Yellow Brick Road Early Childhood Development Center

Had similar experience as so many reviews that I've read about this organization. On June 20th 2023, dropping my grandson off, he just didn't wanted to go in. We were in the hallway, about 3 or 4 year old boy was stepping out of the room and one of the teacher grabbed his arm, yanked him in and the boy bit her. And she shouted out "HE BIT ME!!" here comes I assume another teacher "WHO DID!!" she walked by me went in the room and close the door. Yes, there was no way, I could've left my grandson. I can honestly say, this is the most chaotic daycare with no structure. If yelling and screaming at dosen't work, they just turn on u-tube.

My kids have been going to Academic Adventures/ Yellow Brick Road for 4 years. Unfortunately, when Yellow Brick Road took over 70% of the employees left, on top of a new director.  The old director was able to handle running the daycare. What used to be "in order" for the kids is now constant chaos. The teacher turnover is insane. If your kid doesn't do well with constant changes in teachers and moving rooms, you have to come pick them up. Instead of any type of intervention. If your kid wants seconds they say no. It was never an issue in the past, but now it is a huge issue. The area director is so much worst. She sent me a breakdown of charges and it was inaccurate. You'd think someone running multiple daycares could add and multiply when talking about billing. My older children have seen, at least 4 incidents where a teacher grabbed my 4yo by his elbow and dragged him to the corner. When I asked to see the video, they played it to me in fast motion. He had bruises. They proceeded to tell me that they saw nothing wrong with how he was grabbed and there was alot that the video didn't show. I also talked to a current employee who saw one of the incidents and they said they didn't like how they grabbed my kid and wanted me to know that it happens quite often. Before my youngest was potty trained he constantly had rashes at daycare. The teachers say things that shouldn't be said in front of kids and even to kids that is borderline verbal abuse. They play favorites and the teachers kids that go there get special treatment from EVERYONE. When my youngest transitioned rooms they are supposed to do it slowly so they can adjust. They just switched his rooms and he was having issues sitting down for circle time so they called me and told me I had to pick him up. This used to happen at least 2 times a week. When I asked about redirecting him they said they did. He had been there for an hour and a half. A few months ago my 4 yo came home saying he got in trouble for calling a teacher "Mr. NAME". Their preferred pronouns are MX Name. I personally don't think that they need to be confusing these kids more at such a young age. I brought it up to the director and she said that it would stop. It never did (he no longer works there). This same teacher was screaming at my kid during pick up saying he was a thief and stealing (he was holding his own toy that I let him bring from home). I said the toy was his and not the daycares and he went off on me. There weren't any repercussions for him. They also told my daughters (who were 6 and 7 at the time) what a lesbian is and then I reported it to the staff. There were a TON of super inappropriate things that she said to them. I was in shock, to say the least (this was at the Blondo location). They also say they do incident reports, but the past year, I have received 2 of them. When I asked why I don't get copies anymore. They said they are on file for administrative use, but apparently you can't see them.  They will also call your kid a liar if they tell you that a teacher or another kid did something to them. Then they threaten to expel them. Now the past 3 weeks my 4 year old has been running out of the room. They can't figure out how to get a kid to stay in a room. On top of behavior issues, I have had to pick him up multiple times. His normal teacher was gone for a week and a half and the other main teacher left and everything got progressively worse. If I look back on everytime they called it was always before 10:30 am. They have more than the student to teacher ratios. I understand that being shortstaffed comes with some issues, but there are more kids in there than they can handle. Honestly, I'll save you some time and summarize Yellow Brick Road. If you have a kid there or are looking to put your kid in there, there are constant changes. There is minimal redirecting, they'll just call you to pick them up. If your kid gets hurt or comes home with bruises, you won't know what happens. I'm sure the daycare is great if you work there, but if you don't work there good luck.

We found the management unprofessional. They didn't keep their word to let us know when to start and what to take with our daughter. We were confused if they were under-staff as the manager was telling us she needs to arrange additional staff. Surprisingly, they took a full month fee from my account without letting us know. We have told them we changed our mind as they didn't contact us as they promised. Consequently, we were concerned about their ignorance and we have changed our mind not to take our daughter to another care provider. We are disappointed with their lack of communication and the way they handle our complaints. No matter what we are glad our daughter is not their hand as their communication is poor and unprofessional.

It appears several past reviews for Yellow Brick Road in Minnetonka were deleted and removed from all sites. Our son was enrolled from when he was 4 months - 10 months in 2018. We had a TERRIBLE experience the entire time. The infant staff turnover rate was SO high, there was corruption with the site leadership, several ratio violations that multiple parents reported, safety concerns, and the center was hardly ever cleaned to the expectations the staff communicated to parents. In November 2018, the staff went on strike and upon drop off, there were over 20 infants in the center with only a couple staff - that is an extreme ratio violation. On multiple occasions when picking up our son, we noticed a baby would be bleeding, unattended to, or under the fridge in the room touching and playing with the electrical cord/outlets without teacher intervention. We never felt comfortable leaving our son there but had no option due to waitlists at all other centers near our home/work. Substitute staff were brought in who had no childcare experience (one staff member told us they were grocery store cashiers looking for additional work and not even with CPR training). We ultimately pulled our son and went without childcare for a couple months until we found our current center, TowerLight Childcare - which is EXTREMELY clean, well-run, organized, and virtually no staff turnover. I cannot say enough bad comments about YBR in Minnetonka.

We’ve been with YBR for over two years with both of our boys, and we can’t recommend it enough. We originally chose it because of the facility (you’ve got to check out the gym - so great). But we quickly realized how special each one of the staff members is, too. I have seen my almost-3-year-old grow into a kind, generous, happy toddler - in no small part due to the amazing teachers he’s had at YBR. In addition to the emotional intelligence piece, which I value the most, our son is counting, learning Spanish, beginning to write his name, and has a voracious appetite for books. And when we had our second son in November. I knew we’d be leaving him with a second family here when I returned to work from maternity leave. YBR is amazing. I can’t imagine our lives without it!

We love this center for our 1.5 year old son. He is met with a smile from his teacher each morning. There is a lot of structure and great communication through their app on all of the daily activities.

We've been taking our son here full time for a year and a half. It is a reliable center, we love that we can do an early drop off if needed. The communication is great with the Daily Connect app you get notifications all day on what they are up to. It is right about in the middle for pricing from what we saw when we were searching.

Our son has been at this daycare for 8 months and we couldn't be happier! We always get updates on the app throughout the day on how his day is going including pictures. They are very flexible with when we drop off and pick up. I have found they are great with communication and answering any questions we have! The new director is also awesome!

Our family was relocated from another state to Minnesota and we had a short timeline to find a daycare for our three children (which can be overwhelming to find spots for all three in one location). From day one Yellow Brick Road was there to help us find spots, gave a tour, answered all of our questions, created a transition plan for each of our children post move and just made one piece of our relocation easier if not, check marked. We love the staff at Maple Grove. They are warm, inviting, care for each of their kiddos (you can just hear it in their voices at pick up when they summarize each of their days), and they want their kids to be the best that they can be. We’ve heard nothing but words of promise and encouragement as our children develop at their center.

My son has been attending YBR - Minnetonka for just over a year now. He started when he was 4 months old and all the teachers have been wonderful. He's learning so much each day and seems to really enjoy his days at school (even though he can't tell me yet :)) They taught him sign language and they do so many crafts. I attribute many of his major advancements to what he's taught at YBR. Highly recommend this daycare!