Bright Horizons at South Lake Union

As a now former employee I would not recommend Bright Horizons at South Lake Union as a career option or as a place for your child

My son is just turning 1 year and has been attending bright horizons SLU since he was 4 months. I have nothing but good things to say about this center.
The staff are warm and friendly. The admin and support staff remember our names and take great interest in our little guy, which is pretty awesome since there are so many parents. The food they feed the kids is fantastic. One day my little guy is eating Indian another day Moroccan and another Greek. My son eats better lunches than I do.
The staff work on motor and cognitive skills by way of different toys and fun activities and they recognize if a child is bored. They work with the parents to keep them up to date in their child’s day and how the child is developing. They have been an excellent source for advice and tips and tricks. And I love that they work with the parents to understand the routine at home and maintain or help establish a good routine this is especially important with infants. Everyday I get a news letter with photos showing me what happened that day. They even send it to my friends and relatives.
My son LoVES going to school even from a very young infant age. He can’t wait to see his teachers and play with his friends.
The center puts on lots of fun events like an art auction of art the kids made, which is actually REALLy good art. They also try to involve the parents as much as possible in gathering feedback, what is happening at the center and changes that are taking place and they encourage parent input. They have seasonal events such as going to the pumpkin patch and thanksgiving feast.
The only thing I wish was different, the re-​registration fee sucks (I don’t get why this exists), tuition cost is high, yes turnover is kind of high but that’s mostly because the great teachers are being snatched up for nannying. I wish the kids did more outdoor adventures and field trips. The playground is huge which is great but I want my little guy to have more exposure to other things such as parks and gardens, which are just down the road.
Overall I’m super happy and so is my child.

My daughter attended Bright Horizons for three years (6 mos-3.5 yr).
Pro: Food is very good and they supply all the food. The staff is generally excellent. Teacher training is very good. The curriculum is excellent, although it can vary a lot by teacher.
Cons: Teacher turnover is high. After three years, I think only two of the staff members were there when she started. My daughter had 10 teachers in 20 months. Some were temporary which a three year old doesn’t understand and for a class with only one teacher, temporary is never a good option. Also, they will raise the rates every year, charge a reregistration fee, and an emergency pack fee. Also, the near constant construction around South Lake Union is concerning, especially with construction dust and young lungs.
Because of the high teacher turnover, I would not recommend Bright Horizons. After talking with other people from across the US it seems to be a general flaw in their business plan. They do not care if they keep their staff.

Please note– this is just a cost review. The director at the center was very kind and the site was impeccable when we went. If this center was more reasonable for our budget we would certainly place our child there.
Took a tour of center– it is really nice but so so expensive. Their infant room is 2350/​monthly. They charge more than other Bright Horizon centers to take advantage of Amazon salaries. They also do not offer a three day rate for infants. They do in the toddler room, but not infant :(

I’m a parent. I had a very bad experience with Bright Horizons South Lake Union center in Seattle. I have tried to contact this center, and they have been cheating and ignoring us. I finally decided to make a public complaint against this center and their staff for their irresponsibility and dishonesty.
We are very disappointed with the way that the SLU center has handled our registration. When we registered 2 years ago, we were told that there would be high likelihood that our child would be able to register in August 2012, as this was the best answer we could get from the center — they were «unable» to tell us what the actual wait would be, not even approximately. A month before the target enrollment date, my husabnd called to check-​in for that August start date, only to be told that now it looks more like — not late August, not early September — but November! What a shock and huge blow to customer trust! What’s to say that come November, someone won’t tell us that it «looks like March», and so on? What can a customer trust at this point?
From a customer’s perspective, it is simply unacceptable to not know how long we have to wait until our son can be enrolled. It’s even worse to be told it’s «highly likely» to be enrolled around a certain time frame, only to have the estimate be off by not days or weeks, but months and possibly more! Every other center was able to tell us the wait time, and we believe it is a basic right for families to plan around a daycare start date, as it is a significant life change for most families. In this case, we had to scramble a call a bunch of other centers in order to get our baby into an alternate center, which I assure you was a truly unpleasant experience. One that, unfortunately, perhaps numerous other families had to experience at the hands of Bright Horizons.
We felt cheated out of our $ 150 registration fee because we had no idea if and when our son could be enrolled in either center. They truly let us down.
Since then, many colleagues of mine asked me about my experinces with child care centers. Every time when I was asked about Bright Horizons, I felt cheated and couldn’t believe that such a nationwide famed child care organization could be so irresponsible. About 2 months ago (⁶⁄₂₀₁₄), I emailed the Center Director Monique German of Bright Horizons SLU. She seemed trustworthy because the website says she received the Community Service Award. I was wondering as a Center Director whether she knew about this. After I contacted her, she replied with an apology and promised to refund our pre-​enrollment registration fee on the same day. Once again, I was cheated once again. We never received any check. She have been ignoring us until now.
It is not a matter of money. We don’t need the $ 150, but we are extremely disappointed with how Bright Horizons handled registrations and treated family.