La Petite Academy on Mill Dam Road

"If you live in Great Neck this place is super convenient, but as a parent, convenience should never be your priority. We moved to the area recently and had trouble finding a school. We thought we got lucky when we called this one but after a few weeks we realized our 2 year old was getting ZERO education. They don’t have any activities here, no painting, no story time, no learning of new tasks and fundamental usage of cups, spoons, etc. After 2 months we realized we NEVER received a single picture, painting or “daily lesson plan”. As new parents we were naive. If you want to just dump your kid off and have someone “watch over” him, this may be the place for you but at the prices they charge I urge you to look elsewhere until management gets their stuff together. School was cancelled 15% of our time there due to lack of staff and poor mgt."

"First and foremost the staff is absolutely professional, welcoming and kind. Kelly the Director and Ms. Alicia Assistant Director kept me informed and always addressed concernes accordingly with positive attitudes and with utmost professionalism. The Teachers and staff go above and beyong in educating and I see the results every week and during the weekends they even talk about what they do during the week. The school's curriculum is awesome,  the consistency, dedication, experienced and educated staff on early childhood development is superb. They make its easy to follow up at home with homework assignments which I love to sit and help my kids do in the evenings. My son is 4 and will be starting school this year and know how to write his name, and recognizes some letters and numbers. I definitely see that we're getting our money worth with all that my children has learned in the 4 years they attended. I love the activities they do and at pick up they are so excited to tell me about their day, show art work and assignments which I love to collect. The only thing I would suggest is better food; a hearty breakfast all year round in the mornings especially during the winter and for lunch throughout the year.  Other then that, no complaints, just much love and appreciation. My son has a great foundation to start Kindergarten this year. Thank you Teachers at Mill Dam!"

"Had a virtual tour scheduled for 12/9/21. No one ever showed up. Called customer service 3 times and was told the director requested I call back in 30 mins after my appointment so she could speak with me directly. No one ever answered the phone. I left a message and no one ever called back. This is a concern for people who have children in your care. Tried again and scheduled another virtual tour for today just to see if there would be any difference. Again no one ever showed up or answered the phone. Extremely poor service."

"Extremely disappointing. Called in yesterday to the customer service line for this specific location and set up and scheduled a virtual meeting for the same day, 11/20/21 at 12:15. I was informed by the woman who set this all up that I would receive an email with the meeting information. After waiting 45 minutes with no email I called back to see what was wrong. I was told by a new customer service rep that the woman I had originally spoke to had misspelled .com on the email portion. I asked if that could be fixed so the meeting information could be sent to me. I was told I was out of luck and their system doesn’t allow for edits. I said well then how am I supposed to log into the meeting? She responded you can’t you’ll have to reschedule for another day. I said so because of an error on your teams part I now have to reschedule my entire meeting? Yep. Was the response. I asked to speak with a manager because I was extremely frustrated at the lack of effort and answers to this problem and conveniently every manager was unavailable and not a single manager would be able to call me back because “they don’t really make calls about this type of thing”. I expressed how frustrating this situation was and how with the state of most daycare facilities in the area (Majority of daycare facilities in VB are full through 2023) it’s disheartening to see there’s no urgency when parents are reaching out with interest. The response I got back was “well considering your child hasn’t been born yet I don’t think it’s really an urgent matter”. Once again, since most facilities are booked through 2023 and we’re due in June 2022, I do see a little bit of urgency in finding information and getting added to waitlists. I ended up calling back later to reschedule another virtual tour and meeting for the next day 11/21/21 at 12:15. Logged on five minutes early and proceeded to wait for another 30. No one ever logged on/joined the meeting. It’s so disappointing to find that an establishment that caters to children treats the potential parents and customers of their business like this. We will obviously be taking our business and money elsewhere for childcare."

"My son attended this academy for 3 years. THREE. As soon as their previous director, Nikki, left, everything went downhill at La Petite. the entire staff was leaving and changing on a weekly basis, which we all know is terrible for young children. They NEED stability and this place no longer provides it. My son came home one day explaining to us that one of the "teachers" had shoved him into his cot because he wouldn't sleep during nap time. My son never naps anymore, he lays quietly, but this is NEVER an excuse to put your hands on my child, or any child for the matter. This supposed teacher was actually one of the new Assistant DIRECTORS. Her name is Ms. Lily.... you can find her at the front desk or roaming around the school. Of course she denied everything but when I brought this matter up to the main Director, Ms. Ashley, she promised repercussions and a conference meeting with myself, my son's father, and Ms Lily. Did this ever happen? Of course not. Instead, she dodged my calls, never did anything about it, and when i went back up to the school, she acted very unprofessionally "forgetting" what my issue was and had me explain the matter to her again.... then telling me she did her "investigation" and "corporate would have to do an investigation of their own, and they would get back to me..." which again, NEVER HAPPENED. This place is a JOKE. We have given tens of thousands of dollars over the years to keep our son here and after this, we pulled him out immediately because they can't be trusted to properly take care of children, or handle serious matters without trying to sweep them under the rug and blatantly lie to our faces about it. Do not send your children here, don't give them your money........ they don't even do the Fun Bus anymore, used to be a weekly thing for years, that disappeared along with the rest of the staff. La Petite, you are a disgrace and I will let EVERYONE know the type of staff you started hiring and the horrific treatment you gave us after years of being clients here."