Change preschool mid year
Hello parents! I want to ask for your experiences in changing pre-schools in the middle of the year. We thought we would be very happy with the school we chose for our 3yo but it has several deficits (he misses greenery as the campus has great classrooms but not so great outdoor space, it is a language immersion school and honestly he is so advanced as it is our home language that he gets bored, and we feel there is real connection with only one teacher).
We are starting our search for alternative preschools. In the meantime we cannot find any policies from the school on how to handle leaving. I am wary of raising this immediately with the school as I don’t want them to alienate my son.
Any words of advice? Thanks in advance.
Oct 21, 2022
Parent Replies
Hi, sorry to hear you are going through this. I just made the decision to change preschool for my 3 yo, and it was certainly agonizing. It sounds like you certainly have good reasons to switch, and you should trust your instincts. I tried to frame the decision by asking myself “should I change the school now, or should I wait and change it later?” If there is no additional information or data that will change your mind down the line, may as well go ahead with it. Also, since my daughter misses the TK cutoff, it will be two more years of preschool, so that is a long time and made me more confident in changing.
It sounds like you maybe don’t have a contract, so I would think a 30 day notice is generous. They shouldn’t hold it against you, and especially not your child. That would be very unfair to the child, and I’d leave right away if there are signs of that.
Kids are fortunately very adaptable and you are probably facing the harder role yourself in having the power to make the decision. I’m sure your child will be better off and you’ll be happy you made the change. Best of luck to you!
We switched preschools earlier this year and I was surprised to be told we needed to give 3 months notice in order to get our deposit back (which was I think $1,400 or so). I must have signed some paperwork at the beginning where that info was conveyed, but I had forgotten, so that would be good to check. I had thought a month notice would be sufficient.
but in the end it was worth it - we’re happy with the new preschool!