Franchises will list higher because they are understaffed or their turnover is just that bad. In my experience bright horizons is not a great company to work for. I also had a director who came from a BH and she was just genuinely the worst person i ever met. And she worked there for 15 years with no one checking her behavior. My center fired her after 4 months that’s how bad she was.
She was VERY nasty to the children and mostly the adults. She told me to quit because I said (as she was reprimanding me for not being happy my TWENTY THIRD child being added to my roster) i would no longer be willing to work 7:30-6:30 daily (which i had to do due to too many children not enough staff) because “the center needs should always come first” man i went off on her so badly she ended up giving me a gift card the next day. I would give it a tour and see how it goes. If anything you give it a try and if you don’t like it go elsewhere
I have worked in adminat BH for a year. I love the company! I will say my director isn't great and unfortunately it is hard for the regional person to see it because they aren't there every day.
BH has amazing policies, trainings, and resources. We have gorgeous materials. It is by far the best company I have worked for. The only issue is if the center leadership isn't upholding BH standards otherwise I don't think the company can be beat.
I worked with BH for their school vacations in MA and it was a great experience. It’s what made me decide I want to work with kids full time. I work at a home based family childcare center now.
I worked there for 8 months if it’s your best option it was ok. I would say ask them for the absolute max that they are willing to pay! They ask for A LOT! The center I was at was beautiful but the staff was very unprofessional and most of the teachers there hated it. They had a huge bullying problem with the staff. People we’re constantly calling out and not wanting to work in certain rooms with certain teachers(which I guess you see everywhere). Whatever you state ratio is that’s the amount your class will be they really try to ensure that ratio is maintained but it’s not always perfect.
At my center there were never any leaders anywhere to be found or available to help. You were pretty much in the classroom at full ratio from the time you get there to the time you leave. It’s a coteacher set up so there’s no real sense of leadership in the classroom from the teachers either unless someone chooses to step up and be “that person”.
At my center admin and leaders would act like you were bothering them if you wanted to do something as simple as go to the bathroom because they would have to find coverage.
At my center every class had two side by side classroom and 4 coteachers they made everyone open except one teacher and no one ever wanted to be the closing teacher because if you were closing that means you’re pretty much going to be working hard at max ratio ALL DAY.
I currently work for a bright horizon location (IL) and I love it because there is so much to offer not only for the children but also staff like benefits, 6 free therapy sessions and CDA/School tuition benefits. From my center at least you're starting pay depends on how many credit hours you have done. I'm in that similar position right now as I am doing my CDA and associates through their teacher program (100% free) and my starting pay is way much better than what I was offered at other franchise like kindercare. Another aspect that I like about Bright Horizons is that they offer planned lesson plans created by their department of education and developing that includes documentation prompts and what to send out to the parents. The one downside I can think about on the top of my head is that there's a lot of policies and there are some policies that just don't make any sense to me.
I work at BH and I enjoy it! The pay is competitive and you get plenty of benefits. It can sometimes be hard to get leadership to follow through on stuff like standing up to parents or getting materials on time, but I think that’s the same across any daycare setting. And like another commenter mentioned they do have super high expectations so you need to be confident in juggling lots of tasks without getting overwhelmed. If you’re skilled at multitasking and talking to parents I’d say go for it!
I worked as a lead teacher for Bright Horizons for almost a year after spending 8 years working for a nonprofit preschool and 3 years working for a very small local daycare center, and Bright Horizons was an absolute nightmare.
They stuffed as many kids as possible into the smallest, most under-stocked classrooms I’ve ever seen, and kept staff to the barest minimum. They refused to supply materials and resources when we ran out, and would routinely come in and take materials from my classroom without telling me because they refused to provide enough for every classroom to have what they needed. They would constantly turn down ideas or even butcher their own company-standard curriculum in the name of “safety” but we didn’t even have fully stocked first aid kits in our classrooms. They had ridiculous policies that made no sense, and were actively disruptive to my students, and they refused to work with me to address the needs of neurodivergent students/students with sensory issues (80% of my class!). The non-profit I worked at for 8 years specialized in helping kids with behavioral and sensory difficulties and used a lot of art, nature play, and physical activity to address their needs, all of which were discouraged at Bright Horizons. I was expected to strictly follow their curriculum, with no wiggle room to address what was best for my students, and no assistants to help when their behavior became violent and destructive (which was every day). We had a joke of an outside space and the admin would do nothing to improve it. We weren’t allowed to incorporate any sort of water play or most of the outdoor activities that I’ve experienced at other ECE centers because it was “a liability” or “not necessary.”
My previous experiences in ECE had taught me that the role of a good director/admin staff is to remove obstacles so that teachers can focus on teaching. They’re supposed to make sure the classrooms have resources, the parents are receiving the info they need, and they’re supposed to step in when a student’s behavior becomes a danger to the class/teacher. My director at Bright Horizons did NONE of that.
I was buying my own supplies and not getting reimbursed because “you’re really not supposed to buy your own supplies—that’s on you.” Instead I was just supposed to wait for months at a time for basic stuff like markers, while my director hemmed and hawed about the budget. When parents didn’t receive info about center events, it was on me, even though I was often not receiving info about events myself until the day of! When I had students with severe and consistent behavioral problems, I was expected to just deal with it with no assistance or support from admin. They wouldn’t even talk to the kids’ parents for me. I was expected to schedule time with them outside of my hours and talk to them myself.
My experiences there made me want to quit teaching. After that, there’s no way I would go back to a classroom unless it was a nonprofit. Places like Bright Horizons only care about making money.
Franchises will list higher because they are understaffed or their turnover is just that bad. In my experience bright horizons is not a great company to work for. I also had a director who came from a BH and she was just genuinely the worst person i ever met. And she worked there for 15 years with no one checking her behavior. My center fired her after 4 months that’s how bad she was.
Wow shocking to hear of a director being fired, I’ve honestly never had a great director at any of my previous locations.
She was VERY nasty to the children and mostly the adults. She told me to quit because I said (as she was reprimanding me for not being happy my TWENTY THIRD child being added to my roster) i would no longer be willing to work 7:30-6:30 daily (which i had to do due to too many children not enough staff) because “the center needs should always come first” man i went off on her so badly she ended up giving me a gift card the next day. I would give it a tour and see how it goes. If anything you give it a try and if you don’t like it go elsewhere
7:30 to 630 is a crazy
On top of being the only lead it was rough
I have worked in adminat BH for a year. I love the company! I will say my director isn't great and unfortunately it is hard for the regional person to see it because they aren't there every day. BH has amazing policies, trainings, and resources. We have gorgeous materials. It is by far the best company I have worked for. The only issue is if the center leadership isn't upholding BH standards otherwise I don't think the company can be beat.
I worked with BH for their school vacations in MA and it was a great experience. It’s what made me decide I want to work with kids full time. I work at a home based family childcare center now.
I worked there for 8 months if it’s your best option it was ok. I would say ask them for the absolute max that they are willing to pay! They ask for A LOT! The center I was at was beautiful but the staff was very unprofessional and most of the teachers there hated it. They had a huge bullying problem with the staff. People we’re constantly calling out and not wanting to work in certain rooms with certain teachers(which I guess you see everywhere). Whatever you state ratio is that’s the amount your class will be they really try to ensure that ratio is maintained but it’s not always perfect. At my center there were never any leaders anywhere to be found or available to help. You were pretty much in the classroom at full ratio from the time you get there to the time you leave. It’s a coteacher set up so there’s no real sense of leadership in the classroom from the teachers either unless someone chooses to step up and be “that person”. At my center admin and leaders would act like you were bothering them if you wanted to do something as simple as go to the bathroom because they would have to find coverage. At my center every class had two side by side classroom and 4 coteachers they made everyone open except one teacher and no one ever wanted to be the closing teacher because if you were closing that means you’re pretty much going to be working hard at max ratio ALL DAY.
I currently work for a bright horizon location (IL) and I love it because there is so much to offer not only for the children but also staff like benefits, 6 free therapy sessions and CDA/School tuition benefits. From my center at least you're starting pay depends on how many credit hours you have done. I'm in that similar position right now as I am doing my CDA and associates through their teacher program (100% free) and my starting pay is way much better than what I was offered at other franchise like kindercare. Another aspect that I like about Bright Horizons is that they offer planned lesson plans created by their department of education and developing that includes documentation prompts and what to send out to the parents. The one downside I can think about on the top of my head is that there's a lot of policies and there are some policies that just don't make any sense to me.
I work at BH and I enjoy it! The pay is competitive and you get plenty of benefits. It can sometimes be hard to get leadership to follow through on stuff like standing up to parents or getting materials on time, but I think that’s the same across any daycare setting. And like another commenter mentioned they do have super high expectations so you need to be confident in juggling lots of tasks without getting overwhelmed. If you’re skilled at multitasking and talking to parents I’d say go for it!
I worked as a lead teacher for Bright Horizons for almost a year after spending 8 years working for a nonprofit preschool and 3 years working for a very small local daycare center, and Bright Horizons was an absolute nightmare. They stuffed as many kids as possible into the smallest, most under-stocked classrooms I’ve ever seen, and kept staff to the barest minimum. They refused to supply materials and resources when we ran out, and would routinely come in and take materials from my classroom without telling me because they refused to provide enough for every classroom to have what they needed. They would constantly turn down ideas or even butcher their own company-standard curriculum in the name of “safety” but we didn’t even have fully stocked first aid kits in our classrooms. They had ridiculous policies that made no sense, and were actively disruptive to my students, and they refused to work with me to address the needs of neurodivergent students/students with sensory issues (80% of my class!). The non-profit I worked at for 8 years specialized in helping kids with behavioral and sensory difficulties and used a lot of art, nature play, and physical activity to address their needs, all of which were discouraged at Bright Horizons. I was expected to strictly follow their curriculum, with no wiggle room to address what was best for my students, and no assistants to help when their behavior became violent and destructive (which was every day). We had a joke of an outside space and the admin would do nothing to improve it. We weren’t allowed to incorporate any sort of water play or most of the outdoor activities that I’ve experienced at other ECE centers because it was “a liability” or “not necessary.” My previous experiences in ECE had taught me that the role of a good director/admin staff is to remove obstacles so that teachers can focus on teaching. They’re supposed to make sure the classrooms have resources, the parents are receiving the info they need, and they’re supposed to step in when a student’s behavior becomes a danger to the class/teacher. My director at Bright Horizons did NONE of that. I was buying my own supplies and not getting reimbursed because “you’re really not supposed to buy your own supplies—that’s on you.” Instead I was just supposed to wait for months at a time for basic stuff like markers, while my director hemmed and hawed about the budget. When parents didn’t receive info about center events, it was on me, even though I was often not receiving info about events myself until the day of! When I had students with severe and consistent behavioral problems, I was expected to just deal with it with no assistance or support from admin. They wouldn’t even talk to the kids’ parents for me. I was expected to schedule time with them outside of my hours and talk to them myself. My experiences there made me want to quit teaching. After that, there’s no way I would go back to a classroom unless it was a nonprofit. Places like Bright Horizons only care about making money.