Kiddie Academy of Charlotte-Blakeney - Charlotte, North Carolina

Kelsey Budhisetiawan

We joined Kiddie Academy in May and have been so happy with the care and education our two kids have received. We get ample communication through the day on their activities and having live feed cameras is a comfort to us as well. The teachers and director are caring and truly get to know the kids on an individual level. We have nothing negative to say and our children are thriving!

Rachel Goyette

We have had a great experience with Kiddie Acadamy. My daughter can be shy and had a hard time transitioning to a new daycare. Kiddie Academy was very flexible in allowing us to try different methods to get her more comfortable in a new environment. She is now thriving. I appreciate the communication and cameras that are made available to us.

Austin Tooley

Worst daycare around. Majority of teachers barely speak English, they send your child home if they throw the slightest tantrum, constantly closing abruptly without notice, even Suspected child abuse behind closed doors. This daycare used to have the best staff and the new owner fired everyone that was good for standing up to him and standing up for the children. Any good review you see is from a place that no longer exist. The new owner made sure to demolish all the heart and soul in the facility.

LISA JESSUP

As a mom I worry constantly about my baby. Today my heart felt at ease! What a beautiful feeling this was to experience, my baby learning sight words and having a blast doing it!! All smiles!! I highly recommend this childcare provider. They create a nurturing environment where children thrive. The staff is attentive, experienced, and genuinely cares about each child's well-being. The facility is clean and well-maintained, fostering a safe and enriching space for learning and play. Our family feels fortunate to have found such a dedicated and professional childcare option. Big Thank You to the management and staff!!

From: an overjoyed parent!

Dan

We had our 2 year old toddler here and we were quite happy with the care he got. This is our third child so we been through a lot of daycares. We felt the Kiddie academy here was great both in terms of the activities they did throughout the day and the teacher in my child’s class. They send you videos and pictures updating you on the activities they do throughout the day. Furthermore, I’ve never seen my child watching an IPad or TV when I pick them up which can’t be said about some other daycares. Overall would highly recommend.

Stephanie Esau

We have been at Kiddie Academy for over 5 years with our three children. Our youngest started in the infant room & has had to overcome several food allergies. The administration and teachers have been top notch in handling our questions, concerns and accommodations. He’s never had reactions at school, but they are proactive reaching out to us even if he comes to school with seasonal allergies. As our youngest goes off to Kindergarten, it will be sad to part with our KA family. They have been an integral part of our lives during such a crucial phase of their learning and development.

Michelle Riley

TLDR: Do NOT send your child here, especially if they have allergies! Many awful teachers, complacent and rude administration.

Our experience at Kiddie Academy has been nothing short of a nightmare. My son has allergies, which was not any trouble to manage at our prior facility and is not any issue at his current facility. KA gave him foods he was allergic to on multiple occasions. On at least two of these occasions, Trisha (accurately portrayed in a few of these other negative reviews) tried to mom-shame me for how I handled the incidents instead of focusing on how egregiously they messed up. After the 4th allergen exposure (that I know of, it was confirmed he regularly was given a salad dressing that contained an allergen though), I reported them to the state. They were supposed to come up with a better communication plan from the kitchen to the teachers about what my child couldn’t eat. A few weeks later I found out from my son’s new teacher that she had “no idea” what he is allergic to, and that the way she finds out he can’t have something is from his prior room’s teacher yelling across the hall “don’t give that to him!” when the kitchen brings something he’s not allowed to have. Absolutely terrifying.

You might ask why I didn’t just send his food myself. Two of his exposures were when I sent his food! I watched his teachers withhold his food, giving him about 5 minutes to eat at the end of lunch, and blatantly ignore his stealing food off the other babies’ plates (he was about a year old for this). At one point they gave him a special treat that was brought in by another kid without clearing it with me first. When I raised concerns about their behavior, he came home the next day with feces encrusted on his tiny little rear-end. Not even a dirty diaper, they just intentionally did not wipe him well and left it. On that note, he came home another time with feces up his back and through his onesie, no explanation given. His diaper was clean, so they'd wiped him, but left it all over his back/onesie. I hope none of his classmates got pink eye from that one.

The teachers in his first room were constantly on their phones, never engaging with the babies. I never saw so much as a book being read to them; they were left on their own to play with no interaction from a caring adult. My baby had very dry skin/eczema and I’d sent in lotion to be used when needed. His teacher quite happily told me that they never put it on him unless I specifically call to ask. It’s almost like she was overjoyed at her own stupidity. This is a child who’s face was often bleeding it was so in need of lotion, but I guess you can’t see that when you’re on your phone all day.

Overall the administration wants to keep parents out of the building as much as possible. They continue cov1d-era policies where you must drop off and pick up at the front entrance unless you have a reason to go back and talk to your child’s teacher. As a result, there is absolutely no sense of community (also they briefly lost a child from this policy, as noted in the state incident reports, yet they continue to cling to their process). I’ve talked to many other parents that don’t even know all of their younger child’s teachers’ names and wouldn’t be able to recognize them on the street. Many teachers are blatantly rude and disrespectful to parents when you do talk to them, and the administration’s response is “they’re a little gruff”. What’s tolerated is encouraged - if you cared about the interaction between parents and teachers you wouldn’t allow your teachers to act like that.

It’s unfortunate that the majority of the younger rooms are such an abomination because there are some teachers that are GEMS in the older classes. We had a great experience with my oldest son, who was only there a year before entering kindergarten. However it was so strongly outweighed by the horrors of my baby’s experience that I could never recommend this place, not even to my worst enemy.

Nicol B

We have been attending KA Blakeney for the past 8 years and it has been an overall, exemplary experience. I would say that the administrators and teachers really take the time to learn and know, not only the child(ren), but also get to know the families. They keep you abreast of all activities for the students and familes. They are prompt to call if any concerns or incidents (falls, etc) and they are just as prompt to call for positive incidents/interactions.
Our experience has, and continues to be, very positive. Their experienced guidance and input is truly valued and I cannot say enough about the Administrators- Angie, Tricia, Ashley, and multiple, multiple teachers that have had such a positive impact on our children (and also our lives as a whole). I highly recommend KIDDIE ACADEMY, especially KA at Blakeney. You will not be disappointed.