If you're looking for a childcare facility that's only in it for the money, this might be the place. For parents who don't prioritize their children's wellbeing, it probably feels "fitting." Unfortunately, this facility has built -- and continues to uphold -- a troubling reputation. Behind closed bathroom doors, where there are no cameras, reports of abusive behavior toward children have surfaced. Their structure and system seem to allow, even encourage, these situations. Even more alarming, there have been documented instances of children literally being lost -- one reportedly wandered outside the building and toward traffic. Don't just take my word for it. Search local parenting and community groups on social media, where countless mothers and families have shared their experiences and concerns. Parents who put their children above all else know the truth about what goes on here. read more

My personal experience with this childcare is that they have no idea how to redirect children, they just say they do. I had to tell a director how to calm and redirect a child with ADHD when Google could give the answer. They seemed to have issues with keeping staff, and from my experience, the staff were treated not to labor board standards. The owner literally told me she has a volitile personality. She asked me if I knew about one of the directors' medical condition and told me about it before I could answer, violating the HIPPA act. I recorded the conversation after seeing so much from old employees and parents about this place. I called CPS after walking into my grandchild being placed on display in front of the rest of the class for punishment. I called CPS, and the owner said she was kicking my children out because I called CPS. "Her words, recorded." Then, when I asked for all the kids' records, they withheld several incident reports. They tested my granddaughter for Pre-schoool and kindergarten, and I requested those records. They never responded or gave them to me. I'll be contacting the board of education and the state along with filing another complaint with the licensing department.. Because the owner runs an LLC, she thinks she doesn't have to follow and code of ethics. Every time I encountered the owner, she just told me how cute I was. Inappropriate conduct, in my opinion, it was strange. I could write a book about my experience. I know now, it's not about the bling they offer. It's about how they care for children. I will never look to another Youth Academy for proper, intelligent care for children. I found it to be an unknowledgable yell house. read more

Absolutely awful experience with this daycare. Had my newborn here once me and my wife went back to work. Went through the orientation and was read everything from payments to schedules. Basically, the whole nine yards then got hit with a random late fee of $10. Asked to talk to the director (the lady who gave us the orientation) ended up talking to another "director" about the late fee. She had no people skills and was extremely rude. Ended up just telling me that I should have read the contract when we went over the contract with the other "director". Needless to say, we were given incorrect information about the billing and potential late fees. Another amazing fee that was tacked on was a "water play" fee. We were told that every parent had to pay this fee. Mind you we had a newborn enrolled into this monstrosity of a daycare. Called and ask why we had to pay when our newborn should not be playing in the water. The director said they splash water on the newborn's legs. But I was trying to figure out how splashing water on a newborn's legs constituted a $50 water play charge. But what made that experience even better is they assumed they had permission to do that to my newborn without asking permission first. A couple months go by, and my child was moved an entirely different daycare facility (owned by the Youth Academy) located exit down I24 going towards Nashville without consideration of the already long travel that we were making. Turning a 20-minute drive into a 30-35. Unfortunately, this was the only daycare that had a slot, and I am GLAD we found another daycare. *** I Highly Advise Any Parent Reading This Please Say Yourself the Mental Headache And Try And Find A Different Daycare*** read more

Paid the school over 250 in fees and my son never ended up going to the school. Ms. Trish explained that she had an open door policy and could refund any weeks my son didn't attend. My son ended up not going to the school for even one day. Ms. Trish never took any of calls and after two weeks the receptionist let me know the bookkeeper refuses any refunds and will not be giving me a call back. I asked to leave a voicemail for the owner and was told he wouldn't speak to me. Terrible customer service. Never spoke to anyone other than sandy the receptionist. Would not recommend. read more

We love the youth academy! The front desk always is super sweet, anytime your kid gets hurt no matter how small they call to let you know. Mrs. McKenzie in room 12 is our sons teacher and she is so good to him and patient! We love her!! read more

I have been trying to enroll my child for weeks now and get paperwork filled out for THEM to get paid via a voucher. I checked back up on the status of that paperwork today only to be told I'd need to drive across town to see their bookkeeper who's apparently the only person within all Clarksville locations who could fill out a simple w9 and a form stating my child was in their care so they COULD GET PAID. I began driving down there when I missed a call and received a voice mail from Joyce in the infant and toddler room that stated due to the bookkeeper doing payroll that day she wouldn't be able to get to me until later in the afternoon. I tried to call back only to have the phone picked up and SLAMMED on the receiver TWICE. I called back a few more times giving the benefit of the doubt and left a message only to be ghosted. Utterly unprofessional, incompetent, and a waste of time. I'll be taking my child elsewhere because if I cannot trust them not to hang up on me, then I cannot trust them with my child's safety. DO BETTER. I see now that this establishment hides poor reviews to make them look better read more

i worked here for two months, they treat the kids like crap, they don't take care of the staff appropriately which makes staff not care. They do not pay nearly enough for the responsibilities but make parents pay an arm and a leg to enroll their children. The staff who watch the children get paid around 10$ hourly. 11 hour shifts. With up to 18 kids in a classroom. They've told staff on multiple occasions they're not worth more than 10$ hourly, but want to complain that they are low staffed. If they were to take care of the staff they have they wouldn't constantly be " low staffed". Nobody wants to work for a company that doesn't take care of them! I work to live, not live to work. It's very unprofessional and not well managed. Wouldn't recommend working and or enrolling your child. read more

Both of my kids have come to this daycare for the past 3 years. Recently my oldest stopped attending due to aging out and at first I was nervous to leave my youngest there as he is a type one diabetic and his sister wouldn't be there watching him too, noticing signs and symptoms. Yesterday 8/5/23 my son came off the bus from the first half day at school and wasn't feeling good. Something hit him all of a sudden. TYA made sure he was okay, noticed him throwing up (which is not like him) and called me right away. We picked him up right away thinking it was just a stomach bug and brought him home. A couple of hours later he got worse and ended up being admitted into Vanderbilt ICU with two respiratory viruses and DKA. The viruses attacked his body and immediately his life was in danger. The staff knows my son and knew something wasnt right and didn't hesitate and put it off as if it was nothing. I am beyond thankful for the way the staff moved quickly to call me knowing something was wrong. They are always willing to help monitor his blood sugar and call or text me with any concerns no questions asked! He is now home recovering & we are lucky to be able to say he is out of DKA!! (for those who don't know it can be very life threatening) So thank you staff at TYA we are very grateful that you always take such great care of our kiddos!!! read more

My personal experience in the beginning with this establishment was ok. It went down hill when I noticed a change in teachers every week and getting updates on DCS visits due to workers! We started at the Youth Academy in 2021. I placed a notice to remove my son from the facility (2 week notice is what was required). I did not send him the last three days because I could not trust what was going on. I received a statement stated that we owed payment. I tried to contact RACHEL the bookkeeping person (who obviously is the only one that handles the books) and I tried to contact owner Hope via email. They avoid your emails and calls. They are trying to charge me 10.00 every month since 2021 for late fee and no longer in contract with this establishment! Not to mention I was under the healthcare voucher during COVID. This was the SECOND time billing was incorrect on them! BEWARE DO NOT DEAL WITH THIS FACILITY ! read more

Last week I answered a woman on Clarksville Chat honestly on what I thought about the Youth Academy. The answer included positive and negatives. The following day my husband dropped off our son and when he picked him up, he was informed we were being expelled for my social media post. He was angry with me, signed the paper and left. It wasn't until he'd got home that I read the paper. We were expelled first and foremost for violating the social media policy, secondly for threatening and assault a toddler. I immediately thought back to the worse thing that had ever happened and that was four months prior when another child was assaulting my child and I blocked his hits. I did point at him and tell him not to do it. A few days later I learned it had nothing to do with that. The mother of an entirely separate boy in my child's room was told I assaulted her child on Friday, a day I was never there. She proceeded to take a screen shot of me and my child and post it on every local Facebook group with the caption of "Warning, this woman assaulted a child at the Youth Academy." The Youth Academy Director also bragged on two different places on social media that she sent the report to DCS. I was contacted by countless former employees on social media stating that the workers aren't allowed to say bad things about the children and two even said employees had taken children to where cameras couldn't see and had shaken, hit and yelled at them. The worse email which brought me to my knees was from the woman who worked directly in his room. She said she had to repeatedly hold my baby up out of this child's reach, the child I kept raising concerns about and the one who assaulted him one morning in front of me, she said if she put him down he would bite and hit him. My child was targeted. Every time I spoke to the front desk ladies about moving him, I was told no one saw anything but they would keep an eye out. I had two parents contact me telling me when they asked too many questions or pushed their child's safety too much they were lied about and expelled. They also pointed out the overwhelming number of positive reviews on social media and various review sites. Odd since my inbox filled with people supporting my experiences and I had two rebuttals on the thread who quickly backtracked when they heard the whole story and how little sense it makes. read more

The Youth Academy - Child Care & Day Care Near Me - Clarksville, Tennessee

See all

This establishment is definitely top notch but they do not allow ABA therapy to work with children who are on the spectrum. The reason given and quote was "it would interrupt the classroom". As an Autism mother that was truly heartbreaking to hear. This therapy is amazing and assist him to learn and do everything the other children are doing within the classroom. They could have given me a better reason. ASD community please do no waste you or time or money. read more

I knew as soon as I walked in one the first day of my children attending The Youth Academy, I was not going to like it. I tried over and over even after my Son was dismissed to be positive but, it just was not there. The Teachers were so impersonal, so unwelcoming, rude, and it just felt so cold. It took forever to get the kids signed in and get them to their room. Parents would be lined up trying to get their child in the door in the mornings (the system to get them checked in and out was time consuming) , there was not an app that was provided for you to get updates on your child through out the day. Even at pick up I never received how my child did that day, what they ate for breakfast, lunch, or snack, what they did, what they learned about. My one child went there for two weeks, and was dismissed. ( I understand) my other child however went there for about 3 months. I would pick her up in the "afternoon" room and even after 3 months the teachers in the room still did not know who I was or what child I was there to pick up. A child got out of the class room and ran down the hall and the teachers did not know he even left the room. I was in disbelief!!! Every single time I dropped off and picked up the teachers were sitting on their bottoms in chairs. Only one teacher would greet me at the door to drop off in the 3 year old room. She and Ms. Jackie were the nicest at that school. I absolutely could not wait to get in to another school. I am not usually a negative person, actually I am quite the opposite. Maybe this is why all the negative vibes I got from this school just crawled all over me. read more

Zero stars would be a better option. Had multiple issues before immediately withdrawing my child due to safety concerns. Based on my experience, I would not recommend this daycare. read more

I have had my son (who is now 2 1/2) with The Youth Academy since he was 6 weeks old. As a new mom, I scoured the internet and asked friends for recommendations. It is very hard to know who to trust and who to leave your child with especially at such a young age. I ended up choosing The Youth Academy and have been very happy with them ever since. I am due again in September and my second son will attend this daycare as well. read more

It's a difficult thing to hand over care of your child every day, but it's a little bit easier at the Youth Academy. As a parent to two under five and part of a military family, we have experienced our share of child care centers across several states. What has always set the Youth Academy apart from other centers is not only their commitment to quality care and education of my children, but also way they consistently treat parents with consideration, respect, and honesty. At every center I've been at, I've never doubted that my children were being well cared for, but I always felt as if I was at war with the teachers and administrators. At the Youth Academy, questions are welcome, and they really strive to make parents fully informed. They recognize that day care is not just wrapped up in care of the child, but is also about working in partnership with parents. read more

This place is HORRIBLE. I went in for a job interview scheduled at 1:00pm. I arrived at 12:45 and when I got there the lady at the front desk was extremely rude. She rudely insisted that I was late because the director in charge of my interview had just gone on lunch. When she called the director to let her know I was there she said to me "well your interview was not on her schedule so she's going to have to not have lunch today to come back" I waited 30 minutes for someone to get there to do my interview. I spent 30 minutes listening to two woman at the front desk gossiping rudely about me being there when "it wasn't on the schedule" and to top it all off the director never even showed up so the girl who did my "interview" just asked me a couple questions and sent me off. I was told I'd get a call from the director yesterday to schedule an actual interview and that never happened. Hugeeeee waste of my time! This place is so unprofessional and I hope no one considers working for them! read more

Many of the staff lack experience working with children and the director is rude and uncaring. They will not allow access to the video if you have a question about an incident and will be quick to kick your child out for any reason, no matter how many years your child has attended. They are unwilling to work towards helping your child even if the emotional distress is due to a new teacher in the classroom and the child had no prior issues with other staff. read more

The Youth Academy: I once admired this facility, the facility that my four year old enjoyed and always talked about his friends being at. However, after recent events, this facility particularly the Director and the Owner have shown their true colors behind their outrageous fabricated lies and deceit. The Director in particular who after some reflection of my own seems to have a personal vendetta against me after I expressed that I did not want my child participating in lead prayer in class. After a recent misunderstanding that got resolved we were welcomed back with open arms from the owner, that was taken away when we picked our son up. They fabricated false accusations and lie after lie in order to terminate my child from their program. We have praised them and donated toys to this facility only to get treated the way we have. They claimed we made calls to other parents to remove their children which is outrageous considering that we do not know or have any friendships or phone numbers of other parents. It is counterproductive and illogical to engage in such activity for us. The treatment and deceit we have received from the Director and Owner is ineffable. We have also bitten our tongues when observing how certain teachers scold and yell at the children they we they do during class, to the point of feeling uncomfortable dropping my child off at times, but I gave the benefit of the doubt because I thought they were such a great place at the time. Do not trust this facility please. I wish their was more space and time to express the whole story and paint an appropriate picture for what is going on, but unfortunately I cannot. read more

This establishment does not notify parents when their child/children have been hurt. If your child gets hurt and they think it's not a big deal, they do not notify nor do they write an accident report on the incident. I would not recommend this child care establishment to anyone. If you want your child to be in a safe environment where you'll know what is happening, this is not the place. Some of the teachers are great but all together this establishment does not follow protocol on many different things. It is not a place to rely on to make sure your child/children are safe and in good hands. read more

Some of the teachers here were great. That's the first thing I want to say. However, this place has some improvements to do especially with hiring truly experienced child care providers. A very young teacher, who I had coincidentally seen before speeding through the parking lot when arriving to work and always had an attitude problem, called Child Services on me because my child plays and had bruises, bumps, abrasions on her legs. My child is a very active child, so yes, has boo boos, but very typical boos boos. Of course it was filed as unfounded and if someone really suspects child abuse Child Services should absolutely be called. However, there is a difference between normal kid "wear and tear" and abuse and child care providers should know the difference. I was pregnant, my husband was deployed, attending school, and at that time sick as a dog with pneumonia. Getting Child Services called on me and getting a forever record really didn't help out at all. There are even pictures of my child's bare back side in that forever file and that bothers me, but there's nothing I can do about that. If you call Child Services unnecessarily, then you waste their time on the cases they really should be seeing. Hopefully that teacher is gone, but beware of getting Child Services called on you, especially if your kid plays and gets boo boos from time to time, and also be careful in the parking lot. The management did not handle this well in my opinion, but maybe over time and after I leave this, they may improve especially with hiring properly educated teachers. Overall, just beware. I, personally, will never give them another dime. So, fair warning. read more

This establishment does not follow standards for Tennessee Daycare. I have seen them on a few occasions scurry to get things in order for their state visit. Some of these things included sending kids home sick the day before the visit so they would not be over ratio, taking wheels off of moving carts, moving furniture that is dangerous to the children out of rooms, hiding various toys that are not regulation. In addition, they want all parents to think everyday was perfect, I have been told they will not report a if a child had a bad day, time out unless it was a very serious incident. On the other hand, they will not report if your child was injured unless it is a major injury. They are very much run by money motivated owners. I have had direct contact with the owner Hope and she would not take a phone call or conference with my regarding an issue I had with my son being put in time out in the bathroom. I believe the lack of professionalism and avoidance of this inquiry is very questionable. Very disappointing for "high end" daycare. Please do not trust your child is safe at this institution. read more