Starlite Child Development Center

I think the caring staff is what keeps us coming back year after year. My son started at the sister school, Eastbay Academy when he was 3 and a half at preschool. He went to Kindergarten at Starlite and have been back for their summer program for the last six years.

~~~waste my money, waste my 2 week. I am really regret that not listen to my friend, have a very bad experience here. I do total agree with KASARA, and Sailor. If you have more money and time, don’t care about your baby, you can try it. Good luck!!!

When we toured the facility the director (Jennifer) was extremely excited to have our child. By the third week, she complained that he wasn’t adjusting to the structure very well which was off-​putting to me, seeing as he came from a structured, group play environment. She encouraged me to place him in the school down the street (Little Stars) explaining he would enjoy it better because she felt their facility was «too structured». We agreed to think about it, allow my son more time to adjust (he had only been there 3 weeks) & left it at that. A week later I got a letter stating that my sons care would be terminated in 14 days from the agency we found Starlite though & when I called & inquired what was going on, Jennifer tells me that their facility doesn’t have to send documentation to explain why they choose to terminate care. Needless to say, I am beyond livid about my experience here. Oh, & let me not forget to add that she is the only fluent english speaking teacher that I’ve encountered at Starlite. good luck & good riddens.

1 Star Rating: Owners operates with very low integrity. They have really poor business model and had a faulty wait-​list. Depending on the race of your children the wait list can be months away or available immediately. Also on my tour some of the toddlers were seen sitting there in dirt and snots all over their face and the teachers never bother wiping them. This tells you the kids are free to spread their germs everywhere. unless you are desperate, you pay for what you get here. is Quantity vs. Quality. Don’t you feel your kids deserve better? Just saying…

Very similar to its sister pre-​school East Bay Academy (EBA). Our daughter Loretta is going to Transitional Kindergarten after attending EBA. She likes it quite a lot, although there is a lot of homework, more than her older cousing who is in regular Kindergarten at OUSD.
Pluses:
— Inexpensive
— Structured
— Multilingual & multiracial
— Caring staff who love children
— Academically oriented transitional Kindergarten
— Excellent playground
Minuses:
— Perhaps a bit too structured
— Communication not the best as most of the staff are Cantonese native speakers
— Want cash as part of monthly payment

I recently began working in Oakland and looked into schools for my 4 year old son. I chose this center as my first pick. He started Monday the 8^th, of this month, and today was his last day. From the beginning working with Jennifer is extremely difficult. I work with an agency that subsidizes my childcare, and this school accepted payments from them before so you would think that they would know the process. Jennifer told me as long as I could get a verbal authorization that the contract would be coming that my son could start. This agency called her and did just that. The next issue was that the verbal authorization had not come from my worker, it had come from the enrollment counselor (not sure why there was a problem). So since the «right» person had not given the autho, I was told that I could drop him off and he could be there but I would need to pay the daily rate of $ 55. This put a lot of stress on me as I was not able to financially carry that at that point. I borrowed the money necessary to keep my son there for the next 3 days, $ 160 and called the agency that I work with and changed providers before entering into a contract with this school. Today was my little guys last day, even he was excited about this. I asked him how his day was, as I do every day, and he said «that lady teacher said I the worstest kid». I was floored. I am upset. It took everything in me not to turn around right then and speak with that teacher. There is a reason that things were not working out here. I am not okay with teachers speaking like that to my children. They should be loved and nurtured not broken down mentally. I shudder to think that my son almost spent his pre-​k year in that environment. I am blessed to be able to have a child who is able to articulate what is going on around him and to identify when a person of authority is acting unfairly towards him. I will be speaking with Jennifer tomorrow regarding this situation. I did want to put my experience on here because I feel that parents should know what is really going on. I think the teacher may be overworked, they are understaffed and I noticed a now hiring sign in the window on Wednesday. Be careful things are not always what they seem. I thought this would be a great environment that would stimulate my son and get him geared up for elementary school, not have teachers who take frustrations out on 4 year olds. No matter what any child is doing they should not be told they are the «worstest». Period.

Kinda chinatown, but that makes me like it even more.
My daughter has been going here for the past seven months and loves it. She started at 2 years old and definitely has benefited from the group play and learning environment. She comes home teaching us new songs. They do art projects and are regularly learning.
They integrate chinese into the lessons too. They sometimes learn chinese songs and phrases. My daughter came home telling me to «fideeya color!» which means «hurry color» in cantonese. She also now pronounces many of her words with a chinese accent: «pur-​poh» (purple) and «Ah-​sha-​lee» (Ashley). I’m sure she’ll be fine as she gets older.
They prepare food for your kids and teach them to potty train and all that. They can sometimes seem a little strict, requiring them to be in lines and sit still to do their work, but it doesn’t seem to bother the kids. My daughter always gives her teacher a big hug when she leaves.
The most Chinatown aspect about this school is that they are a great deal. I’ve never heard of a preschool that is this affordable. Of course, I think this is one of the reasons they have a long wait list.

My daughter attends kindergarten here, and the transition from preschool at the sister school East Bay Academy was painless due to the familiarity caused by considerable overlap of teachers between the two schools. The day is structured with planned activities every day following roughly the same schedule. the school is very academic. My niece is in public school, and the course work and academic expectations are much harder at Starlite. I worried that it was much too hard, but my daughter assures me she is having fun, and she is always enthusiastic about going to school.

We live in Jack London Square and our son attends kindergarten at Lincoln Elementary. We both work full-​time and wanted a more contained after school program than the Park District’s. Starlite had the mix of care, education, and fun that we were looking for. Starlite picks him up at his kindergarten classroom, feeds him a snack, helps him with his homework, has a playground in their courtyard, and has enrichment activities. He is learning some Mandarin, although not as much as in an immersion program, and has additional time learning the basics of a computer. For art today, they made pinwheels by folding the paper, no cutting. We are very happy with our choice for him, and more importantly he enjoys it there.
By the way, to the parent complaining about the missing signature? $ 25 is what the state licensing fines the school for each missed signature! It is a safety issue and is very important in cases of contested custody, etc.

It not a bad daycare when first enrolled my kid there, but don’t really trust the teacher there, because when I raised a question, no one seem to know the answer when my kid is injured. One time my child sprang her arm and the teacher told me my kid slept on top of the hand because lack of blood circulation. If it’s the fact then the kid should be fine after awhile, but my child would be in pain when trying to lift the hand which lasted 2 days.
So I asked my child, and my child told me she fell when playing outside, and when confronted the teacher that I want to see the injured log, nothing is on there. Therefore, I know the teacher can’t keep track of the children activities when they out playing.
And yes, it true that they charge parent $ 25 for missing their signature log sheet and a late fee after the 5^th days of the month, it counted as calendar day as it should be count as 5 business days. And also true that the owner have a dog which she bring to the center sometime, it would be a scene to remember if that dog bite my child.
Another thing, the lunch menu doesn’t ever change, it the same stuff week after week.
My advice is that if your child ever get hurt, ask the child how it happen and keep track of the incident, if getting you the same run around make your complaint to the Community Care Licensing (CCL) here in Oakland at 510−286−4201.

This review is for Starlite’s sister school, the East Bay Academy at 1011 Seventh Ave.
I like it. It’s clean, they keep Junior fed and occupied with wholesome activities, and it’s packed with cute, active kids who seem to be having a great time.
My only gripe is that English is not the first language of most of the teachers, so they speak *very * heavily accented English. My 3-​year-​old came home this week insisting that «J» is pronounced «zay.»

Is there any preschool out there will penalize the parents for each missing signature for $ 25? Here is the ONLY one.