Children Have Fun

My grandson was bitten twice this week. Then there was a child in his class with a very contagious medical issue. Both kids are still in school now.
This matter doesn't involve any service product.

My son attended Children of America for ten weeks during this past summer (he has attended this provider since 2013). I was billed a full tuition rate of $198.10/week for 8 weeks, and $188.10 for two weeks, totaling $1,961.I paid a total of $1,662 out of pocket, and was also credited $299 in August for a active duty child care subsidy program called Child Care Aware, to bring me to a ZERO dollar balance at the end of the ten weeks of care.Children of America received a TOTAL of $1,243 (which they have confirmed, and I am able to verify) for my son's ten weeks of care.Of the $1,243 they received, subtract $299 that was credited to my account in August, and that leaves $944. The provider refunded me $483.21 on Aug. 23rd, bringing the total amount of child care subsidy excess to $460.79.The provider is refusing to refund my family the difference of $460.79, as they are claiming I should have been billed a higher amount that what my "Rate Agreement and Policies" contractually locks us into. I have a complete ledger from the provider showing billed amounts by week, payments made by my family by week, and a total account balance of ZERO dollars. I also have bank statements showing the ACH payments being made from my checking account to coincide with the ledger. I also have emails from both Nicholas Bach of Child Care Aware and Children of America confirming three separate checks (complete with dates issued/mailed, and check numbers for tracking purposes)were in fact received and deposited by Children of America which total $1,243. I have the "Rate Agreement and Policies" legal document to show what rate my family and I agreed to pay Children of America for weekly child care services.I have provided all of this to the provider and they simply tell me that I should have been billed a higher amount that the weekly rate of $198.10 (per our signed, written, legally binding agreement), and refuse to refund me the overpayment by Child Care Aware of $460.79.
Product_Or_Service: child care services

Daycare staff mistreated my children. We withdrew them within 3 weeks without signing an agreement. Now they're threatening me with collections.
My wife and I enrolled our two children (ages 2 and 4) in daycare at the Children of America located in Clementon, NJ on 10/24/2017. During our initial tour of the facility, we were quoted a rate of around (I forget the exact figure) $390 per week by the management there. On the second day of my children's attendance we were presented with a Rate Agreement form in the amount of $430/week. When we asked about the discrepancy, we were told the original quote was from a director that was departing, and it could not be honored.

We declined to sign the agreement and were allowed by the local office to continue bringing in our children while we made a partial payment and disputed the increase with the corporate office. We ultimately withdrew our children on 11/9/17 after witnessing multiple instances of mistreatment of our 2-year-old by his teacher. Out of the 13 business days in in the period from 10/24 through 11/9, they attended fewer than half of those 13 days due to contracting bronchitis during their first few days under the care of COA.

During the handful of days my children actually attended daycare at COA, my wife and I watched the live feed of the security cameras in our children's classrooms (available for an extra fee). We witnessed our two-year-old son's teacher lift him up to her own shoulder height by his wrist, forcefully impact his chest into the table with a chair out of frustration, handle him immediately after wiping her nose with her bare hands, serve him and other children food after changing a diaper and without washing her hands, and repeatedly *** his security blanket out of his hands and place it up out of his reach. Furthermore, she lied to us in his daily report about what/how much he ate, telling us he ate "some" of his meal when in fact he neither ate nor drank a thing.

(After our withdrawal, I reported all of this to the NJ Department of Children and Families, and while some of these behaviors were not repeated in the presence of the DCF inspector, others were. The report is available here: http://www.nj.gov/dcf/families/childcare/centers/XXXXXXXXXnov2017CS.pdf )

After making two complaints about the problem teacher to the local office's management, we were told our son would be moved out of her classroom. But the following day as we watched the cameras, he was still in the offending teachers class. At this point, we felt the need to immediately withdraw our children from COA. We spoke to local management about our frustrations, and were told that considering the circumstances, we would not be penalized additional fees for withdrawing our children without two weeks' notice, and that our remaining balance would be dropped.

On 11/10/17 I sent the office an email to follow up in writing about our intent to immediately withdraw our children from COA. In the three months that followed, I did not receive any communication whatsoever from COA, including emails, phone calls, letters, statements, or bills. Then, on 2/28/18, I received an email from COA stating that I had two weeks to pay them $1141.99, or the amount would be turned over to a collections agency. I replied to that email with my concerns and did not receive a response.

To this day, there has never been a signed rate agreement between myself and COA. I requested a copy of the agreement form from the local facility, and I can produce the document to show that my signature is not present, and that the rate and terms were not agreed to.