The Children’s Courtyard

Awful. Is all I truly can say about this place. Child care is less than ok, and they also towed a friend of mines care whom was there to help pick up my child. Sorry outfit. Don’t take your kids there.

This was the first of four day day cares we tried. The only reason we left was because of a job change that made this location unreasonable to use. While it was our first, now that we’ve seen three others, we realize just how great it was. I would HIGHLY recommend this daycare to anyone looking for a place for their infant.
Our son was here from 3 months through 11 months. Here’s what I loved most:
1.) Good security. There is a door code, then a front desk, and finally a check in/​out system.
2.) Safety. When I scan the rooms my son spent the most time in, there was not a single thing that struck me as off, or concerning. For example, the kids were ALWAYS strapped into their high chairs (you would think all day cares do this, as it is a very easy way to prevent accidents, but it’s not the case, but they don’t). Also, anything like scissors, permanent markers, and pen caps were kept to a minimum in terms of their presence in the room, and I never once saw them any lower than a 36″ kitchen counter. If a toy rips or breaks, it’s trashed, and they constantly replace toys.
3.) Health. This is a two-​fold one for me. (1) They are careful to serve just one child food at a time. So, while at later day cares, I might see them use the same gloved hand to put cheerios on two different high chairs that kids have been slobbering on, CCY takes care of one child at a time. They are also very careful with the crawlers, to make sure they aren’t picking up each others pacifiers and bottles. (2) Their food is incredibly nutritional. My son didn’t start food until 7 or 8 months, but they listened to every directive I gave him, down to egg yolks but not egg whites (in a boiled egg). My son never got sick there, except for pink eye once. After we left, he was sick all the time (like once every 3 weeks).
4.) Enrichment. My son did a sensory experience and an art project just about every week. A sensory experience might be playing with a water table, or playing with tissue paper. Art work was usually holiday themed, like a foot print American flag, or holiday ornament. He also took buggy rides around the school, and had the occasional time in the bigger kid room (at my request).
Overall, this school is top notch in my book and I recommend it to every mom I can. There are a couple of other locations around town, and if either were convenient to where I live, I’d give them preference over anything else.

Service has turned around at the Spicewood location. I believe this is due to. A change in staff and the after school program is doing well.

Our kids have been going to this location of Children’s Courtyard for 6.5 years. As with any daycare, Courtyard has had its fair share of turnover. That being said, we have always felt that our children were being loved and cared for. In addition, we have made some wonderful lifelong friendships with other families and teachers along the way. Over the past year, we have been incredibly pleased with the new management and teachers that have created consistency in the classroom. The teachers and staff go above and beyond to keep parents informed and genuinely care for our children, and we are so appreciative of them.

Our kids have been going to this Children’s Courtyard since they were each 12 weeks old (essentially full time for the last 4 years and some odd months for my oldest and almost 3 years for my youngest). While any daycare ha its ups and downs, our children have always enjoyed their friends and the teachers at this school. They frequently surprise us with the things they have learned and how they’ve grown over their time there. The management has become much more stable over the course of the last year, which is a definite plus. Kirstin has created a level of consistency ever since her promotion to the office, which helps not only the kids but also the other teachers.
Parents Night Out (where the daycare stays open until 10 on a Friday night once a month) is one key reason to enjoy this daycare, but the real benefits to our kids are the level of education and the level of socialization that they have gained by being there. They love the teachers, the love their friends, and it will be a little sad when they’re ready to move on to kindergarten.

I realized recently that my review for the daycare is really old. Well, I am still taking my kids here 4 years later so they must be doing something right.
Things have been a lot more consistent as the kids have gotten older. It seems to me that the infant teachers and the older kid teachers are most consistent. It’s that middle bit that they have a harder time with. Then again, that’s no surprise. Who wants to hang out with a classroom full of screaming 2-​year-​olds every day? Certainly not me. The management is better than it has been in the past as well. They are friendlier and more helpful than before. Overall things are really stable and well run currently.
The only real complaint I have is that Parent’s Night Out isn’t on Saturdays anymore. I always liked it more on Saturdays for some reason.
If you are considering taking your kids here, I can’t think of any reason why you shouldn’t. It’s clean and safe, and the teachers are great.

I’m giving a review of 4 stars based on the current state of CCY spicewood. We have been here in some capacity for 2 years now and we have definitely been through some growing pains and a year and a half ago, I would have probably given it 2 stars, but things are changing and for the better. The new management team is putting the right things in place to get this school back where it needs to be – great job!
Communication is key and it’s something that was really lacking with previous management teams. Obviously, communication with parents is very important but it’s also very important for management to communicate with their staff and previously this was not done well and I believe the reason for a lot of teacher turnover. I realize turnover in this industry comes with the territory and I’m very glad we’ve stuck it out because I’m very pleased with the way management has turned things around. My 18 mo old is my only child currently attending and she is happy girl when she gets dropped off in the morning and when she gets picked up. I’m starting to see consistent curriculum again and am very pleased. If you’re looking for good childcare for your little one, I would definitely recommend this location to you.

The one star is not for the revolving door of teachers. Or for the high price. Or for the lack of a curriculum. Or for the 18 – 22 year old unqualified teachers.
One day we were picking up our daughter from the toddler room and were told by the teacher that she and all of the kids had developed a heavy cough and that they’d found mold on the other wing of the school. They moved the older kids out of the building while they ripped out drywall and replaced carpet. However, the infants and toddlers were to remain the building while the remediation was completed. Over the prior 3 months our daughter had developed bronchitis, asthma, and had 4 ear infections. Her pediatrician indicated that it was likely due to the mold in the school and that she needed to know what type of mold was found. When we asked childrens courtyard for this information, they stonewalled us and referred us to their corporate legal department. When we told them about our situation they said they would only release this information to our doctor. When we spoke to our pediatrician she said they found two types of mold and that we should remove our daughter from the school. Our attempts to contact the childcare licensing board or the health department yielded no results so we removed her from the school.
While the location is ideal and many of the teachers are excellent I would recommend prospective parents to consider very carefully if they would want to send their children to a daycare that puts corporate profit ahead of child safety.

My daughter was enrolled at CCY for two years. She is now three years old and will be attending a new school due to the all the problems we experienced at CCY. I will not go into too many details as I would be here all day but I would like to start with the management. During our time at CCY we witnessed a turn over with the Manager and Early preschool manager twice. In both instances they were gone overnight with no explanation. Corporate sends out a generic letter letting parents know they are pursuing other interests. It seems very odd to me that not only one member of management leaves but both sets of managers and assistant managers leave at the same time, When we left a couple of weeks ago there was not one front office staff left that we knew. The district manager stepped up and was filling in until a replacement was found. I think for a lot of parents they choose a school on the management because that sets the tone for the school. I bumped into the first assistant manager after she left and her warning to me was «I would find a new school asap.» She would not go into any details because she had signed release papers but that is when my suspicions went up. In addition to the turn over in management there was an extremely high turnover in staff!!! I can’t even count how many teachers my daughter had while at CCY. As a toddler they need consistency especially during potty training. We never knew who would be there and if our daughter would be comfortable when we left. I understand that children cry when their parents leave but eventually they get comfortable with the teacher and children in their class and drop off should be easier. It never got easier which made me wonder why she didn’t like going to school so much. She has been away from husband and I since she was two months old so I would think it would not be a shock to her. I will say that as she got older my rating has nothing to do with Ms. Kimberley and her teaching ability. Both my husband and I were so happy with Ms. Kimberley’s teaching and positive attitude. Our daughter started coming home with school projects and making huge advancements in her development. The staff was not supported by management and feared what would happen if they ever requested any assistance. I witnessed on several occasions teachers calling in for assistance and never receiving any. The class ratio that they advertise is never upheld and classes are always out of ratio. They always stay within state ratio but never within the ratio they advertise to parents. The last issue was the mold! There was mold growing on furniture and under carpets in all the Early preschool and preschool rooms. The situation has been masked for now but because it was not treated properly will resurface again.
I think the school has a lot of potential if they could ever get the management team to stick around. I hope this helps for concerned parents looking for a place for their children while away at work.

Please Read Very Important!
I ditto the reviews from Thomas N, Rose C, Stephanie Y, and Veronica P, but have one more horror story to share.
We alerted the management team by phone to the fact our children were infected with head lice, and were reassured that appropriate policies and procedures would be invoked. We returned to Children’s Courtyard 10-​days later after our family vacation both children completely lice free only to learn that management had not passed on the information and thus good chance we were reentering an infected sight (which was found to be the case). A complete change in management had taken place during this time so very easy for the new staff to blame the old staff which they did, as opposed to just taking ownership of the issue from a Corporations point of view. Notices were sent to families that afternoon, as well as a number of children sent home due to them also being positive for head lice. What I found most alarming was the fact there was nil mention from the new management team in the communication to families of the 10-​day delay in action. My final bit of disappointment came after giving notice that we had lost trust in the operation and would be removing the kids, we received nothing but silence, even the threat of escalating our grievances to head office did not jolt a response… to think we gave them somewhere in the vicinity of $ 25K over 18-​months and we can not even get a phone call from someone who cares we are leaving just makes me so mad.

This school was great 3 years ago. For the last 18 months, I’ve never seen such a «revolving door», teachers leaving. We spend a lot of money there and why do they not compensate their teachers to retain them??? My son has had 6 or 7 teachers in 18 months.
My daughter is in the after school program and although she is well taken care of (they both are) there is no actual education, it’s only «social development» which means they play a lot.
We are pulling them both out of school.
Lack of communications is another reason why…

This is a long one… sorry. But do yourself a favor and read this all the way through.
It is so hard to write this review for this school because our infant care was phenomenal. However, the toddler was horrid and it has NOTHING to do with the teachers, it has everything to do with management.
My daughter was born 5 weeks early and since it was a very busy season for me at work, she started at daycare the day she turned 6 weeks old. I had all of the normal mom-​worries… but this was the one school I toured and was like «YES. YES. YES. I don’t care the cost.» If had to leave her anywhere, it was going to be here. It was clean and bright. The teachers in her class room seemed up beat and caring.
I’m happy to report that the infant care she received was top-​notch. If you have an infant, you want in Miss Ida’s room. Seriously. If I had the money, I would hire her to be our full time nanny. LOVED. her.
We were in blissful (albeit expensive) daycare heaven in the Infant’s class. Then the director at the time called a parent’s meeting for all parents. We went to it hoping to hear about new changes or exciting things to come! However, it turned out to be an open forum for parents with toddlers to complain about the care they were receiving… They complained about kids not being changed regularly, teachers rotating in and out of the school like underwear and teacher/​student ratios out of control. I wanted ear muffs… that’s how bad it was.
Perhaps the parent’s were crazy. Right?! I mean so far, I’m dead broke paying the weekly tuition of $ 273/​week for infant care, but it’s been amazing!
So she turns one and at some point she transitions to the next class. This wasn’t fully communicated to us, but whatever… she’s no worse for wear and seemed happy. Our teacher, Miss Kimberly, was amazing! The first month or two was smooth sailing and I decided that absolutely the parents from the meeting were crazy.
Then Miss Kimberly got transferred to the 2 year old classroom permanently. No one told us that our teacher was changing. Nothing was communicated. It just happened. Shake it off…
Our care from that point on went down hill. In the span of only a few months, we went through more than a handful of teachers. (The exact number eludes me, if that’s any indication. Nothing was consistent and we started seeing the teachers get overwhelmed with crazy ratios. Or perhaps we should say, what ratios?! If whoever the regulatory agency is that regulates this knew about the ratios at the school at times, they would FLIP. THEIR. SH*T.
A few mornings I would show up to drop my daughter off and one teacher would be with 18 (or more) 2-​year-​olds. My daughter was 1.5 years old at the time. It made me so incredibly uncomfortable that I couldn’t leave. I literally stayed in the classroom until another teacher showed up. God bless her, she tried he hardest to keep them under control… but there was only so much she can do.
I spoke to the new director about this multiple times. I had meetings, sent emails, communicated with corporate and I was always constantly reassured it was a «rare» thing and that they were working really hard to hire reliable people.
Wait, what?! This was the same problem that we heard about at the meeting when our daughter was still in Infants. Here we are almost a year later and you’re still having the SAME ISSUES?
The things were promised were endless… and the things we received were a very shortlist. In the end, we left for the following reasons…
— They could not maintain state ratios, much less maintain the «smaller than state ratios» they promise, justifying their inflated cost.
— They couldn’t keep up with any sort of curriculum since they are constantly over ratio. Who can teach when you’re in an endless cycle of changing diapers and feeding a litter of children with no help?!
— They couldn’t have regular Parent/​Teacher Conferences as promised. In fact, corporate sent out an emailing asking us to take a survey about our recent conference. My response? «What Parent/​Teacher Conference?»
— Because of the blatant lack of staffing, my 18 month old was left to play on a playground that is legally not even rated for her age level, with 4+ year olds, with not nearly as many teachers out there that needed to be there. How many regulations this breaks, I don’t even know.
We wound up going to a daycare that has had no issues with staffing, keeps teachers for years, has MORE activities for her to do and charges less.
The teachers at Children’s Courtyard were great. However management’s inability to manage has really driven this place downhill.

We’ve been with the Children’s Courtyard for 4 years. My daughter is now five and a half and has attended part-​time, mainly for her socialization. I could have taken her anywhere else, and at times, have looked into other programs and options in case something else might have benefited us more. Following are the reasons that we stayed:
1. The staff. I’ve been continuously amazed by the quality of the staff on hand at any given time, and I’ve never had any complaints or concerns with a staff member. The school is very open. I’ve popped in late in the mornings, during lunch, at nap times, early afternoon, anytime when a person might not expect a parent to be there. I have never once been displeased with the way that staff members are responding to children.
2. Dependability and flexibility. The attitude there is «we’re here for you.» I’ve had times where I’ve needed to go from 3 days a week to 5 days a week and back again, or needed to pick up extra days or schedule a vacation and it’s always been helpfully accommodated by office staff and teachers.
3. The parents. I genuinely like the parents of the children in my daughter’s classes. The parents of her classmates are educated, down-​to-​earth, invested in their children, throw parties and attend parties for the children, help out at school functions, and in my experience, have been fun to be around and get to know.
4. The educational environment. This might have been placed higher up for most parents, but I wouldn’t enrolled my daughter anywhere lacking a robust educational environment. My daughter is very bright. We read together and learn together at home, actively and purposefully. When she goes to school and works on things in a classroom environment with her peers, the result is something different from what our home environment provides and I truly believe that it’s been positive and beneficial for her.

My daughter was here this year until I took her out. This place had so much potential. They had a core group of teachers who were so good and patient with my daughter, but an obnoxious manager and unfair conditions chased them off. She recently emailed the parents insisting that the teachers ought to be able to handle a 1 to 22 ratio and admitting to using a subbing agency because the good teachers keep leaving. They had great facilities, but poor management lead to unfixed leaks and flooding every tune it rains for months now.
If you’re considering taking your here, I’d recommend you look at the shockingly high number of incidents on their record in the Texas licensing database.

I’m going to agree with Chris B.‘s review. This is the third daycare we have been with and so far and it is my favorite. The staff is very friendly and I like all of the programs that they offer the kids. They run a tight ship in regard to keeping everything sanitized.
Two things bug me that contribute to the 4 stars instead of 5. The first has been mentioned in the previous review — the parents who can’t be bothered to walk from an actual parking space, so they park in the fire lane or the handicap spots. The second relates to the security key pad. There is one code for all of the clients. At a previous daycare, each kiddo had their own unique code to get into and out of the building, plus the parents had to walk by a desk that always had a person there to verify who was going in and out. Now, that place felt secure. At this place, parents often let their kids punch in the code and there is rarely someone at the front desk.
However, the annoyances don’t outweigh the benefits of Children’s Courtyard. Our daughter loves it and is rarely sick since being there.

We have now been with The Children’s Courtyard (Spicewood Spgs) for over 3 years now. Our older son has been with them since he was an infant, and we have had the pleasure of working with many great teachers, including Ms. Darlene, Ms. Mira, and Ms. Amanda. We really feel fortunate to have such a well-​rounded and supported daycare center close by, and truly feel that we are not treated as customers but as friends.
The rare times when we have had an issue, our concerns were met with swift action — which is so appreciated whenever there is an issue involving your child.
I appreciate that the teachers have scheduled conferences with the parents periodically, as this can help us to understand how we can work together to overcome occasional obstacles (e.g. potty-​training!)
One great plus of having children here is that they have a Parent’s Night Out every few months or so – and for a small fee, you get 3 – 4 hrs of babysitting by trusted teachers while your child enjoys playing with his friends and you enjoy a little relief.
The campus director (Ms. Angela) has been great and is very easy to communicate with. I do appreciate all the personal attention that she and her staff (including Ms. Melanie) give to the kids. Thumbs up!