Berkeley, CA
A Brighter Today

Discipline

OVERALL RATING (5.0)

Parents at this school, on average, believe that conflicts between children:
...are handled extraordinarily well in a way that not only gives me confidence in the safety of my child but also reassures me that my child (and his/her peers) are learning the early skills needed to socialize effectively with one another

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Director's Description to School's Approach to Discipline

Re-direction, discussion of feelings, and child appropriate techniques, depending on condition. For example, children with conditions in the autism spectrum would have a structured regimen of positive reinforcement and sensitivity to over stimulation. From interview with director 3/15/06

Parents' Notes on Discipline, Health and Safety

Parent #1
The school is located in the basement of a church. The church has provided a restroom just for the school. It is in emaculate condition, always cleans and with plenty of supplies. The outside play equipment is very enjoying and spacy. There is tons of room inside since there are two seperate rooms with different stations/ areas for children to roam around in.

Parent #2
Shortly after our son began with ABT in mid-2007 the program experienced a series of staff changes, for a variety of personal and professional reasons, which caused us to monitor the program's "fit" with our needs, values, and style more closely. I am pleased to say that our son continues to thrive at ABT, and the program handled the multiple transitions with sensitivity to both the children's and their parents needs. Things have stabilized more recently and the program seems to be hitting its stride as the staff and the program find their niche. The biggest "pluses" we find with ABT are the low staff-to-child ratio (1:4), which helps the staff to form a personal relationship with our child, and the integration of medically fragile children in the program, which has encouraged our "typically developing" son's empathy and appreciation for people's differences. Historically, there are frequently foreign preschoolers in the program, primarily as a result of the proximity to the UC Berkeley campus (convenient to visiting scholar families), which brings further diversity to the program. Our son is counting in multiple languages (english, spanish, norwegian, farsi/persian, german,...)and learns his alphabet in english, braille, and sign language. The pace of our son's development and his excitement at "going to school" (he *runs* into the school each day) are our best evidence that this is a successful preschool program. The primary disadvantage of ABT from our perspective is really an aspect of the location rather than the program itself -- ABT is located on the site of an old elementary school, so the playground is not toddler-oriented. The program has created a safe, enclosed outside play area, but it is not as rich an outside environment for "free play" as you might find in other preschool settings.

Parent #3
I think the health of the children to be most important especailly since they have a few children with extra needs. they are very clean and sanitary, I always see the puzzles drying out from being washed the day before witch I really appricate as a parent

Parent #4
The day care is housed in a Berkeley Unified School District building. There are limitations on what ABT can do to the site.

Health

OVERALL RATING (4.9)
Temperature and overall air circulation is comfortable
Healthy and nutritious snacks are provided
Toys and furniture are cleaned regularly

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Safety

OVERALL RATING (4.7)
Screen and identify all visitors
Parents may not bring sick children to school where they may infect others

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