Action Day Schools - Lincoln - San Jose, California

Alex C

I’ve had my daughter at Action Day Lincoln for over 18 months now and I have nothing but good things to say. She started in infant care with Ms. Karla, and for a new mom who was hurting over having to leave my girl with anyone, we could not have gotten a better teacher. From day one we got delightful notes about what she did with her day, and they were so caring and attentive. She eventually moved up as she developed (I really appreciate that the classrooms are divided on a developmental basis) and now is in the preschool. She’s had amazing teachers and teacher friends along the way like Ms. Hutaf, Ms. Yahaira, Ms. Marissa, and Ms. Stephanie. Now that they’ve upgraded to a digital report card system, we get photos almost every day, and I get to see her playing with her very first friends. I also need to give a shout out to all the adorable art projects she gets to do, the camp-like fun they have over the summer months, as well as all the amazing things she learns. My kid is still shocking me on nearly a daily basis with all she learns at school. It’s way more than I’d ever be able to do with her at home, and I’m so glad I get to send her somewhere with the expertise and resources to provide those learning opportunities for her.

Stephen Hannah

SUMMARY - Although the teachers and directors are great people, there are business decisions that are keeping the school under resourced and stretching the teachers too thin, which is affecting the learning environment and psychological safety of the children negatively.

Feedback for the school:
The teachers at Action Day preschool seem under resourced and burned out. This is likely because there are certain business margins that must be maintained. Unfortunately this is leading to systemic problems across the organization.

The directors and teachers are doing the best they can, but the teachers seemingly have high attrition and stress/burnout levels because the organization needs to keep margins and won’t add more teachers, more breaks, higher pay/benefits, or more resources for the teachers.

From my observation this is clear in 2 areas leading to the following (avoidable) outcome:

1) the class ratios are too high
2) teachers aren’t getting enough breaks

Outcome/This leads to: teachers aren’t getting enough support - ie there should be more teachers/floaters and teachers should be paid significantly more money. (For example: consider a $10 an hour raise for all teachers). This burnout/stress impacts the care the children receive. Ultimately, we’re finding a new preschool for two reasons:

1) the teachers and directors are really great and are trying their best. But the teachers seem too stressed and stretched to give more care, attention, and teaching to the kids. Again, this is not the fault of the teachers or the directors. It is an impossible situation they are working within and this is the fault of the owners due to how they are running the business.

2) it seems like the environment is a tinderbox just waiting to have a regrettable situation occur. Although nothing happened to my child, multiple complaints against the preschool and daycare license occurred while we were there. These were clearly occurring because the teachers were stretched too thin. Again, not the fault of the teachers or directors, but in the owners. My heart breaks for the lovely teachers and directors getting worked into the ground by this organization.

Hayleigh Bueno

I gave this a 5-star ratings but because of2 teachers. My son learned so much from Ms. Michelle and Ms. Taj, who deserve top praise for their teaching and genuine care for students. However, be cautious of the administration. I felt judged by Shimriti, who seemed biased and only valued her own culture. If you're not of Indian descent, you not your child may not matter to her. This should not be how you run a school. Especially as a manager of a preschool. A few times I observed my son and other students being left out on a book and only a certain culture students were being read to. I observed this firsthand and removed my son from the school earlier than I wanted to. They need to be non-biased for our children's sake, especially in their first year of learning.', 'I'm sharing my honest experience. Shimriti's and a few others behavior towards me and my son felt judgmental and biased. As first time parent, it was disheartening to see. I felt judged and unwelcomed. She and a few others seem to prioritize their own culture. I hope the school works on creating a more inclusive environment for everyone.' All students from different backgrounds deserve to be loved and cared for.

Michelle Wiebracht

We love Action Day! Our children have had a wonderful experience on both the infant and preschool side. Maria, Kim, Davyna, and Monica have all been so kind, and it's clear they are truly getting to know each individual child and how to work with them best. I appreciate their dedication, and ability to be warm and loving, but also provide structure. The classrooms always feel friendly, lively and fun, but balanced with calm and order. I feel confident that my children in an environment where they can explore and gain confidence.

Tiffanie N

Action Day has been a great growth start for our kids. Our older attended preschool 3-5 and his teachers were amazing and incredibly supportive. Our daughter is in the younger 2's class and her teachers, Miss Crystal and Miss Shareen are such a blessing. They are both wonderful with her, patient, and you can tell they truly love what they do and care about the kid's growth and development. The communication is always open and helpful. Thank you!

DeLinda Yatskevich

I love everything about this school and specifically the staff at this location. My daughter and son have both gone through the program. Great mix of fun, loving staff, and learning. It was a great prep for kinder and public school.

Anne Uy Cutaran

Action Day Schools (including West Valley Dance) have been instrumental for my kiddos development! This location in particular have been great for my little one - the support they've been getting from each development phase is tremendous.

At first, of course, there were some hesitations and separation anxiety but Ms. Jonalyn (our initial teacher) has made my little one at ease from day 1. She's so welcoming and caring and the teachers in her room has been supportive as well. They would send me pictures of fun activities they do.

When we graduated to the next room, Ms. Hutaf and Ms Daksha are so lovely to work with. They love getting to know our little one. The rest of the teachers in this room are as nice and caring.

My little one has developed routine and socialization skills. I am so excited to see more!

I love getting feedback from all teachers and hearing about their day - whether my little one has a fussy or happy day!

Vaishali H

Our son went to the action day care infant care center and preschool both. Our experience with infant care was amazing. Infant center director Ms. Diana and all the teachers were really good. They used to have planned activities for kids. However, when our son turned two and shifted to preschool it was very different. There have been many issues.
1. The first issue which I would like to highlight at first is about their irresponsible act towards our son who is severely allergic. On the last day when we were leaving the daycare, we went to collect his emergency medications and EpiPen which was given to school in case he encounters a severe allergic reaction where he can be anaphylactic. The school was not able to find his medication, we were scared thinking what if it would have been an emergency situation where he needs his EpiPen right away. We were really upset and thought the decision of leaving this daycare was so right
2. We haven't seen them reading books for kids or following the fancy curriculum which they shared with us.
3. They have an app to track the daily progress, but we never received a video or photos of our son doing any activities. We used to be so excited to see how his day was going but they never updated it. Probably they were not taking any activities except the DANCE PARTY. Every other day his activities used to state ‘DANCE PARTY'. seriously? Since they could not engage kids in any kind of activities, they just used to turn on the loud music and we have seen kids just getting bored with not doing anything interesting there.
4. As per the norm they should be informing us if the kid is not eating anything or absolutely refusing to eat. One day from 9-5 our son did not eat anything, and he was starving the entire day but nobody cared to inform us. I checked his lunch box was untouched and that’s when I reached out to the director, she was in disbelief since as per the school policy she needs to be also informed if kid is refusing to eat anything but teachers were so casual about it that nobody informed her and later she called us and apologized to us which was of no use because as a mother my heart just sank thinking about he was starving the whole day. We could have picked him up early and fed him something.
5. One day I saw the other kid was beating my son with sand toys on his eyes, face and head, I waited for some time to see if teachers were going to interrupt the kid but none of the teachers were paying attention. Kids are bound to fight but it’s the teachers responsibility to teach them the right things. Another incident where our son cut his lips and was bleeding badly but the teachers said we do not know how he fell down. That was not acceptable.
6. The 9B room was very small and congested while the other classroom 9A was big and spacious. In this classroom whenever we used to drop or pickup our son, it used to be so overcrowded and claustrophobic though we were paying the same fees as the other classroom kids.
7. I used to see kids mouthing the toys a lot there and our son was falling sick every other week. None of the teachers were interested in stopping kids doing that. Kids listen to teachers more than their parents.
When we talked to our friends, we realized that this is not the way daycares are supposed to operate and hence decided to move our son.
The place where he is going now is so much better and when everyday we look at his activities, videos and photos, we feel bad that he missed so much learning when he was at the action day care. He already started writing letters, started learning music & instruments and he mentions about various story books which teachers reads to them everyday. He started communicating better about his day to us. He made friends there. All this has happened in just 4 weeks.
Overall we feel teachers are loving and caring but the fees which they are charging is comparatively very high than the other daycares but the exposure that the kids are getting for learning/activities/communication is absolutely zero.