Bright Horizons at The Summit

What a day it was! I hope no parent in this world ever experiences what I did. As I sat outside the summit during my lunch break, I noticed 3 kids aged between 2.5−3 running around the extremely busy turn around. It was peak lunch hour with cars, delivery trucks coming and going. It was a little odd as no parent was in site with them kids which got our attention more. These three little kids decided to run into 3 different directions, one inside the building,
and the other toward the busy street while the third ran around the turn around. There was another table of girls sitting who quickly ran after the little boy who ran toward the busy street of Bellevue, while one of us ran inside to grad the boy that headed toward the elevator and while I ran to catch the boy in the turnaround very close to getting hit by a truck. As we all grouped together, gathered the boys, asking where they came from or where their parents were. We than noticed a lady running and panicking and saying OMG, OMG. We than realized these kids sneaked out of the bright horizon day care while playing outside. The lady told us the gate was open and these boys sneaked out. I told her they have been here for about 3 minutes and it took you that long to realize 3 kids were missing? She walked away with the boys. I than walked toward the kids play area as I was still in shock, how this was even possible. There were 4 teachers there and they still managed to lose 3 kids. As a parent I was lost for words even though these were not my children! I was about to go in and speak with the director however, I was so upset and shocked I could not even speak. Came back to work and shared this story with my peers who could not believe this could happen and how careless these teachers were. What could have happen to these children if we were not there…

My daughter has attended this location off and on as part of our backup daycare plan. Even though she isn’t a regular, paying student, the staff is always friendly, and our daughter enjoys herself.
Winding through the parking garage to the entrance can be tricky the first time, but you soon learn your way around.

The infant rooms are amazing. We have had a great experience with the infant rooms at Bright Horizons. I cannot speak to the other age levels — we aren’t there, yet. Both Emine and Brittney are excellent with infants. The assistant teachers and floaters have been excellent, too (Becky, Amanda, Ariel). Our daughter has a food allergy, and the staff has been excellent about keeping her away from that food and keeping her safe. There are few daycares that will commit to watching a child with a food allergy. We get regular reports as to how her day went, the facility is kept impeccably clean, and we can drop in anytime. We would highly recommend this for anyone needing quality infant care. It is expensive, though, but it was the best care we could find for our daughter. If it were less expensive, I would give five stars.
UPDATE: We love the toddler teachers. (Kelsey, Hannah) We are having some issues with the general safety policies at the daycare. Specifically with an over-​aggressive child in my daughter’s class. Toddlers normally bite, hit, etc. This child takes these behaviors to a new level. With the number of incidents this child has had, other daycare centers would have asked him to leave already, or would have engaged his parents more. Bright Horizons, however, has a very wait and see approach. So, our child is expected to get tortured by another kid, because he is more important than the safety of other kids???
The director has a very open door policy, which is much appreciated. The regional director is also very open to communication. Our trouble is that we need to see action. We need to know that a child who needs help is getting help, and that our daughter and her classmates are protected from this child. It has been two months of putting up with this minimizing of a dangerous situation. I have personally witnessed this child act out, and it was very scary. My daughter gets very upset by this, and has become very clingy to her teachers, as a result. I fear it is time to look for another option.

My kid 9 months old got horrible accident at school. back then she can only crawl. How fast crawling can be? but she got a 3 inches long bruised bump on her forehead. The teacher called me AFTER 4 HOURS, 4 HOURS! When I rushed there, the bump still ‘high’ with bruise and hiding blood. The only explain was my daughter did on her own??? Apparently something sharp hit on his head… we guess was somebody opened the door and didn’t see her. The director signed the accident report even with «how long after accident teacher called parents» BLANK. They were trying to hiding something. We left the school one week after since feel no safe for kids in this lies-​around-​school. We were thinking this was something we can see, how about all other much more things we can not see?

I would highly recommend Bright Horizons at the Summit. I registered my infant daughter here and also used them as back-​up care. They offer a very warm and loving environment for babies/​toddlers. The director and assistant director are great, very friendly and went out of their way to accomodate me when I needed backup care at the last minute. I visited my daughter on lunches and breaks and often she had a big smile when I came in (great sign). I really liked the teachers and could tell my daughter bonded with them well. The daycare is a good size and located in downtown Bellevue.

I visited somewhere in the neighborhood of 12 places before I chose Bright Horizons at the Summit. It was easily the cleanest, nicest looking place (other Bright Horizons included) that I encountered. In many cases the differences were so vast that the Summit seemed almost unbelievable. I started my older daughter there in 2008. She was just over three and had never spent much time outside the house with her mother. She didn’t really talk, was quiet and polite, but almost completely un-​socialized. The first few weeks were rough and she cried when I dropped her off, but her teachers there greeted her with hugs and picked her up when the drop-​offs were as hard on me as they were on her. After a while, she found some of her first friends, learned some of the basic tenets they teach there (use your words, find ways to compromise to resolve conflict, express your feelings coherently). After two years, she left there a completely different kid and entered Kindergarten prepared for it. In the younger classes, they teach character and interaction skills. In the Pre-​K classes they began to teach sight words, art, field trips to the museum of flight. I She came away from there with things that would help her adapt to Kindergarten both on a social and academic level that I would have never expected from a daycare. Her teachers were QUALITY people. The nature of the business means that some come and go (they get a few early childhood and elementary education teachers who are full of great ideas, but can’t stay forever– but are GREAT for your kids.) They also have a few teachers and caregivers there who’ve been at it for a long time and are absolutely amazing at putting your child at ease.
When we had our second daughter, the Summit’s infant rooms were full, so we took her to another place. It wasn’t awful and there were some good people there as well, but the level of connection with the kids and empathy with the parents was way off with a few of them. I couldn’t understand how they didn’t get that parents of an infant might need a little reassurance, and not some line about their lack of effort being a part of «group care». They seemed annoyed when we’d hang around and wait for them to take our baby from us, instead of just planting her on a pillow in the center of the floor. Every time I left there, I felt sick to my stomach. As soon as we heard the Summit had an opening, we moved back. We expressed our concerns and they were met with understanding. Our younger daughter has been there for about a year now and she’s really blossoming. She was in the infant room for about 11 months, then transitioned into the Toddler’s class there. The teachers there are exposing her to colors and shapes, artistic concepts and come up with interesting ways to use simple items to make interesting tactile experiences. They really go the extra mile. We get daily, handwritten notes with a paragraph or two about what she did that day and are invited to participate when they have activities. If I have a concern, I can talk to the head of the center whenever, and it gets worked out. That was true with my older daughter, and is still true with my younger.
No place is going to be as natural as staying home with mom or dad, but I have come to trust the people at the Summit over the last four years. Your kids are going to get sick, whether they’re in school, pre-​school or infant care. They’re going to fall down and poke each other in the eye. Sometimes you need to talk to a teacher about something they missed, or that you’re uncomfortable with. But this is the best place I’ve been able to find for my kids, and I was pretty unrealistic in my expectations when I started looking.
To other reviewers:
I tend to disagree that the infant rooms aren’t well supervised. There are two rooms, each has two full time staff and regular relief «floaters» who take over for breaks or whatever. There are large windows into both rooms from the hallway and you can easily see into those rooms from the Toddler room (also widely windowed) right across the hall. Their PA system is used well and often to notify the front desk of the need for help and vice versa. I also never experienced any life changing diseases or illnesses there. My kids are both generally healthy and collectively they’ve been in every classroom at the Summit. You did, but are you certain that your correlation equals the cause?
The male caregivers that I remember were generally assistants, or floaters, not the primary caregivers, who were all female. Of the two men that I ever saw (aside from the chef, who’s been there for longer than my kids have), I was paranoid at first, but both generally earned my trust. I understand your concerns. I had them too, but they did not bear out. I *encourage* people to treat your caregivers with suspicion — but dismissing or disparaging them wholly based on gender might be unfair.
Overall my experience has been positiv

I had my daughter here after taking her out of another bright horizons where they overdosed her on her prescription iron. I was so spooked that I took my baby out and found her this place, which appeared to be clean and well organized and caring. To their credit the first place tried to make amends by changing their policy on giving medication to children and having it supervised.
The one at the summit seemed to be ok although my daughter did not seem very happy to be dropped off every day– she would start saying «no tina no tina» just as we turned into the parking lot. I put it down to new surroundings and hoped she would quickly grow to like her caregiver. It did not happen at all.
The last straw was when my daughter contracted «OCULAR HERPES» from there. It got in her eye and we first thought it was conjunctivitis and it turned out to be herpes. Anyway, when she recovered I dropped her off only to find that her teacher was sporting a giant cold sore on her face and was sort of absent-​mindedly touching her face on and off! I talked to the management about how they could allow such a thing– the answer I got was that they cannot stop someone from coming to work with a cold sore because its discrimination and illegal. and that they could send any kids back if they had an open sore– but not the teachers. Whatever.
It breaks my heart that my kid will have to live with this the rest of her life and if she has too many outbreaks in her eye, it can cause scarring and blindness. :(
But they did not seem to care very much. I am uncomfortable (I was not in the beginning, but some things happened that made me decide to be safe than sorry.. I dont want to get into details here but suffice to say that you need to make sure everything is ok and if it seems odd check it out)) with having a male caregiver for my baby and had instructed them like many other parents that only female caregivers. Although they said they were making sure that they did not leave my daughter alone with male caregivers — I went in one day and found her alone with the very person I was worried about needless to say I did not sent her back at all. I ended up paying for the rest of the month because they need some kind of notice but very very scary.
anyway 2 bright horizons and 2 bad experiences, but I have to say the chain itself does a good job of setting standards and it all depends on the person running the place and who ends up teaching your child.
my child is in another facility from the same company and seems to love it there. So I don’t want to say all bright horizons facilities are problematic.
The problem with the summit is also that their babies area is downstairs, where there is no overseeing of what is going on in those rooms. Inspite of all this –the summit does have some very caring and capable teachers…