CCLC at Piscataway

This place is awful. They pretended to have a summer camp last summer, where I enrolled 2 of my nieces visiting from abroad. 1-​they forgot to check and copy their foreign immunization/​health record. 2-​they don’t have a proper billing system, so I received incorrect bills MONTHS after the girls went back to their home country. When I asked them how to solve this, they didn’t even know where to direct me or who I should speak to. A complete mess over there. PLUS, there were some days when the girls would spend 7 – 8 hours a day coloring. What kind of summer camp is that? After the first week, the girls has to bring their own food because the food options there were SO UNHEALTHY. Pancakes, french fries, frozen food, etc. This is not the place to go if you want your child to be intellectually stimulated by qualified staff!

I have two children who both went through CCLC starting at 7 months and 2 months. My eldest child is now 7 years old! The time did fly. My youngest is now 4 years old.
I chose CCLC 7 years ago after seeing a variety of daycares. At the time, I was wait listed for 9 months, but as soon as the space was available, I transferred my child in. It has been the best decision I ever made.
CCLC has been an asset is helping me raise my children. The caregivers have always treated the children as if they are their own. When I have had any concerns, they have always been prompt in addressing them.
The children have always been closely monitored. The care of my children have never been in question and they have always kept the children safe. The always informed me of any issues that may have arised. The open door policy has kept my worries under control. I have stopped in many times over the years to check on my children and it has always helped me feel confident that my children were doing well.
Although I felt that the education my children were receiving was adequate, I did pay extra for the phonic and math programs because I felt that it would help overall in my childrens’ education and it did pay off. The one on one teaching helped my eldest child enter first grade in a regular school prepared and ahead of his peers.
Two days ago, I walked in unexpectedly and was able to quietly observe the teacher work with my youngest, giving him one on one attention on some matter he was working on, but not at the expense of the other childrens’ education.
I have truly come to respect the caregivers and the institution of CCLC. I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a caring and top notch daycare center for their children.

My son has been a student at CCLC Piscataway since early September. My experience with the center is the polar opposite of the negative review that currently exist here on Unilocal.
Granted, it is possible our experiences may have differed because my son is in a different class (step up, one younger than toddler) and he is attending part time (2 – 3 days /​week). Also I think each parent comes to a childcare center with a different set of expectations.
From day zero, when we visited CCLC to take a tour, my son, who has never been to a daycare before, loved his class at CCLC. There was a period between his week 3 – 4 that he fussed during drop off, but that didn’t last. He actually starts clapping his hands with joy as we pull into the parking lot. I am a firm believer that the best day care is the one your kid loves the most, and for that reason, I think CCLC is a good choice for us.
Teachers he has at CCLC are as loving as can be. They are respectful to the kids and parents, and cautious of special needs such as food allergies. They are welcoming to me when I drop by to breastfeed my kid in the middle of the day, or when I want to spend an extra 15 – 20 minutes during drop off or pick up, to play with my kid. For the longest time my kid fought naps and they even found a solution for that, which worked for both them and my son. Even when I show up unannounced I have never ever seen my son or any classmate of his alarmingly upset.
Their care for my kid’s hygiene has been superb. My son has incredibly sensitive skin and not once he got a rash, so they must be very cautious with diapering.
I like giving credit where it’s due. So far I am happy with cclc as my child care choice.

The other review from last week is SPOT on! I chose CCLC because my son is two and we couldn’t get him into the Livingston Daycare Center despite being on the waitlist for a year. I chose CCLC even though I liked other centers more because CCLC was accredited. This is the single worst parenting decision I ever made.
The teachers in the toddler rooms don’t have much control over the classes. There is a primary teacher, but the secondary teachers are ALWAYS changing. No joke, I saw 8 different people in my son’s room at drop off and pick up in less than one month. I spent two half days with him when he first started and saw five different secondary teachers. How is a child supposed to adjust to that many different people? Before we pulled him out, I sat down with the director and addressed this as a concern. She lied to my face, telling me the secondary teachers don’t change.
I should have gotten a clue on his third day when I saw the lunch teacher (who was filling in as a secondary teacher) pick a crying child up by his arm (in what I think of as «walmart style») and drag/​carry him across the room. I also saw the same person put children in chairs (for time out?) a little harder than I was comfortable with.
The primary teacher is almost always occupied, changing diapers, getting lunch ready, or getting an activity together. This means even though the ratio for toddlers should be 6:1 it’s really like 11:1 or more. More than once in the month they cared for my child the ratio was over 6:1, which is against NJ state regulation.
The most they do to make new kids feel welcome is sing «where is name, where is name.» My son is the most easy-​going child I know. It usually takes him less than an hour to warm up to new people. While, I expected the transition to be difficult I didn’t expect what I got, which was a hysterical toddler EVERY morning and afternoon for a month. He started crying in the parking lot before we even went in. This is a child who has been in daycare since he was 10 weeks old. I don’t know what they were doing when I wasn’t there, but I don’t feel good about it. On his second day at the new center, he wasn’t crying when he saw me at pick up.
I’ll be the first to admit my son can be difficult with napping, but they stopped trying. He needs to nap, but the most they ever had him sleep for is 20 minutes and that only happened two or three times. Most days he had no nap at all. At his new center, he naps every day for at least 30 minutes, which I verified through a watch me go surveillance system I can log on to from work.
The lunches were gross, microwavable processed crap.
The toys were not washed regularly.
The curriculum is terrible. My son didn’t learn anything in the month he was there. His teacher wrote, «x» learned to count today. My son learned to count four months before he started at that center.
Also, expect to be nickel and dimed, EVERYTHING you would want for your child costs extra. Basic music is extra. Basic phonics is extra. Classes with animals are extra. At our new center, a sign language teacher, spanish teacher, music teacher and sports teacher are INCLUDED. They also have extra services, but they’re actually extra (piano lessons, specific sports training). The tuition is also ridiculous. With a discount from Rutgers and a discount for automatic debit was still over $ 1200 a month. We signed a contract with one tuition rate, then got a letter on his third week that tuition would go up starting ⁹⁄₁. We started him on ⁸⁄₆ and the letter was dated ⁸⁄₁. Why didn’t they notify me when I signed him up?
Their outside area is terrible. Also, on one of the half days I spent there they found a giant bug in his classroom.
My son came home with scrapes all over his hand. Even though the teacher said he «fell» outside, I’m relatively certain they slammed his hand in a door, because it didn’t look like scrapes from a fall.
I picked him up early on his last day. I smelled a dirty diaper, but assumed it was another child. When I got in my car, I realized it was my son, so I pulled over to change him. From the looks of that diaper he had been sitting in a poopy diaper for at least an hour. They also didn’t give me the diaper cream we provided, despite only having it applied to twice. They went through nearly 500 wipes in 3.5 weeks. I’m still not sure how that happened.
They sent him home for a «rash» once. His «rash» was a flush from being hot on a 90+ degree day. I picked him up and it disappeared after 15 minutes of being in my air conditioned office. Even my doctor thought that was ridiculous.
Do not be fooled by this center, look elsewhere. We voluntarily lost over a thousand dollars to pull him out immediately, because they still needed 30 days written notice despite all of the problems (including borderline child abuse) we had with them. Losing that money was hard, but I wouldn’t send my child back there for anythin