son was also getting upset at lunch because other kids were touching his lunchbox and food. So instead of correcting the kids touching his food, they forced my son to sit all by himself at a little table facing the wall. Also, his rBTs were directed to keep Jack 6 to 7 feet away from all kids at all times. But yet still no incident reports or anything else detailing why this isolation was necessary. And what's funny is that many times when I've picked my son up or dropped him off, and the kids are outside, they all want my son to chase them around. Definitely didn't seem like anyone was terrified of him. The other complaints I got were that my son didn't play with toys "the right way" and that he had trouble sitting still at circle time. The final straw was when I was told he couldn't participate in the school dance performance with zero explanation. As if my son would somehow mess up a preschool dance performance. Our BCBA told me that they weren't being nice to my son and they were actually going out of their way to discriminate, isolate, and single him out.

This place was wonderful for my son and Mrs. Needra worked with me a lot when it came to working with DWS payments. However, I have to leave one star because I've been trying to get information about an apparent debt that's on my collections from this school. They can't provide any invoices and keep referring me to the collections agency. They told me I didn't pay for one month, and then they didn't know. They were receiving checks from the State of Utah the entire time my son attended so it's disheartening that they don't have record of it. Their accountant, Nichole Nieves, has been nothing but unprofessional and snarky in her responses to my inquiries. She told me the collections agency has already spoken with me. I haven't spoken with anyone. No one is making any attempts to help me get this sorted out. I am *more than happy* to edit this review if someone could assist me in a cooperative, timely and professional manner. The teachers and program are fantastic. EDIT: Thank goodness I was able to do this! My son stopped attending years ago but still brings up moments he had here, and outside of the accounting problem a few months ago - I've got nothing but positive things to say about this daycare! Chevan has reached out to me promptly as she promised in her response and is going above and beyond to make up for previous dissatisfaction. Thanks again y'all!!!

Similar experience to another parent that left a review. My high-energy son was enrolled here for three months. At the end of the three months I received a daily message saying he needed to be picked up because he either wasn’t listening or was being aggressive with other children. We even received multiple messages because he wouldn’t take a nap (he was three and had already stopped taking naps at home). He had been at a previous daycare and had never had any notable issues with aggression. His teacher had zero patience for any child that wasn’t perfect and would get so frustrated that she was aggressive with him. He is a very sensitive child and does not respond well to this type of leadership. We even reached out to multiple programs who attempted to reach out to the Montessori School to understand his behavior so they could help out as well. They were never able to get ahold of anyone nor did anyone return their messages. The school my son is now at says they have zero issues with him. I would not recommend this school.