Palcare

Posting only in regards to the waiting list, as many have posted that they had issues. We toured the facility mid-​July, got on the waiting list, and received word about 10 days later that they had a spot available in September. They had both full-​time and part-​time spots available. This was for the toddler (2 – 3 yr) room. We were able to accept with a mid-​Sept start date and part-​time schedule. I *think* the wait-​list probably depends on the age or your child, days you need, and when you want them to start. It’s stated on their website that there are more openings in the summer months, which is why we got on the list when we did rather than waiting until fall. We are not employed by one of the «preferred» employers.

Waiting list is a problem
we’ve been on the waiting list for 10 months and haven’t heard anything.
they do not update you on the waiting list
finally I emailed and called and did not hear from them either way
don’t bother giving them $ 50 for the waitlist. you will not get in. look elsewhere.
agree with Kellie K’s review

My son has been in Palcare for a year now.
This place is just GREAT!!!
Their stuff is very well trained and dedicated. All teachers are very caring and attending to all kids needs (I have been observing!) In a year of being there my son has learned so much, made many wonderful friends. Teachers spend time with kids one-​on one. Also, teachers at Palcare helped a lot with my son’s potty training. My son seems to love all the teachers. This has been an amazing experience for my son and our family. We love it!
Five stars for Palcare !!!

Full disclosure: our kids have not gone to this preschool and it may be very good. My review is based on being on the ‘wait list’ and what happened with that. More of a caution to parents thinking of going on the list.
After repeated calls and emails I got a hold of Tina, the director, to find out if our daughter could attend the school full-​time. She said that there was a $ 50 deposit to get on the wait list, which I provided and which Palcare cashed immediately. She wouldn’t give me any idea of how many kids were in front of us on the list or the probability of getting in but said she’d let us know. She made a mention about how the airport employee kids get first preference and that the class my daughter needed was ‘just about full’, but that was it.
After a few emails and a voicemail to her requesting status over the course of 3 weeks it became clear to me that she wasn’t going to get back to me and there was no spot. No call back, no «sorry we’re full» email, nothing.
While I don’t mind paying a deposit to be on a wait list I find it a bad business model to cash the deposits immediately and then never get back to the parent. Seems like free money for the preschool but not a very good way of building goodwill with potential parents.

I would like to offer a hopefully balanced review of Palcare. My main experience was with the toddler room. The facility was ok and, on average, the teachers were ok. Palcare is great in that it is a non-​profit which makes childcare available to low-​income families who might otherwise not be able to afford it. The flip side is that if you pay full tuition here, there are other better daycare options available. My primary complaint about Palcare was that the children did not receive a lot of one-​on-​one attention. This is partly a function of the fact that it’s a daycare (group setting), but this is also due in part to the school’s/teachers’ philosophies about encouraging children to become independent and self-​sufficient at a young age. Sometimes when I went to pick my child up, I would walk into the room and find a child crying for his mom or dad. Often, the child was unattended, just standing by the door, crying by himself. On one occasion (this was in the infant room), a teacher told me that they were letting the child cry because the child had gotten attached to the teacher and needed to understand that she couldn’t be held all the time. This made me sad. I think it is hard for many babies/​toddlers to understand where their parents are and when/​if they are coming back. I think the teachers should comfort the children and help them feel secure. Sometimes I saw this happen, but too often, I didn’t. It is definitely a tough environment, so you have to be ok with that. Thankfully my child did not cry for me, so I did not have to deal with that issue. My other complaint about Palcare (this is with respect to the toddler room), is that (despite what they put on their daily schedule of planned activities) there weren’t a lot of stimulating or enriching activities for the children. Most of the time, when I went to pick my child up, I just found the children running around, doing nothing in particular and the teachers chatting with each other (but not the kids). There were toys sitting out on the tables for the children to play with, but there was little teacher facilitation. I got the sense that the teachers were bored and my child was bored, too, not due to a lack of toys/​playthings, but due to a lack of structure and the lack of teachers creating a fun and stimulating environment. PalCare prides itself on low staff turnover, but when you observe some of the staff here, you get the feeling that low staff turnover isn’t always a good thing. The primary positive aspect of Palcare is that they offer a flexible schedule and you can make your own hours. If this option had been available elsewhere, we would not have stayed at PalCare.

I sent both my children to Palcare and they loved it. My daughter couldn’t wait to get out of the car to go to school, and they gave her a wonderful, caring and secure start in life. My son was extremely anxious and now suffers with generalized anxiety so they were a few problems for him, but they are all very caring and loving towards him. Yes, it isn’t as academic as some centers, but I could not have gone back to work or worked as hard if it hadn’t been for them. They were wonderful, and always gave me extra help/​hours if they could. My children are both a little older now, but my daughter in particular still says how she misses the teachers at Palcare and how she loved it. It may not be for everyone, but it really worked for us. We are lucky to have such a flexible day and night center locally, many places don’t, and for those with different working schedules it is a godsend.

My son joined Palcare when he was 7 months old. He is 2.5 yrs now and he has had an amazing time in Palcare. Yes, he did get a lot more infections and fevers when he was younger and we had a hard time dealing with that. I suppose that’s part of a young child being in daycare. He has learned so much and has enjoyed his time so much. All the teachers are fantastic and so helpful.

I wanted to balance out the bad reviews here, since we’ve sent both our kids to Palcare and had very good experiences for more than 3 years now. The teachers and even the backup helpers are very dedicated. It’s not an academic preschool but few Bay Area preschools are. The teachers pay quite a bit of attention to the kids and experienced enough to handle different types of personalities. They really helped with my older one’s potty training and were super patient. I think they made it a lot easier for him to accept the new baby in our family too. My son loves going to school and really looks up to his teachers.
The downside is that because there’s a lot of kids, colds and flu, even pink eye, pass around quickly. The waiting list can be long too — you just have to keep calling to make sure you’re on it and enroll early. The upside, partly because parents are always coming and going because of different schedules, is that there’s always someone watching what’s going on and I feel I can trust them with my kids through the day. With this place, I’ve never had issues having to find temporary replacement daycare. There are few closure days and they have crazy hours (6am to almost midnight) to suit all kinds of schedules.

My son graduated from Palcare last year. I realized that Palcare didn’t prepare him for Kindergarten as well as a Preschool could have. Palcare doesn’t teach phonics so my son had to catch up when he started Kindergarten. Also, other kids in Kindergarten have started to read but not my son.
The lead teachers in all the rooms are good but the rest of the teachers are kind and nice but not very academically focused. Some of them, especially, in the younger room have difficulty speaking fluent English.
I do like their lunch program which is family style so my son got to experience different types of food. Since everyone has the same choices, it made it easier for the kids to try new food.
The hours are very flexible which is another plus.
I have a younger son and I will never consider putting him in Palcare again.

My daughter just had her last day at Palcare on Tuesday. She is headed off to kindergarten! She learned so much and gained so much confidence and made wonderful friends as a result of participating in the pre-​k program. When I was in college in the 1990’s I actually worked at Palcare as a substitute teacher. Even then I thought that it was an amazing place– SO child-​centered. When I brought my daughter here I was so impressed and excited to see so many of the same teachers still there! The teachers love what they do and they love the school so they actually STAY!
Now they’re just finishing up a pretty major renovation and improvement project and it’s going to be awesome! Can’t wait to start my son here in the spring!
If you’re even thinking that this school is a «maybe» for your family I’d encourage you to hop on the waiting list.

I’ve been meaning to write this review for over a year now. This organization is very well run. From the time I went to an open house to now… my daughter is 18 months old… we have been very satisfied. All of the teachers are great communicators and genuinely care for their kids in the group. Of course its hard to leave the babies as infants, but we couldn’t be more happy knowing that all of these wonderful women care so deeply for the children. Their hours are very accommodating, and for those with rotating schedules and crazy hrs, you will not find another place out there as nice, accommodating, and convenient like Palcare.
It has a long wait list, so thebsooner the better. Our toddler loves her school and her teachers.

I don’t know what the other reviewer is talking about, if they had a deposit for a space here and you did not get in, please talk to Tina — she can handle it for you.
That being said we are more than happy with this DayCare/​School — I say school because everyone that is working there is some way involved in further child development or certification classes, proving that they really enjoy what they do.
There is a wait list, especially for the infant program, because it is such a great program. Your baby will have a primary care person that will be the person in charge of their day to day care. This will also be the person that the baby becomes most familiar with and will actually move with your little one as they move towards the toddler level to help them be comfortable.
I want to simply state how amazing this program is compared to others we know of. Even in the infant program you will have PTA meetings with you primary contact there to go over how your infant is progressing and there are, at a minimum, yearly meetings going over how your child is doing and what might need more work.
PalCare also puts high importance in having the parents involved through bringing in supplies or things you childs room can use to volunteering your time to help out. I think this is very important not only for the parents to see their child in the class but for the children to see mommy & daddy getting involved in what they like to do.
Overall we are more than happy with PalCare and in just seeing that our 20 month old boy is not only talking but also putting sentences together is just a testament to how a child can flourish in their environment.
I think anyone that is interested in quality day care for their child to really go and check PalCare out. If it was not such a great program it would be so tough to get into.
Good Luck–

I actually never got my child in to Palcare. They simply took my $ and ran. Took advantage of our fear that our unborn child would have nowhere to go when I had to return to work and told us to sign up and give them our $ 50. When I asked how many people were on the wait list, the woman said, «I don’t know.» Well, if I wanted to know, who could I ask? She glared at me and said, «Nobody really knows.» Excuse me, SOMEBODY HAS TO KNOW. A few weeks later, I went to the new member meeting at the Burlingame Mother’s Club. Several of the mothers laughed about it and said, «Oh, good luck, I haven’t heard from them after they took my money and my child is 2 years old now.» I give it 2 stars (not 1) because I have a friend whose kids actually did attend Palcare and liked it, but she worked at the GAP and they have a preference on the wait list. Bottom line, if you don’t work for one of the subsidizing firms, don’t waste your $ and put yourself on the waitlist. My child is now 10 months old and I still haven’t heard from them (I went when I was about 7 months pregnant to tour). They are incredibly disorganized. Or someone is committing fraud and taking our $ and never letting Palcare know that they did…

Palcare’s preschool is play based vs. academic based. I realized that when I moved my children to another preschool and found that they were learning so much more in preparation for Kindergarten than their old classmates from Palcare. I found that the lead teachers were good, but the other teachers were baby-​sitters and some did not have command of the English language. Although they say that they have flexible scheduling, what they really mean is that they are flexible in setting your original schedule, but if ever you want to change it, it is near impossible. I was not impressed by how they handle incidents between kids. I had too many incident reports and I didn’t feel that they dealt with preventing future incidences, and were not interested in collaborating with parents to improve situations. In addition, families are required to earn 20 «parent points» per year. Luckily, we were able to easily earn those points through some of their fund-​raising events. It’s an okay preschool, but I’m just glad my kids are no longer there.