We have been at the Ankeny location for 7+ years. They have become family to us! The teachers are…read moreso loving and care deeply about the kiddos! Highly recommended!!

We had been taking our kids to Little Endeavors since 2018. It is extremely unfortunate that our…read moreexperience has turned so negative. Before I get to the recent negative experiences, let me first share that the pros of Little Endeavors (Ankeny). The facility is a good size and includes both an adequate space for use as an in-door gym and good age-appropriate equipment. As for teachers, there are good (Denise, Allie, Maggie, Peg), and there are bad ones (which I will not name). Until a month or so ago, the list of pros included the amazing director (Sara), which really set this daycare center apart from the others. Since her departure, the pros have not outweighed the cons for us (which includes an annual tuition increase), so we decided to leave Little Endeavors. 1. Three minutes before drop off/center opening, we were notified that three classrooms would be closed for the day due to staff shortages. Three minutes! This forced us and other families having to find alternative care at the drop of a hat before we could go to work. 2. Also due to staff shortages, they reduced the center hours by up to two hours for weeks, causing obvious impact to families and work schedules. There were some other minor things that just started adding up that I won't go into detail here, but all of this to say that we felt it best for our family to leave for a more dependable, affordable daycare center. So, we put in our notice on a Wednesday, which gave two weeks of what our youngest (oldest no longer attends daycare) would have been at the center. We were aware of the two week notice policy, which states, "....A two-week written notice is required for families wishing to terminate our services. Failure to provide notification in writing will result in being charged for the two weeks." Since the policy does not provide a definition of a week (calendar week? week of services?) AND because the new director did not give any notice of two-week policy infringement upon confirmation of receipt of our termination request, we were completely blindsided by being charged for a third week of services (for the week after our youngest's last day at the center)! Thinking it was a clerical error initially, we emailed the new director asking for a correction. From then, it has been back and forth with different reasonings and information. First, she said that since we notified on a Wednesday, that the two-week policy would get us to two calendar weeks (another Wednesday), and in her explanation she made it sound like had we notified her one day earlier, then we would not have been charged at all (because our youngest was not attending Little Endeavors on Mondays or Tuesdays). Later, she said that they run their billing cycle on Mondays, so we would to have notified before Monday...like, what? She said that she consulted the General Manager, which also felt that they were justified according to this unclear policy in charging us for a third week! We even looked to compromise; if they would refund us for the two of the three days, then we would consider the matter resolved. That was over a week ago. On top of all of that, the same Parent Handbook that references this two-week policy also states that the initial deposit will be used for final week at Little Endeavors: "This security deposit will be applied to your account balance the last week(s) you are in the center." This was NOT done. So, we had to pay three weeks for our full tuition, meaning we were charged for an extra week AND our deposit was not used. AS OF 12/02, WE HAVE NOT RECEIVED OUR DEPOSIT REFUND! As a business, if your policy is unclear, you do not give appropriate notice, and you give the wrong information, that is considered a mistake (or a few). An ethical business will fix their mistakes. To the families that send their kids to Little Endeavors - GOOD LUCK! And be sure to read the nonexistent fine print. Needless to say, I am glad that I am no longer giving my money to Little Endeavors and its unethical business practices.