Catepillar Academy Daycare Preschool 5480 Palm Avenue, Hialeah, FL 33012

"I wish I didn't have to give any stars, but I've had nothing but a horrible experience with Caterpillar Academy. Vpk experience: I trusted my sons father is choosing this school because his daughter attended this school years ago. From the first day I was not happy. My son has a condition which requires he drinks his medication from the water bottle i provided which I informed them. The water bottle would come back full never touched. My son came home saying everyday the teacher spent the day telling him to SHUT UP because the babies were sleeping. My sons lunch box came back full and I was told he was eating his lunch when I asked my son he stated he hadn't ate. So moving forward the lunch box started coming home empty so I don't even know if they were throwing the food out. The Director of this Daycare is very hard to talk to she brushes you off. When I tried to explain what's going on she didn't even want to hear it. Unacceptable! One day I went to go pick up my child and was ringing the bell it took forever for someone to come to the door and when she did she was laughing saying Oh sorry we thought you were an inspector( that was the last straw for me) I work for the county so my uniform confused them. I spoke to his dad and informed him what is going on and withdrew him from Caterpillar Academy i have him not in a Public School with a great teacher who is giving him his water bottle and write to me and informs me if he ate or anything else I need to know. This school actually cares about my son and respects his condition. I would never recommend Caterpillar Academy to anyone. I have tried to go back for his schools supplies that I bought so many things and extra on the list I only got back his blanket his pillow and his pencil pouch. I called and informed her I needed everything back I was told its in a backroom and their teaching and they don't have time for that to contact the owner. I have decided to leave things like that because I am just happy my son is out of there. I am not the one to do this but when it comes to kids I think we need to work as a team to inform other parents to be aware of locations like this."

"My daughter has being for 2 years now. The staff is wonderful, she loves them. She has learned so much in a short time. They do alot of activities with the children. Absolutely great"

"Found this daycare by chance, and I am overall very happy with the caregivers, director and cleanliness. When a child first enters a daycare, they can be expected to get sick frequently, since their immune systems are weak and have not been previously exposed. Luckily for our family, this has been infrequent. I can also access the cameras at any time, and have been able to see what our children are up to. They typically do not get 'thinking time', but when they have I've always understood why. I also feel that my children are excelling and will be ready for grade school in no time."

"After day 3 of daycare my daughter was diagnosed with croup day 6 of daycare she is in hospital with flu, ear infection , pneumonia , & RSV we are now in day 5 ICU."

"My daughter suffered child abuse in this daycare. The infant’s teacher put my daughter, a 10-month-old baby in time out on a high chair because she accidentally hit another child with a toy that she had on her hand. She said that she told my daughter that we don’t hit others and my daughter was looking at her waiting for food not knowing that she was being punished for that. Also, they broke my daughter’s privacy when the teacher told the grandmother of the child that she hit accidentally on his forehead. The grandmother told me that she was very sad that my daughter hit his grandson; from that day, she started looking at my daughter in a mean way. The next day, I picked up my 10-month-old baby from the daycare, and I saw that she was being isolated from the other babies. I requested to have the web camera application to be installed on my phone since I was feeling already unsecured on my daughter’s safety. The second day with the application on my phone, I was at work watching at my daughter from the daycare’s web camera and I noticed that there was 1 teacher taking care of 5 to 6 babies. They went out of ratio when by the Department of Children and Families there are regulations that they should be 1 teacher per 4 babies. I also saw the bathroom door open and the toilet as well. The first thing that came into my mind was what if a baby like my daughter, crawls to the bathroom and tries to stand by the toilet and falls into it. As soon as I notify my concerns to the principle’s assistant named Lizeth Velez, she told me that if they gave me access to see my daughter on the web cameras by my phone it was not to criticize the school. I told her that I thought I have the right to see my daughter since this application was being offered by the school. She said that the owner, principle of the school named Miss Cristi can just block the access for me to continue seeing my daughter by the cameras. It was already enough for me to take her unprofessional and unethical way of taking constructive criticism to better improve the safety of the children and therefore for their business. I immediately removed my daughter from this daycare. The teachers for 1 year old babies are very rough with them and as you as you come in to the daycare all you can hear is the children crying being unhappy with the treatment of the teachers. I picked up my daughter one day with a bruise on her face, I asked the teacher what happened and she said she didn't know. They do not do body checks on the babies or reports injuries that happens in the daycare. There are lots of negative things from this daycare. All I can say is that do not get foolish by the way the school looks or how clean it looks because what it matters the most is that your baby is being taking care of in an ethical manner and under the Florida statutes established for the daycares."