I put my two year old child in a KinderCamp Academy, a daycare facility, between August and September of 2000. During the 6 weeks that she was there my wife and I and our after school daycare provider all noticed the same things:

1. The facility was dirty. There was food and dirt in the carpet and on the chairs and tables. Perhaps the cleaning staff called in sick… several days in a row…
2. The staff don't pay adequate attention to the needs of the individual child. At one point my child had a runny nose. Not bad, but runny. When my daycare provider showed up to pick her up, she had snot all over her face. What's the problem here? Can't someone pick up a tissue and wipe the child's face? In fact, my child knows how to blow her own nose and is rather fastidious about it. Why weren't there tissues available at the very least?
3. The facility wasn't secured properly. On two different occasions, when picking up my daughter, I went in, signed her out, picked her up and left, and no one noticed or said a word to me. On two occasions my wife picked her up and there were people there that my wife didn't recognize, that didn't ask her who she was, and didn't bother to check to see if she was someone authorized to pick up my daughter. My after school daycare provider reported the same thing. I'm convinced that anyone could walk in there, pick up any kid, and walk out the front door without so much as a hey-who-are-you!!
4. And the kicker: After my wife and I compared notes with our after school daycare provider, we pulled our daughter out of the facility, alarmed and insistent that we receive a refund. Not only did we not receive a refund, but Mr. Camp threatened to put our account in collection if we didn't cough up an additional two weeks of tuition.

My warning to all parents in the Manteca area is this: don't leave your child at KinderCamp Academy. Even if they've improved their facility enough to show well, once you've signed on, no amount of concern on your part is going to be enough for them to deal with you in good faith. I told Mr. Camp I'd be sure to tell everyone I came across just how deficient his service was, and his main concern in replying was that I send him the two weeks tuition. At no point did he show any concern about having happy customers and he didn't convince me that he was particularly worried about the bad press. He just wanted the $130. Period.

So… fair enough. I sent him the check. And now I'm warning everyone I can not to put their child at risk for disease from the filth, injury due to lack of supervision, or danger of abduction due to lack of adequate security procedures. This warning is based on my observations, my wife's observations, and the observations of my after school daycare provider. Not that any of this first person evidence impressed Mr. Camp, but I hope it impresses the parents of Manteca to put their children in better facilities than this.