The Goddard School of Rock Hill (Webster Groves)

This is an excellent school for a child of any age. We were selecting a school for our 3-year old 2 years ago. We went through a lot of child care centers and were stunned how clean and well organized Goddard was. Our daughter spent two very happy years in Goddard and learned so much. She completely loves being in this school. Class size is perfect and school is extremely safe. Ms. Jody does an excellent job running the school . Ms. Lindsey does an excellent job as Director (with the help of Ms. Kelen and Ms. Lacey of course). Teacher turnover is very small and my daughter has had the same few teachers since she has been there (Ms. Katie, Ms. Amanda and Ms. Heather are the best ever!!!). Social development and learning through play is exceptional. Not a single complaint, only positive remarks.

When I was four months pregnant (Jan 2012), I inquired about how long the wait list was for infant care. I was told that a spot would likely be available for my child by June 2013 (17 months later). Based on that information, I decided to pay the deposit as a backup plan - in case we ended up unhappy with where we did end up sending our daughter. I never would have wasted my money though if I had known that was not an accurate representation of the wait list - at a minimum we are looking at 29 months!!!!



Today, I received my first call ever from the Goddard School - Rick Hill. They were calling to update our wait list info from 2 years ago!!! When I pressed about when a spot would actually be available she vaguely said "maybe sometime this year - spots could open up in the 2 y old room". That is at a minimum an entire YEAR later than they told me when they gladly took my deposit money and completely misrepresented the expected date of an open spot. Based on this misrepresentation, I asked that my deposit be returned. Pretty ridiculous that they still maintain that the deposit is non-refundable when after 2 years there is still no foreseeable spot available. By the time a child is over 2 years old the options for child care open up dramatically - seems like a bait and switch to accept deposits for infant care when no spot will be available for 29 months (at a minimum!) at which time - you have many other good options.



I would recommend prospective parents take a look at Webster Child Care Center. As a non-profit (as opposed to the for profit that Goddard is) they have better student teacher ratios in their classrooms for slightly less tuition. Our experience there has been amazing! They also accurately represented their wait list.