La Petite Academy on S. Cinnamon Ridge Place, Sioux Falls | Fees, Rankings, Address, Admission, Vacancies, Reviews & More

I worked here for 3 months, & it was hands down the WORST 3 months of my life.
First, I know it’s a daycare, & children are so prone to spread germs, but I had NEVER spent so many days sick from a job before this! There were very strict rules on when we could send children home, which only spread whatever illness a sick child had to more children & the staff.
Second, the management was terrible. The director was very immature with staff, & also made numerous racial comments to people of color. I put in a generous two week’s notice, & before I could notify the parents of the children I watched daily, I was notified a week early to not come back. This was heart wrenching for me, because I built such a strong bond with some of the kids & had hoped that I would be able to offer myself as a babysitter!
Third, the paychecks were always off. I tracked my hours consistently, & they would be changed on the time card. There were numerous staff I became friends with at this job, & they also all agreed. They were SEVERELY understaffed when I worked there, so I would come early, stay late, & take short breaks. I was told that we were required to take AT LEAST 30 minutes of our one hour allotted break time. I would always comply with that, & somehow my time card always said I took an hour break. If I would come early, that time would also be changed if my time card would reach 40 hours for the week (which was almost always).
Fourth, in the 3 months I worked there, I cannot even COUNT the amount of people who quit. This was never even questioned by the higher ups.
Fifth, there were numerous instances where abuse was suspected by other staff & it was reported to management.
There was one specific occurrence where another staff sent me & another staff member a picture of a child in nothing but a diaper half way pulled off. Management saw the picture, & confronted the staff who sent the photo, but nothing else happened.
There was another instance where a child was upset, & a staff member brought the child to my room. The staff member told me the outburst was due to the child not taking a nap prior in the day. The child was dangling, as the staff member held nothing but the child’s wrist. The child screamed and kicked. I was able to calm the child enough to sit on my lap, but the child shook as the child watched the staff on the other side of the room.
I have so many horror stories from this facility, & am sad to say that none of these parents are aware. The staff from these two stories still are employed there to this day, & have children of their own. Every occurrence I witnessed was reported to management, & also to CPS. La Petite on Cinnamon Ridge is NOT a good place, & Audra Shelton needs to be fired.

Our family relocated to South Dakota and were excited for our children to begin childcare at La Petite Academy, just blocks from where we planned to purchase a home. Due to an extremely competitive housing market, we were unable to locate a home in our desired area and purchased on the opposite side of town.

We notified La Petite with generous notice that we, unfortunately, were forced to establish alternative childcare arrangements in closer proximity to our new residence and requested our $731 deposit be returned. Pursuant the apparent wait list we were on for our children’s initial placements, La Petite has ample backlog to fill our children’s openings without suffering damages (especially with generous notice). La Petite will not cooperate and refund our deposit for no apparent reason other than greed and proceeded to state “this is your PENALTY for not taking your commitment to La Petite seriously” implying malice, which certainly was never our intention.

If you have alternate childcare options, I encourage you to avoid La Petite.