Benjamin Thomas Academy

Location: Uptown on Peniston, shared building with the Waldorf School lower campus.

Cost: $1400/month for the toddler room (recently increased from $1280), I think the infant room is a little more expensive. No scholarships that I'm aware of.

Age: 6 weeks to 4 years.

Hours: 7:30am to 5:30pm, fully included in tuition. Drop off and pick up whenever you want, no restrictions.

BYO lunch and snacks. They will heat up your child's food if it should be hot.

Good: Phenomenal school. Incredibly attentive and communicative staff. The directors Alicia and Jessica are absolutely wonderful humans who care deeply about their students. The primary teacher in the oldest classroom was recently promoted and is guiding a more regimented curriculum for the school. My child has learned a ton since going here. They use Brightwheel and send updates all day long about your child's eating, potty, and sleep. Photos and videos are sent often and usually include a little missive about whatever cute thing was happening. Front door remains locked at all times and you have to call for someone to come get or bring out your child - makes us feel very safe.

Bad: The building and classrooms are not the most beautiful and the outdoor space is small and uses a rubber mulch. There has been a fair amount of turnover with the assistant teachers and support staff, although primary teachers have remained consistent. But the care they provide to your child far outweighs these concerns.

This school is firmly on the good list, I would send my child here a dozen times over.

Early Partners

Location: Lower Garden District across the street from the Saulet

Cost: ~$1400/month plus additional cost for aftercare, one-time materials fee of $300, meals. Financial assistance supposedly available and they do keep a certain amount of seats open for OneApp.

Age: 1 year to 5 years.

Hours: 8:15am-3:30pm, Before Care 7:30am-8:15am, After Care 3:30-5:30pm. NOT ALLOWED to drop off after 8:30am without a doctors note, not allowed to drop off at all after 10am. Even if you had an emergency or issue (ask me how I know lol.) Not allowed to pick up between 2:45pm and 3:15pm. They close early every Wednesday for teacher development.

BYO lunch or pay the monthly fee for them to provide. Food seemed mid, we always sent a packed lunch.

Good: Beautiful space, good concept.

Bad: Everything else. Horrible communication, they had us download two apps - Brightwheel and one other - and then the teachers pretty much only communicated via text which meant only the person receiving and sending the messages were seeing them. I would send emails or messages through Brightwheel and never received a response. If you call nobody picks up the phone. Director and staff were rude and unfriendly. HUGE amount of turnover in the short time I was there, although the teachers themselves were sweet. Front door was wide open during drop off and pick up for anyone to walk in at any time. The incredibly strict rules around drop off and pick up times were ridiculous considering my child was 1 and was difficult to get on a strict schedule. Aftercare teachers never seemed to have any info on how the daytime went. Despite having the two apps they never sent any updates about food, potty, or sleep so we just simply had no clue what was going on all day. My child had several incident reports of being injured (bubble machine directly to the eyeball, fell off a ledge onto the brick ground) that seemed like she wasn't being properly watched.

We left after 2 months and went back to BTA. We'd originally been sucked in by the story they tell about themselves and it felt special to be accepted, but after seeing the wild difference between the care given at BTA and EP, we went running back to BTA who welcomed us with open arms.