I wish I could give this place 0 stars. They exclude kids and claim to be trained on children within the spectrum. I complete lie, they did not know how to handle outbursts (common with children on the spectrum and they treated my nephew terribly. I understand biting can happen but there were multiple bites within a week. It's obviou the children are left unattended. I have never seen him act out as he did while attending this terrible place. read more

My husband and I found Little Sprouts on the Iowa Department of Human Services website. They were selected after visiting several daycares in the area. We selected Little Sprouts after being impressed by their location, affordability, the Drake Head Start Program and Speech Therapy Program. My daughter was a little behind in her speech. So, we thought this school was prefect. Red signs started to present themselves when I was providing my daughters' immunization paperwork. I walked into the office and children's PHI was exposed for anyone to view. When it was bought to staff's attend, she immediately begins making excuses. "Oh, this is not my office". "I did not do that." I told her, she is a representation of her employer and she was in the office. Everyone that works there is a representative of Little Sprouts. Then, she started removing the papers from view. That concerned me. However, we moved forward and enrolled my child in the school. In September 2017, my daughter started Lil' Sprouts. The first day, she was hit in the nose by another child. That night, I notice my daughter's nose was dark red as if she was hit by something. This couldn't have been prevented. However, the matter in how I was inform could have been better. I was told the next day about the incident after addressing with the staff. I should have been told of the incident the day it happened and not the next day. The second incident happened a few months later. My child was bitten by another child. As you can imagine, this was horrifying for a parent. I never thought this would happen, especially with the amount of staff working. I did my researched went back to the daycare with questions. What are you going to do to prevent this from happening again? Has the other child's parent's been informed? The staff told me how they would prevent an incident from happening again. However, she didn't know who had bitten my child. Consequently, she did not know how to protect my child. No notes of the incident had been left to inform her of the previous day. Since, she was unaware of the incident, we didn't feel safe leaving our child with her. My husband and I waited for the manager to arrive. Once present, she started apologizing and saying they had made a mistake. It appears my daughter was put with a well-known bitter and the inevitable happen. As parents take home their kids, the group gets smaller and smaller, so they don't need as many staff members. As a result, my daughter was placed with the other child. Again, my husband and I forgiven but never forgotten. The last incident was the breaking point. I picked my daughter up on Thursday (February 18, 2018) and the staff was acting weird. The volume of the music was much too loud to hear anyone talking and the staff looked nervous. I notice my daughter's hair looked very neat because normally it's a mess. (She likes to play with her hair.) However, her curls can be deceiving. That night as I was brushing her hair, my heart stopped. Her hair has been cut!!! I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I didn't want to believe it. I couldn't fathom someone cutting a little girl's hair. The people that I had trusted my child with, had betrayed my trust and my daughter's. I stop brushing my daughter's hair and tried to shake off the stomach-turning feeling. I know in the morning, I would be able to confirm my fears when I get her ready for daycare. In the morning, I tried getting my daughter's curls into a ponytail as I had done that Monday. My fear has been confirmed, someone at Little Sprouts has cut my daughter's hair. I sat on the couch in a state of shock and disbelief. The very people we have entrusted to keep our daughter safe, had taken scissors to my daughter's head without parental consent. Again, my husband and I made a trip to Little Sprouts. Not to find out who did it but, WHY did they do it. Again, we talk to the same manager. When we told her what happen, she showed no emotion. As if, this had happened before. She told us that she could review the surveillance cameras and find out who did it. But I knew it would not bring solace to our concerns. The damage had been done. We stood waiting in the office for about 15 - 20mins, for the manager to complete her scan of the surveillance cameras. I wasn't shocked at all when she turned to us and said there was nothing on the cameras of my daughter getting her hair cut. I asked about then she went to Speech Therapy. She told me that Speech Therapy is done in the office and they don't have surveillance in the office. So my daughter was taken out of view of the surveillance cameras and returned hours later. I could only think that whomever cut my daughter's hair was smart enough to do it off camera. The manager told us that she would re-review the surveillance cameras again and call us if she finds anything. She never did!! read more

The employees and owner are so kind and fun to be around, my child loves it there and it has a great play ground and they work great with parents on payments in this tough time. If I have another child I will bring he or her there as well. read more