Graceland Preschool

"My family loves Graceland! The teachers are amazing and truly care about my son and his big brothers, he’s still quiet but not as shy and is always happy to be going to see his favorite teachers and friends!"

"I go in to restart my daughter and the director kept reiterating how “she knows I’m on a budget so she waved the fees for this and that”. I was grateful and expressed this many times. The first red flag was a woman dropping off her son. I don’t know the nature of her experience, but the director did confront her in front of me, which I felt was unprofessional. She stated how she understands the woman is uncomfortable with one of the staff members being around her and her son, but she (the director) could not always be there at pick up and how it was making her life complicated. Fast forward to her doing the payment. My mother was going to split payment in half to help me out, and when it was my turn to process my half, they didn’t take AMEX. No big deal my mother tells her to just process hers again. Well, the director accidentally added another “0” to the payment charging my mother $790.00. She does refund eventually after having to learn how as she states she had never done this before and typically doesn’t take payments. Which is odd a director doesn’t know their system. Whatever. My mother was super upset. However, we wanted my daughter to be somewhere she was not only getting a curriculum but also getting quality care. Second day of picking my daughter up I left work early. I’m not use to rushing home in rush hour traffic. I got stuck at the intersection of 125 & 60. There’s construction work and I was sitting still for about 15 minutes or so. I went to pick my phone up to check the time and call, and see the time is 5:32. Panic is kicking in, as I want to value their time too. I just mental note that leaving at 4:45 is not going to work I’ll have to start leaving earlier. The daycare calls me as soon as I had seen the time. The woman on the other end was super rude and just said “are you picking up xzy” I said “yes I’m so sorry I’m just right down the road and explain where I was and what happened. She just says “okay and says “so you haven’t really left Springfield” no I had left Springfield. As explained I was one exit down the road, but I understood the frustration. However, that wasn’t even the start of this entire mess. So, I walk in to the director (who stated two days prior about not being able to stay that late) and some hateful little girl ( probably early 20’s) sitting at the desk and my daughter. They said the had a yellow form for behavior to sign. I instantly think, great, my daughter was being a pill today. No, the completely sexualized my baby. They stated the teacher saw her showing boys her panties and the director mentioned she spoke with my daughter and her response was alarming as she stated “she had to” when the director asked why she would do that. For one my daughter doesn’t even understand the nature of it, because she’s three. She doesn’t know what being sexual is. This gets worse. Then the hateful girl at the front says “and later in the day “I see your daughter (word for word) spread eagle playing with herself” sick. She then says my daughter had her legs open sitting with her hands under her bottom touching areas only using explicit terminology for what she was doing. Again, disgusting. went home crying and upset that they just sexualized my baby. She doesn’t know what that is. She’s a toddler. Any daycare teacher would know they explore body parts, etc. she is super curious why a boy would stand up to pee but she couldn’t, so she had been curious of that but we just brush it off. There are not enough words left to explain more but I spoke with her dad we were so uncomfortable. I called the next day to express my concerns of how my daughter was treated and not once did she say “she’s being cared for” she just says how “their boys would never do this or that to start the showing of the underwear”. She then tells me this isn’t going to be a good fit. I called the hotline number and they explained it is normal behavior and the director shouldn’t have ever used the terminology she did or dismiss my concerns as a mother and directed me to the director hotline number."

"In May 2020, we switched our two children from another daycare/preschool in Springfield. We have been so pleased. Our kids transitioned perfectly and all of the staff made us feel right at home. Kaitlyn is an amazing director and keeps things running smoothly and keeps parents in the loop. Cathy, the chef keeps the kids well fed and provides a weekly breakfast and lunch menu that helps me avoid repeats at dinnertime. The teachers are amazing and provide fun, interesting lessons and activities. My only complaint is that they don't take kids under 2 or we would have switched over a long time ago!"

"Our son has gone to Graceland for almost a year now, and we have been very pleased! The director and teachers are very professional while also being super personal with the kiddos. My son loves the variety of activities, and we as parents enjoy the level of security and organization that the school offers. Highly recommend Kaitlyn and her staff!"

"Graceland is an amazing preschool. We had a very unpleasant experience with a previous preschool, and our son was very stressed about going to a new one, but he loves Graceland. He loves his teachers, he always comes home singing and talking about his friends, and he can already count, sing his alphabet, and his speech has greatly improved."