Doodlebugs McCandless has the potential to be very good, but they have a major staffing problem. My children have been here since they opened in April 2013. In less than 2 years' time, this school has gone through 5 different directors or assistant directors. Either corporate pushes these local administrators out (fires them), or the local administrators themselves choose to leave for a rival center (sometimes for the same pay, which is pretty telling). The policies have changed with each director. Some directors follow the corporate policies more loosely than others. This has created a problem of consistency for children, teachers, and parents. Many of the older, experienced teachers are no longer there. In fact, I can only think of 1 who has been there for more than 6 months. Last month (January 2015), 4 teachers or teacher assistants quit within a 3 week span. This causes me to wonder if employees are being treated well or compensated appropriately. To give an example, I have heard that one toddler classroom has been without a teacher for 2 months. They put a different assistant teacher in every day. A brand new person whom the kids don't know, and who doesn't know the kids. Then the next day it changes. I firmly believe that Doodlebugs is trying to hire someone, but they just can't get teachers who stay. Let me also say that every teacher has always been kind to my children, BUT, because turnover is outrageously high, the teachers or assistants are nearly always new, often inexperienced, no longer dynamic, and awfully young (18 or 19). At this point, Doodlebugs has exhausted its pool of qualified applicants and is now hiring anybody with clearances. On a positive note, the current director, Laura, is very good. If she stays, I feel that she will get the center back on track. But corporate must do their part to support Laura so that she has the tools she needs to build the center back up. read more

This was the worst experience I've ever had. The director was super unprofessional, she was rushing us to sign the contract. She expected us to pay for an entire month even though our child wouldn't be 6 weeks . I do not recommend this place . You can't trust her. she's very sneaky. read more

I "thought" I heard a lot of good things about doodle bugs. Silly me.. I did not do my research enough. My husband and I scheduled a tour and were put into a room to discuss everything. We couldn't see the classroom that day because it just so happens the kids were napping. I had to go back AGAIN to put the deposit down. The final and third time I finally got to meet my son's teachers and see his classroom. I immediately got cold feet walking into that room. The toys were so old, the classroom was ice cold, all the kids had boogers running into their mouth, it was not inviting what so ever. I left there with this terrible gut feeling. I could not send my baby there! I sent an email stating I was not going to send my son. That surprisingly was an easy process!!she let us know we were going to be charged for 4 weeks even though my son never attended!!!!!!!! I think parents need to meet the teachers and see the classroom first! I would have never went through with everything if I was offered that first! Do better doodle bugs. read more

My wife and I toured this center back in September of last year. She was expecting in November, so we wanted to have everything taken care of before our daughter came. We were planning on starting day care when she turned 6 months, so mid May. We were told that would be no problem given the time frame. Last week (Mid Feb) I called the center, since I haven't heard anything besides the email confirmation that we were on the waiting list and all the email's about "activity nights" I was shocked when I was told that they couldn't guarantee my child a spot, and that I should have a back-up place. Good thing I called, huh? I was also told they "always" mention this to parents signing up for the waiting list. Since it seems like there is so much turnover at this place, maybe their "always" is correct, but I visited the place and signed up for the list before most of them were there. I find it crazy that a daycare doesn't have it together. I was able to call other daycare's in which they could tell me the exact moment they have openings for infants. Thankfully my wife and I toured another center today, which was wonderful and we were able to pre-register our daughter to start when we need to. Maybe one day doodle bugs will live up to the potential it seems to have, but I would recommend you and your family not be there for the trial and error phase they seem to be going through. read more

he WORST daycare ever! My son went to a different daycare for almost 2 years, and I never had a single issue with them. We started doodle bugs in march and we took our son out in June. We could NOT keep our kid at this center. 1. They do not keep the kids to teachers ratio. I've observed 12-14-16 kids with just one teacher in the room! 2. The teachers do not come to kids for any reason. I've observed on the camera multiple occasions with kids just staring out of the window or just sitting or standing doing nothing for ling periods of time - 15-30 minutes and teachers won't come to them or even talk to them. My friend took her daughter out of doodle bugs after she was standing by the window and crying for TWO HOURS on her first day! And no one came to console her or distract her!!!! 3. One time my son somehow managed to wiggle through the fence (i don't even know how it is possible in a daycare!) and was in the parking lot! And all the teacher told me was to talk to my kid that it was a liability for them! They didn't even apologize to me that my kid was in danger while in their care! 4. The food there is terrible. So i was packing lunches for my son. So for two days in a row they wouldn't give him his hot thermos lunch!!! The first day that happened i found a full thermos in his backpack, so the next day I asked the teacher what happened, and she said that she didn't find it. So my son only had a cheese stick and juice from 9 am to 5 pm!!!! So on the second day i specifically told the teacher that there is the thermos in the backpack, and guess what, they didn't give it to my son again!!!!! They said they forgot!!! 5. When i was signing my son up there, they told me everything about their wonderful curriculum, and how much stuff my son will learn there. Guess what, he didn't learn a single thing in those 2.5 months! Again, he went to a different daycare before we moved, and they were learning letters and numbers there. 6. Even their own teacher said that they've been having lots of complaints about the management from both the parents AND the teachers themselves! 7. Since the parking lot accident i've tried to keep my son at home as much as i could, and they never even call you to ask what happened after we didnt go to daycare for 2-3 days. They do take the money out of the account pretty fast though. They just dont care. And they also didnt want to return our fall enrollment deposit. Even though we left the daycare BECAUSE of their poor childcare! It took the whole day on the phone with the center director and the regional supervisor to get my deposit back. One of my other acquaintances told me that they LOST her kid in the building!!!! Apparently he walked away while going from the playground to the room, and they found him HOURS LATER!!! When his dad came to pick him up and they couldn't find him in the room, they searched the whole building and found him in some empty classroom asleep. So initially i was attracted to this daycare because of their nice rooms and big playground, and the center director being all smiles and politeness, but it turned out to be the nightmare experience. The cameras and smiles don't mean anything. This is the worst daycare i've ever seen! read more

Today was my son's first and last day at Doodle Bugs. I watched my 7 month old on their "Watch Me Grow" video system and was appalled at the ambivalence of the staff towards the infants. My son is just starting to sit up and at one point fell backwards flat on his back where he was left laying there for 10 minutes before anyone came over to him. He can't sit himself up yet or crawl. Another infant walked over to him and started hitting him in the head with a toy. It took teachers almost 5 minutes to come over and stop the girl. His head is bruised now. A teacher came into the room to mop the hardwood floor and two infants where left on the floor to crawl through the freshly wet floor. The one little boy almost grabbed the mop. This all happened within 10 minutes of me watching the camera. When I spoke with the Center Director, I received nothing but excuses, although she admitted the actions were "not ideal" and "unacceptable". The Director of Customer Relations for Doodle Bugs tried to tell me the mops they use are hardly wet and the floor dries instantly. Wow - I've never seen a mop like that! I understand that not every child can have the undivided attention of the teachers all of the time. But crawling all over a wet floor and having the teachers just watch was gross. I only watched for an hour while I ate lunch. And this was his first day! Makes me wonder what other awful things I missed. I picked him up at the end of the day and cleaned out his locker. We will not be back. read more

Great place with attentive teachers and staff that make it feel like family even though it is a bigger daycare/school than others. Cleanliness is a big deal at Doodlebugs and a big deal to us. Lead teacher and administrators have had next to zero turnover since we have been sending our child to Doodlebugs. read more

We have been attending Doodlebugs for 4 years and to be honest it has gotten worse every year we are there. They are OK for the younger children, but once they get to Kindergarten it is beyond awful. They basically do nothing to entertain or engage the children and then act surprised when they act up. Some of the teachers are fine, but most of the goods ones have left. The management is the worst. They have zero people skills and could not be worse when it comes to customer service. I think they forget we are customers paying thousands of dollars a month, they act like they are doing us a favor watching our kids. When I speak to other Doodle Bugs parents they all agree the place is no longer good and they are trying to find a new place to go. Kids are dropping out left and right and it is no surprise. We will be looking for a new Center as Doodle Bugs is not cutting it any longer. read more

Management ruins it for me. Business is about relationships and customer service. The management here seems to forget that. Would NOT recommend this center to anyone. Especially for the price. read more

We have been with Doodle bugs since July 13' My son loves it there. I wish I knew more about the curriculum (we had him another day care in Cranberry but we had to take him out due to job relocation). I think he learned more at his old school vs this one, however he loves some of the extra stuff like dance and tae kwon do. There is a bit of a turnaround on teachers but he's had the same 2 for most of the year. As for directors I know one had to leave for personal reasons. I don't remember seeing more than 3. read more