City Children's Academy was truly an exceptional daycare experience for our child from two's to pre-k. It has exceeded all of our expectations since we started at CCA after switching from a different neighborhood daycare. The teachers and administration are exceptional! Its clear they have a genuine passion for children and education and all staff and administration truly love what they do. The communication is outstanding and we always feel informed and included about our daughters daily progress. I cant recommend them enough to any parent looking for a wonderful place for their child. read more

We've had a wonderful experience with this daycare. We were among the first families to enroll our younger child, and we've only had positive things to say since day one. At a time when part-time childcare options were limited, this center was a true find. We had toured several daycares in the past for our older child and often left feeling unsure. This one stood out immediately for its welcoming atmosphere, thoughtful structure, and caring staff. From the director to every teacher, there is a genuine sense of dedication to the well-being and development of the children. Our little one always looked forward to going and came home happy and content--which gave us peace of mind. We're so grateful for the care, warmth, and consistency this place offers. Highly recommend to any family looking for a nurturing environment for their child. read more

We loved our experience at City Children's Academy (CCA) and had our son there from when he was an infant until he turned three. We cannot say enough good things about the teachers he had every step of the way. They are engaging and truly care about each child's education and development. This is not your typical daycare where the teachers seem to be disinterested in their work and are there just because it is a job. The teachers at CCA are truly dedicated, especially Ms. Laura and Ms. Danielle. We also appreciated the daily updates from his teachers and, especially, the pictures we received throughout the day. It was great seeing our son having fun and learning in a nurturing environment. We ultimately left CCA because we had a very long commute. If it were in our neighborhood, we would not hesitate to have our son attend preschool there.   If you want a great daycare with exceptional teachers and staff, this is the place for you. read more

Our son started at CCA as an infant and continued through CCA's program to the toddler classroom and into the two's classroom. The level of care and focus on education and development is exceptional! The team at CCA provided excellent daily feedback on how our son was doing, milestones he would achieve, as well as any behavioral or development issues we should work on at home. The teachers and staff are incredibly welcoming! Everyday my son was excited to go to school and wanted to greet every staff member, even to the point where he would ask where they were on their days off. Like many other families we were forced to move to the suburbs to seek additional space when baby #2 was on his way. Now that we are experiencing schools with similar costs in the suburbs, CCA is on a different level. We will never be able to thank them enough for what they did for our son. read more

My daughter started going to CCA to the toddler class in February 2023. She just blossomed under the care of Ms. Laura and the other teachers. I don't have words to describe how grateful I am for the care and attention she's receiving here. THANK YOU CCA! read more

I couldn't be happier with out experience at City Academy. As a first time mom I was so nervous sending my infant daughter to daycare but not only was it clean, well managed and all the things you would normally look for, but the teachers went above and beyond to make me feel comfortable and our daughter feel loved. Seeing her create such a bond with all her teachers in her infant class room and then her toddler class room has been wonderful and alleviated so much anxiety! read more

We have sent 3 of our kids here and have had nothing short of great experiences. The staff is responsive and friendly. The teachers are affectionate and caring to our children. We highly recommend CCA for your childcare needs. read more

We feel incredibly fortunate to have found such a wonderful school. The teachers at CCA have been enthusiastic and patient, and they prepare a variety of themed activities with great care. They also provide comprehensive daily feedback. We highly recommend this school. read more

When we were first looking at daycares in the city, we toured over 5 different facilities in the area. CCA BY FAR stood out as the most professional and put together - it felt like the kind of place you could trust to care for your children. Three+ years later, it's one of the best decisions we made for our family. They care for our children (yes more than one now) like they are their own family. The socialization that our kids get, the school programming / learning and most importantly, the fun our kids have here is worth every penny. We moved to another area in the city and didn't even look at other daycares - we knew that the extra commute was worth it. As someone who HATES driving/being in a car, this says A LOT. They've kept our family safe even through COVID times and are incredibly clean and cautious. I've been so impressed with their transparency, communication and agility given everything being thrown at them. We couldn't be happier with the care our kids receive. HIGHLY recommend this daycare for many, many reasons. read more

We had trouble finding a daycare with a short wait that we felt good about for our infant until we learned about City Children's Academy which recently began operating. Despite being new, management really knows what it is doing. The director Cindy is the best. She is kind and accommodating and greets you with a smile whenever you come or go. We also love that she is very responsive via email. The teachers here are also excellent. Our 6 month old is now in the infant room and smiles when he sees them. They are caring and share daily updates on a range of enriching activities they partake in throughout the day as well as logs of time of day for all diapers, meals, and naps. It is great seeing a handful of photo updates throughout the day of our son learning and having fun via the parent app. Additionally, my wife and I are frequently in the office after 5 pm. Several other daycares require pickup by 6 pm whereas City Children's Academy allows regular pickup up until 6:30 pm. With unpredictable work and traffic in Chicago, the extra half an hour is the difference between stressing out about leaving every day and not being rushed. read more

We could not have been happier with the three years we spent at CCA for our son. They were a wonderful support system for our family, and the warm environment was outstanding for our son from his infant days up to preschool. We recently moved out of the city and made the trip in each day just for CCA - it is that great! In addition to the loving and attentive learning environment they foster, it's incredibly well run. Cindy and Isabel are so organized and they add lots of little touches that make things easy for parents and great for the kids. We were so sad to say goodbye to CCA and feel lucky to have had our son in such a special place. read more

I have debated whether or not to write this review, but my hope is that writing it will help other parents currently searching for a daycare. My two children - age 2 and 11 mo - were at City Children's Academy for roughly 6 months. We had them in an in-home daycare that suddenly closed and were in search of a good daycare that did not have a waiting list. When I visited CCA I was pleased with the space and all that Cindy had to share about the school itself. I want to specify that my children's basic needs were most definitely taken care of in their time there. They played, they slept, they were fed, diapers changed/taken to potty, etc. However, if you're looking for a school where your child learns and flourishes, I would not recommend CCA. There is no curriculum. For the most part, the day is open play. Every time I walked in there, toddlers were in different corners of the room doing whatever they wanted to do. There was no structure. I attended the Valentine's Day party and there were no activities planned. The kids just did what they wanted for an hour. I found it very odd. Without structure, I found that the kids acted out. And CCA took it upon themselves to use their own form of punishment. Strong voice with the children, timeout in director's office, etc. In the baby room, my 10 month old (at the time) pulled a teachers hair and was placed in his crib for a "time out." I found this appalling. We were also told that the kids would go to the park, but to my knowledge, they only went outside on a walk. Never to the park, which is a good distance away. A month into being at CCA we started to look for a new daycare and immediately got our kids on a waiting list. While there were a few good teachers, I think the issues at CCA stem from the top. There isn't a lot of training. There isn't a curriculum. It is disorganized and while the ratio of teacher:child is what is approved by the state, it does not work for them. They also often sent children home sick with a temperature of less than 100. I wondered often why they were even checking my child's temperature. Did they just go around with a thermometer and see who they could send home? I am also not alone in my thoughts on this school and have talked to many parents who have either left or are leaving who feel the same. Again, I'm thankful my kids remained for the most part healthy and cared for during their time at CCA, but if you are looking for more than having the basic needs met - which should be the case with the price of CCA - I recommend looking elsewhere. read more

We didn't recognize the excellence of the team at City Children's until we had a chance to see what other daycare providers were like, having now moved to the suburbs. City Children's clearly sets the standard for childcare based on our experience, including having spent time considering other daycare providers in the West Loop and surrounding areas. The teachers and staff genuinely care about the children and this comes through in every interaction, including second hand things we heard from our toddler. I think this is in large part due to the time and consideration put in to hiring staff. Secondly, it was clear that signficant time is spent teaching the children - including infants. Our new daycare provider (a large, national chain) doesn't do any teaching or structured learning until 3 years old. We even learned the City Children's sick policy was quite generous when we moved to our new daycare provider. Finally, daily reports via their Tadpoles app and end-of-day summaries when we picked up were detailed and informative. For reference we had a 2+ year old there, and an infant coming up on 1 years old. We hope to find a provider in the suburbs that can live up to the standards set by City Children's. read more

Our son attended CCA from age 7months until 19months and thrived during his time there. We were so sad to leave CCA because we are moving to the suburbs to welcome baby #2. Our son first attended the infant and then graduated to the toddle rooms and we were very happy with the teachers in each. CCA has been a great environment for our son - he's learned so much and is excited to go to school every day. All of the teachers have been great but Miss Liz is truly a special teacher in the toddler room and deserves a shout out. I definitely appreciate that CCA is constantly revising and improving their offerings as well as expanding their facility's footprint. For example, Super Soccer Stars were brought in to teach a 4 week unit, they are doing "water Wednesdays" throughout the summer, and have formed a partnership with a local church for the children to have outdoor play space during the summer (there is a large indoor place space as well). The administration has also been very easy to deal with. I highly recommend CCA and wish we could've stayed in the city to send #2 here as well! read more

I toured 8 different Chicago daycares before landing on City Children's for my 3 month old baby. The facility is so cute, so modern, fun, and extremely clean. What sold me however, is the people. The management and the teachers are so friendly, so smart, and so loving to my babe. They really make sure to hire good people! The other daycares I looked at did not give me the impression that the teachers really love what they're doing. City Children's is full of really good people. My (now 6 month old) daughter smiles so big when she sees them in the morning. And they do the cutest activities everyday- the app gives me real time updates that I share with all my coworkers. It's seriously the best daycare!! (And comparable in cost to the others I looked at -- totally a win/win). read more

As a working parent its hard to trust that anyone is going to take care of your child as well as you can. And of course no one can be expected to love and care for your child as much as you do, but CCA does an amazing job of being the next best thing. We have been impressed with CCA since the day my daughter started there 7 months ago (she was 16 months). She absolutely LOVES it. She has so much fun painting, learning her numbers, words, and playing with her friends. We recently started our 6 month old son there and he hasn't once shed a tear at drop off. He took to CCA right away and seems to like being around other babies. For him I like the warmth and serenity of the environment and the good nature of the teachers. We toured five other daycares before starting with CCA. Some looked dirty, others looked too chaotic, some looked like the children weren't having fun, and the others looked fine. In the end we chose CCA based on the location, and the general feel we got when we entered the classrooms. We never heard any babies or children crying or upset. The children all seemed content and happy to be there...as did the teachers. The teachers are fantastic. They always look to be in good spirits, they are incredible engaged with the children, active, loving, caring, intelligent - everything you want in someone caring for your child. Cindy, the director is an absolute BOSS (in the best way possible). She knows how to run a great program. She's so on top of everything and works incredible hard. She finds and vets fantastic teachers, and is loving and caring to all the children. The food they serve is organic and my toddler eats everything. They use the Tadpoles app so parents get daily activity reports, notes on what the children ate, as well as pictures. We can't say enough good things about City Children's Academy. read more

We recently have to leave the school due to relocation to the east coast closer to family. I want to take this opportunity to thank you City Children's, what a wonderful experience, even through Covid time, that it has given to my daughter and myself, as well as an environment that creates great friendships. My daughter started at the school since she was 6 weeks' old. The transition was very smooth. The school is clean, the teachers are professional and caring (special thanks to Ms. Bethany, Morgan, Sarah, Masey, Yacuta, Laura, Danielle, and Vanessa), the curriculum is structured and engaging incorporating lots of educational, art, and music elements, the directors Cindy and Jill are very organized, the Tadpoles app keeps me well informed from what she eats to cute pictures, great lunch and snacks catered to the kids... I can go on and on. We've spent just over 3 years here and loved it everyday. We've interviewed 4-5 other schools at the time, CCA certainly stood out, newer / expanding establishment, reasonable tuition with foods included. Highly recommend if you're looking for a school in the city / west loop area. We already miss everyone there, teachers and friends!!! read more

We feel so lucky to have had CCA be the first daycare our daughter went to. The entire staff is so friendly and they made it very easy and comfortable to leave our baby as first time parents. Our daughter started off in the infant room, where many took great care of her, but we really got to know Miss Bethany and Miss Rachel, who were so loving and kind to us and more importantly, our daughter. She made a very smooth transition to the toddler room, when the time was right, and when she got in there, she really flourished. Miss Diana and Miss Laide paid such great attention and and care to our daughter, and she loved being there in class. Each week she came home learning new things she had most definitely learned from CCA. She learned songs, counting, shapes and in different languages too. One day she actually said "no mas" to my husband when she was finished doing what she was doing. We laughed very hard. In addition to learning, our daughter made some great friends. I looked forward to picking our daughter up each day from CCA because I got to see the kind and loving staff and hear about all the fun our daughter was having in school. We moved away recently, and we now have some huge shoes to fill. It's hard to believe we will find a place as great as CCA, but we're keeping my fingers crossed. read more

As first time parents we had a hard time preparing ourselves to send our 15 month old son to day care so when it came time to make that transition we set out to find a place that had a creative learning environment and felt comfortable for our son who would be there 5 days a week. We toured a number of day cares in the area and had yet to get a warm feeling for where our son would fit best until we met Cindy and her brother-in-law (who runs the facility in Roscoe Village). The space itself is well designed and very clean and our son immediately loved the various learning areas such as the play kitchen and reading nook (complete with a tiny sofa!), but what really sold us was their focus on art, music, and baby sign language. We were one of the first families to enroll our child in the toddler class so the special one on one attention that our son has received has been amazing and even as the class grows we still receive updates from Cindy and each of the teachers regarding his progress and what new skills he is working on. The app that they use has been a lifesaver throughout the day as I get photo / video updates and then a recap of the day including meals, nap length, diaper changes, and any special notes. My husband and I are blown away by how much our son has absorbed and retained since starting with City Children's Academy this past February and by just how much his vocabulary and speaking skills have grown. His teacher, Miss Kazeem, has such a positive attitude and our son is always excited to see her (usually greeting her with a big hug or high five!). She does a great job of conveying any concerns and really cares about all of the kids in the class which has made the entire day care scenario ideal for our family, but truly all of the teachers, along with Cindy, have by far exceeded our expectations. Our son is now almost 19 months old and after 4 months at CCA we couldn't be happier. To the whole CCA team, thank you for being amazing at what you do!!! read more

My daughter has been going to CCA for the past 9 months. I was very worried about sending her to school since she was at home with me or a nanny until 2.5. The director Cindy, and all the teachers made us very comfortable and we eventually went from 2 half days to 2 full days per week. The location is great for us. I love that they use the Tadpoles app and I'm able to get pictures and videos throughout the day as well as an end of day recap. I like that they have a good mix of structure and open play. My daughter loves painting and she gets to do that often at school. I feel very safe with her there and would definitely recommend City Children's Academy to other parents looking for quality child care. *As a side note I did not send her as an infant but always walk past the infant room and it seems like a very loving environment. I barely see any babies crying and this was something I always noticed when touring other high end day care centers-kids were always crying and didn't seem to be getting the proper time from the caregivers. I wanted to wait to write this review until we had been here long enough but it definitely gets my stamp of approval-and most importantly my daughters! read more