WHITE RIVER CHILDREN'S ACADEMY

I have been taking my boys here for several years and have been so thankful for Chelsea and all the teachers who have shown so much love and support to our family.

WRCA is the best daycare/preschool in all of Enumclaw!! We absolutely love it! The staff is so caring, kind, and attentive to our children. The owner and director are incredible people. Their love and compassion is evident!!

Our son attended WRCA for 2 years as a toddler and pre-schooler. We had a positive experience with his toddler teachers, as well as the director and assistant director. On January 3, 2025, we pulled him due to the unprofessional and inappropriate behavior of his pre-school classroom teachers. I discovered a photo collage hidden in a cabinet that depicted each child with the text “Most Wanted” and their list of “crimes.” My son’s crimes included “loud, doesn’t listen, pees anywhere, too sassy, refuses to do anything, doesn’t respect no but says it a lot.” He is 3 years old. It read like a Mean Girls style burn book of 2 and 3 year olds. Creating “mugshot” style imagery of young children while highlighting (developmentally appropriate) traits that are perceived as difficult in a mean-spirited manner is unacceptable. Children, especially toddlers, are defenseless of such cruel commentary about them. This incident warranted immediate termination of his enrollment. I was not pleased with the initial response from the owner, Teresa Saavedra, when I first reported the incident to her (I’ll keep it at that, since it is not the main issue here, but still an important point). I have never written a poor review in my life, and it pains me to do so. My objective is not to get revenge or ruin someone’s reputation. I feel compelled to do so because as a prospective parent or parent of current student, I’d want to know. My hope is that the staff involved are appropriately disciplined and there are no other such incidents that happen again at WRCA.

The company kept me on a waiting list for a year. They let the person ahead of me put off starting for 3 months, yet when I was told the date the position was available for my child, and called, the position had been filled without ever consulting me. This is completely unacceptable and not ok. The company made zero effort at any point to reach out to me to update me when we got to the top of the list, resulting in an extra 3 months of being on the wait list. Staff was not friendly in the walk through and gave me an attitude about having a child struggling with potty training without any help. When I tried to call about getting help with the paperwork, the staff never answered.

So far I have been very pleasantly surprised by this daycare! They provide breakfast, lunch, and 2 snacks for free - and it is all healthy and well-balanced meals. They communicate with parents using an app and I can always see how long my daughter took a nap, what she ate for the day, and dirty diapers. They also message you on the app when they have quick question or to let you know info. Lastly this was my 1 year old's first time at daycare and I thought she would have a harder time adjusting but did not at all. All of the teachers seem really caring and every time I drop in or out, the rooms are very clean and organized.