Scottsdale Child Care & Learning Center

SLC is such an amazing childcare center! The staff and teachers truly care about your child and family. My 4 year old is very stubborn and introverted, but her preschool teachers-​Miss Lisa and Miss Lauren go above and beyond to make her feel special and I’ve seen her grow so much in the last year. Miss Elise will prepare your child the healthiest food for breakfast, lunch, and snack (all included in your daily fee) and you only pay when you are there! No pre-​paying for the week! When my two year old started here at just 12 months, she was loved every single day and kept on a very consistent schedule which helped so much with her happiness and transition. I recommend this childcare center to all my family and friends

Like many new parents, I was extremely nervous about putting our baby in a daycare setting. We had our daughter at home with a nanny until she was 1, so I wasn’t sure how the transition would be. This school is absolutely amazing, and it has completely changed my views on what I expected daycare to be like. First, the directors and team working the front office are so kind and welcoming. They are extremely organized, and make everything from billing, parent communication, etc. so easy. Second, we have loved all of the teachers our daughter has had (and she has been in three rooms at this point, so we’ve had the pleasure of meeting very many!). The first couple days at drop off there were some tears, but now our daughter is so quick to leave our arms at drop off and give her teachers a hug! We love the detailed report we get every day, and sweet notes/​comments they leave us about our girl. They truly love the children they care for. Third, this school makes everything easier on parents. They provide diapers and nutritious food — that in itself saves you so much time and money each week (no packing lunches every day!). Signing in/​out your child is also very easy with the finger scan system they use. Last but certainly not least, should your child not be able to attend school due to illness, family vacation, etc. they do not charge you the days you are gone! Schedule a tour and check out this place, but do it early because they will likely be on a wait list.

LOVE it, love the everyone! My son is 6 and is there for the summer right now. Started at SCCLC at about 4 yrs old (tad under maybe) and my daughter is almost 3 and has been there since 10 months. Great care of my kids at all times.
I have a 22 yr old and 17 yr old so it’s not my first rodeo with daycares!
There is no «high turnover» in staff as far as I’ve been there or heard of. Camaras are active, clean everywhere, kids LOVE the food. Genuine, caring staff. They care about your kids and the family.
Honestly, I have zero complaints, none. No issues.
My kids are sweet, BIG thinkers, smart, polite and I know it’s a combination of home and daycare — that has my son performing so well in school and why my daughter is such a loving, caring little soul.
Thank you SCCLC

I toured this facility and found the front office staff very helpful and friendly. The location would have worked out perfectly for our family. Lisa one of the directors gave me the tour and went over the curriculum for the two-​year old classroom. As I was leaving the two-​year old room one of the day care providers was wheeling in a television. I then was told that beginning with the two-​year old room they get 20 minutes of TV time daily. There were Disney movies on the cart with the TV on it. I myself don’t consider Disney an educational movie but everyone has different opinions. I was really disappointed with the TV time being part of the daily routine. I let Lisa know that I thought the daily TV time was a deal breaker for me. I personally feel that two, three, and four year olds do not need TV time incorporated into their daily routine. There are so many other educational things that could be done in place of this allotted time. Overall, the facility was ok but if I am paying for a service and part of that service is putting my child in front of the television everyday I think I’ll pass. I hope the facility considers omitting TV time from their daily schedules in the future.

I just wanted to say how happy we are with sending our daughter to SLC. It’s very difficult to miss out on such a large chunk of the day with your child but it’s a big relief to know that she is in such great hands. I feel like our experience just keeps getting better and better as she grows and progresses within your school. Her teachers in classroom 3 have just blown me away with how special they make my daughter (and me for that matter) seem. I am sure that’s hard with a classroom full of a lot of kids but they do an amazing job… always excited to see her in the morning and sad to see her go at night, I couldn’t ask for better ladies to look after my child. THANK YOU for all you do!

Where do I start?
My daughter has been attending this center for 2 years now. As an only child with two working adults, it has been a wonderful place for her to grow and learn. The staff is beyond words. They are so caring and kind. The know not only every child’s name, but also the parents. It is just a joy to be able to trust them with the care of my little one.
She is currently in the pre-​K program, and Mrs. Cindy runs a phenomenal classroom. She has the kids respect (along with the parents). It is just a continuation of the environment my daughter has been in since day 1.
Mrs. Ricole is the director, and she is always available to answer any concerns that we have. She and her front desk staff truly offer a lot of help with scheduling and other minor issues that always seem to pop up.
If you get the chance to send your child here, you will not be disappointed in the quality of care. Worth every penny.

This child care center is awesome! All of the teachers are caring and truly enhance the children’s lives. I am personally familiar with Miss Bree who has a formal degree in early childhood education and has worked with children her entire career! This is a great school and I would not hesitate to recommend it to anyone !

Just want to say this school rocks! My 3 daughters are in Ms Bree’s dance class and they would rather hang out with Ms Bree than go to Disneyland! Talk about little divas! They dance for hours is great exercise and they just love it! They look so cute doing their little handstands against the door and they all want to be dancers when they grow up!
Thank you Scottsdale Learning Center for caring enough to employ special people like Ms Bree. We love her and wish we could take her home with us!

We love SLC! Our son has been going there for a year now, and we haven’t had ant issues at all. All the teachers have been great! Our son is in room 4 and has learned so much since moving to that room!

SCCLC is one of the rare «day cares» that actually focuses on the kids… this is not a babysitting facility — they actually educate and work on forming kids into active, respectful, happy little people.
Some of my favorite parts:
The Directors and Teachers. They’re some of the sweetest, most trustworthy people we’ve ever met and our kids love them.
Communication. There is always an open and welcome line of communication with parents — regardless of whether it’s good or bad.
Tuition. The tuition policies are very parent-​friendly. Part-​time is okay — you only pay for the time you’re there. And tuition includes food and diapers.
Involvement. There are lots of events to participate in with your kids and they open up their teacher education programs to parents as well.
We have a toddler and an infant at the Kierland location, and SCCLC is the simply the BEST we’ve experienced or heard of!

Disclaimers and qualifiers first. Every child is different and every family is different in their educational needs and priorities and every child learns differently. One school may be the perfect place for one child and not ideal for another. That being said, my children who are both younger than K, have now attended 6 daycares (daycare defined as a facility that provides care more than 8 hours daily and provides infant age and up) in 3 states since their birth. So our experience has been pretty widespread. I will cover 4 areas: safety, facility, curriculum, cost and odds-​n-​ends.
Lets start with safety. You can always find state inspections on the state website for licensed child-​care facilities. These inspections will tell you a lot of useless things but will also provide light on some useful things such as if there is a valid fire safety plan and are all of the teacher background checked and fingerprinted. The state inspection for Scottsdale Child Care and Learning Center (SLC) as of summer 2009 was just about as good as it gets. Keep in mind that every facility will have a few citations. This is how the state makes money. The other safety feature I liked about this school is that there is only one entrance/​exit door and that is through the front. So the likelihood of a run-​away child is nearly impossible.
Facility:
I think the facility here is nice. The rooms for older classes are bigger and therefore in my opinion better. They have nice size outdoor play areas and adequate shade which is important for AZ. They have a separate dining area for the kids which is nice too. My only complaint is that most of the younger rooms smell like a diaper pail. I’m not sure why the smell is so strong since I saw them taking the trash out multiple times a day, but I really did not like the odor. I know that there are diapered kids in the room, but in 6 daycare facilities we’ve attended, this one was the only one with a very strong diaper odor. Not a deal breaker, but something to consider. My child hated this odor and it made morning drop-​off very difficult for us.
Curriculum:
The curriculum here is OK. Of note, strength of curriculum is related to strength of teachers. I think they had a mix of mediocre teachers and really good teachers, like most schools. I think that NAEYC accredited facilites have the best curriculum. The director here said that they are very familiar with NAEYC and that they follow many NAEYC standards, but I didn’t find this to be so. They are not officially NAEYC accredited. The other problem was that they shift students around from class to class to maintain the highest ratio legally possible. While this allows them to aggregate kids in one room to release teachers early, and save on operating costs, it doesn’t provide for a cohesive curriculum when there are different teachers in the classroom at any given time. Also, if your child gets moved to a different room to help maintain ratios, then their curriculum changes. The one thing that I absolutely did not like about the curriculum was that they had two «movie» times daily. Really, it ended up being TV time. My feeling is that on rainy days or special occasions, watching a movie at school is ok, but twice daily is more than I think should be normal. Other extra-​curriculuare classes that they have are dance and computers which you have to pay extra for.
Cost:
I don’t know what the current cost is exactly. You can go to the website or call the school and find out. But I did think it was a great deal. The daily/​weekly rate includes for full-​day, almost 11 hours of care per day. Ideally none of us should have to have our kids in child-​care for so long, but if you are working and work far, this is a good option to have for those days when you have to go in early or just can’t get out exactly on time. There are only a very few facilities in the area with these hours. Also, if you tell them ahead of time that you won’ t be attending SLC for a vacation week or something, they will not charge you! This is amazing. The daily cost also includes hot lunch and diapers and wipes if your child is not potty trained. This also is a true bonus for the working parent.
Odds and Ends: Overall I think this is a safe and wallet friendly place to send your children. For its price point, I think it is the best value in the area. If you work full time or long hours, it may be one of your only options in the area. Things that I did not like were the TV times and the use of candy on a fairly regular basis as their rewards system. I also think that some of the snacks were too sugary (froot loops and other sweet cereals). I think the curriculum is mediocre but acceptable. I think that the weakest point is that teachers schedules are so variable. And for young ones that are attending a day-​care, it is important to have daily consistency with care-​takers in lieu of being home with mom or dad.