Young Explorers Montessori of North Ridgeville

"My daughter is blind and the most amazing little girl. She went to this school for one day and they said that she could not come back because my daughter was a liability for them. Their example of why she’s a liability was that “she could trip over a kid when running”. Keep in mind my daughter is BLIND and has never run in her life. Their discrimination was illegal and unacceptable. I didn’t bother pursuing legal action as I didn’t want my daughter to go to a school that has no concept of what inclusion means. However, I truly believe a school like this is what’s wrong with the world and I hope at least one family reads this and decides to choose another school."

"My daughter has been going to this daycare since it first opened. First, the positives, the staff is great and the facility is always clean. The negatives, classrooms are always so noisy due to vaulted ceilings, a crying child is amplified. Circle time (a daily routine) is lead by an iPad. All the kids gather around an iPad... We do the meal plan and my daughter routinely complains about the quality. I looked into it and they were making quesadillas with cheese slices. Snack time is either tortilla chips, fruit loops or pretzels... that's it. There's a music teacher, Mr. Nate, that comes in weekly to sing songs and the kids adore him. (Update: Mr Nate left Young Explorers) There's also a bunch of extracurricular activities the kids can participate in, like soccer, cooking, and dance. My daughter used to go to a private daycare ran by my employer (Hyland) and it was outstanding. This daycare doesn't come close and for the cost, you would expect more. Food Plan: 2/5 Learning/Education: 2/5 Activities: 4/5 Staff: 4/5 Cleanliness: 5/5 Update: There's a lot of 5 star reviews that popped up that are actually from staff and friends from the facility. I think that's really telling for how a business is operated, especially child care."

"Lacking any kind of kindness, empathy, compassion and patience, especially if there is a student that is not a “typical” student. One of the most disturbing/disgusting things that they have done was during a staff meeting the group of “teachers” acted out skits of an autistic 3 year making fun of him, with the other employees laughing. They videotaped these skits then posted it on their PUBLIC Facebook page and left it up for 18 days. This is such a disgrace to early childhood development workers/employees."

"First I’ll start with the positives. The building is new, clean and beautiful. The classrooms are large. They offer a lot of great extracurricular activities. We had a couple good teachers. One was moved to a different classroom and the other two left. The school coordinator was very nice. This is the where our positives end. The meal plan. You pay extra for it and it’s awful. Both morning and afternoon snack are always either chips, fruit loops, or pretzels. The security system was down for almost a month and we were pretty much told deal with it or keep your kids home if you’re not comfortable. We were told that there would be someone at the front door monitoring who was coming and going. More often than not there wasn’t anyone at the door. They advertise as a “Montessori” but never once followed the Montessori method. Our experience with the preschool room was terrible. There was very little communication even if you ask, and daily reports had very little information on them. I had asked for meals to be included on my son's reports and they were rarely included. We had to try to pull any information on how the kids were doing out of them. We routinely noticed the teachers screaming at the kids. I personally heard music time with Mr. Nate being threatened to be taken away because the 3 year olds that were all sitting on the carpet were not still enough or quiet enough. I’ve heard them yelling at the kids in their classroom from my car in the parking lot. Before signing my kids up I informed them of the issues my son was having with language processing and possibly autism. He had a meltdown while we were visiting, which was witnessed by the director. I informed them that he would be going to preschool on an IEP and getting on and off the bus there. I was reassured that they could handle this and it would not be an issue. I was informed she herself was an interventional specialist for years and their teachers are all trained and this was not an issue. He had no issues at first and was doing great. The issues started right after we told them he received an autism diagnosis. Their descriptions of him went from sweet, sensitive, and “mature for his age” to a problem they couldn’t handle anymore. There were no attempts to find remedies for any issues. I just started getting calls in the middle of the day threatening to kick my kid out and told I had to get him. Issues were him screaming too loudly with a group of boys, not napping, and not staying on his cot. Nothing was documented ever. When I asked for him to have reasonable accommodations for his disability, I was informed they went to state minimum staffing and they couldn’t make accommodations for him. After bringing my concerns and observations to the director I started I started receiving daily negative reports. It was obvious that they were intentionally provoking my three year old in order for them to have more negative things to write down to kick him out. There are no cameras and no witnesses for any "incidents" that happened. After a couple days, we told them he wouldn’t be back as he started coming home upset and started crying when we mentioned the place. He had previously always been so excited to go and see his friends. The reports stopped the day after I informed them we wouldn’t be returning. The most egregious act might have been the video posted proudly on their Facebook for three weeks mocking my autistic three year old son and stating he drove them crazy. It was left up until they were called out by my family and friends. Everyone they knew then that had any association from me was blocked. I am unable to upload a video to a google review unfortunately. I also think it should be noted most of their 5 stars reviews came from their staff/administration the night before our last day. If you are looking for a daycare that loves children, is kind and compassionate - stay far away from here. State minimum staffing for premium pricing is all you will find here."

"This place is so amazing. I cannot say enough about the director, Melissa, as well as her staff. We were in a very tight spot and so desperate to find good child care as we had a not so good experience at a previous facility. When I walked into this school it was impeccably clean and beautiful. Melissa welcomed us so warmly and showed us where our daughter would be and the classroom was everything I wanted and more for our little girl. Montesorri is something we have always loved and I we knew our daughter would thrive here. Our daughter LOVES her teachers and has really blossomed since she has started at Young Explorers! We are so incredibly blessed to have found this school and couldn’t be happier. Would highly recommend!"