Sprouts

My daughter attended Sprouts for 2.5 years and I have nothing but wonderful things to say about Julie and Sprouts. She provided a safe and relaxing/​happy environment for little people.

My wife recently decided to try and send our son to this daycare. In order to hold a place we had to put a deposit down very quickly, unfortunately I did not have a lot of time to research the daycare myself because I work full-​time. There were a few red flags for me from the beginning. First this daycare does not carry liability insurance, and the owner of the daycare does not own the house where she runs her business, so if something happens to your child there is not much you can do. Second my wife informed me they take the children to the park next to the house, which is not necessarily a bad thing but I wanted to see the park myself before I judged to harshly.
Third, my wife also informed me that when she contacted licensing, this daycare had been sited for hiring an employee before a fingerprint and background check had cleared. Again I did not want to judge to harshly since I am sure the owner learned from this and would not repeat such a mistake. So we put down a deposit.
So I took my son to the park and the equipment was just OK, my son slipped on one of the play equipment areas. The park seemed dingy and during our visit there were a lot off people with off leash dogs in the park. There have been a few children bitten by off leash dogs in Davis very recently so this raised my concern. When a dog approached us I picked up my son and asked the dogs owner to please get his dog; he did nothing. Now if a daycare takes about a dozen children to this park, and only has 1 – 3 people watching the children of different ages, my concern is that they would not be able to handle a situation with an off leash dog.
So with two weeks to go before he was supposed to start, we decided that our son was thriving in the daycare he is currently in and with my concern for his safety in the hands of a business with no insurance, we decided to not change to this daycare. When my wife informed the owner, the response was sorry the deposit was non-​refundable, which is stated in the 12 page handbook, and is on a page that has nothing to do with payment terms. The owner stated that she had turned people away. In my experience with daycares they always have a wait list, so I don’t imagine that it would be hard to fill my sons spot. Now I do understand the idea of a deposit but since adequate time was given, at least in my opinion, returning the $ 360 deposit should not be an issue.
But I guess the joke is on us. I have found when it comes to money I think you can get a good sense of the type of people you are dealing with. If the roles were reversed I would gladly return the deposit as I would like to believe most people would. Perhaps they will use it to get liability insurance. So my advise to parents in looking for a daycare, don’t just check with licensing, be wary about situations with non-​refundable deposits, and get to know the area before you are too rushed to commit. For any parents that read this I hope that you will not repeat such a mistake.