Bright Horizons at Bothell

We’ve been sending my toddler here for about 6 months now and we love, love, love it!! The teachers have been here a long time, the place is brightly lit and has lots of windows, the curriculum is great... the love and attention my child gets is amazing. He’s really thriving in this environment and learning so much!! The teachers rock!! He’ll be here till he’s ready for school and soon my baby will also go here.

Great education, wonderful teachers and very nice facility. They are great about teaching children independence and curiosity about the world. Lots of outside entertainment like the library bus, music teachers, magicians, etc. Having had experience with three other daycares I can say this one is top notch.

Staff did a great job and my son loved it - still asks to go back weeks later.

This place has been amazing for my son, who was born prematurely. The only reason why I do not like it is because it is incredibly expensive. I'm talking $30k or more! If you can afford to spend an arm and a leg, do it. The teachers love the children, they communicate with you regularly.

Update: adding a star to the rating in gratitude to Bright Horizons for refunding our fee to be on the wait list due to our experience.

We ultimately decided not to put our child at Bright Horizons after our experience being put on the waitlist so I cannot comment on the quality of care kids actually receive. We didn't feel comfortable choosing Bright Horizons because of the complete lack of communication in the enrollment process. Especially for a more expensive, corporate daycare, we expected more. We had to reach out by phone and email at least five times in order to get a response to enroll our child on the waitlist (which we paid $150 for the privilege of, by the way). Then we received no further communication for months on end, surpassing when they told us we would expect an update. We reached out five times in a combination of phone and email to try and secure more information about the status of our enrollment before hearing back. We did not have any transparency into the cost before being offered a slot which gives you 48 hours to accept and pay in full the first month. (The price we were given was $3,240 if that is helpful to other families looking at the center.) We decided we weren't comfortable trusting a daycare center that can't be bothered to talk with prospective parents. I feel frustrated that I paid $150 to basically be ignored.

Some of our observations -
1. Classroom especially for toddlers are small compared to a nearby daycare center.
2. At least the teacher we interacted with had no empathy.
3. Outdoor playing toys were faded and old.
4. Management was responsive to our requests.
5. Tuition fees for toddler is little expensive for the quality of service received.

We have witnessed three changes in center directors. This frequent turnover in leadership raises significant concerns about the stability of the teaching staff and the consistency of the center's culture. While many teachers demonstrate competence, there are some who lack the necessary qualifications. Moreover, the center appears to rigidly adhere to established conventions, often lacking empathy.

While we did not perceive any issues with the teachers or facility, and the staff on site were very friendly and easy to ask questions with, I feel obligated to write a review about the enrollment process and administrative encounters we've had with this particular Bright Horizons location.

After touring the location on site, we were prompted to discuss any further questions with the site's enrollment manager Katie. Like so many other reviews, this is where our previously positive experience turned bewildering. After half a dozen phone calls, emails from both my spouse and I, and trying to get in touch with this center's enrollment director in every way, we were met with no response, crickets, and a weak "we'll get back to you" or "we'll leave a note for Katie to check back with you" response when calling Bright Horizon's main phone line.

This was disappointing to say the least, especially as other local centers (under the same brand!) have been very responsive to questions and we've had no difficulties contacting them. It's sad that one of the core responsibilities you'd assume a childcare center would care about (enrollment) is met with such disdain and poor management.

TLDR: Very expensive school for what you get. Keep reading for actual tuition costs if you are curious.

I have mixed feelings about Bright Horizons (referred to as BH moving forward). My kids love it but the cost of this place is pretty wild. Just because I’m sick of having to jump through so many hoops to find out a daycare’s tuition cost I’m posting what I pay for this place so other people can skip the investigation (tours and whatever other time investment) if it is outside their budget. I have a 5 year old in K prep that we pay $2232 per month (not including our employer discount, the total tuition is $2480) and an infant (10 months) we pay $2468 per month (without discount: $3085). If you are a parent with a kid at this daycare or any other, please post your tuition costs. This can be extremely helpful to other families. These daycares will drag you through tours and orientations which is a huge time investment before you can find out their price. This strategy makes it difficult for families to shop around.

K now for the real review. Teachers and facilities are great but the company is incredibly greedy.

BH aggressively raises tuition. They have already done it twice this year. When Covid restrictions happened, they raised tuition citing reduced class sizes and other covid related precautions. When those restrictions went away, there was no reduction in tuition costs.

During Covid, it was not uncommon for your child to be excluded for 10 days due to an exposure in their class. Sometimes twice in a month. In these cases, you would pay the full month’s tuition for maybe 10 days of care. With how much I was paying in tuition, I could not afford to pay someone else to watch my kid during these exclusions. My husband and I would have to work at wired hours to juggle care for our child.

It was also not uncommon for whole classes to be excluded. When a whole class was out, the school did not need the teacher and they would not pay them. I find this disgusting because all the parents kept paying for services they could never collect on and the school wouldn’t even pay the teachers to keep them financially secure.

Nowadays, when my baby is dropped off, sometimes, there’s 8 babies and one teacher. This is not even legal in the state of Washington. There is a 4 infant per adult requirement. This situation occurs because the school starts with one teacher in the class at open. As more babies arrive, they call in another teacher but have to wait for them to arrive. I worry about the care my child receives when the teacher is overwhelmed like this. I imagine a chain of diaper changes and can’t fathom there’s time to feed any of them. Instead the school should assume that most of the children enrolled will be present and prepare for it. The parents are paying an arm and a leg for this care and the school should assume parents will take advantage of it. The school should also err on the side of providing good care instead of hoping to save a little cash here and there. They can afford it.

Worst experience on enrollment process. I have filled application for my son to start April 2022. I did not hear back after the virtual tour email.
There is no update on the status of the application nor when I call I get no information. Admin enrollment team says they will get back in couple business days or they take all the detail and never return back to me.

I understand you have huge number of applications but letting the applicant know the status of the application or what is the spot of wait list would help parents consider other places rather than just waiting on bright horizon.

I hope someone gets to address this. The process has never changed for many years now. My first son did bright horizon in 2017.

It went through some changes in management after Christina left (she was missed). Unfortunately it left with unprofessional and unknowledgeable - one person. The district manager was aware, as it was brought to her attention, but she became very hostile, in a calm and manipulative way. It was an eye opener for sure. I never got a chance to review, but hopefully they have listened to their employees and taken into consideration things that needed attention. GREAT teachers!