JTA Schools

After 3 years of service, the director decided that my 3 year old grandson could not remain at this place and terminated him via email to his father. I am in the early education field, but you don’t need to know the field to know that this is a poor way to handle the situation. If the «teachers can’t handle» a 3 year old they have cared for since he was 3 months old, and you can’t sit down with parents and talk about how you can work on whatever issues you likely contributed to, then he doesn’t need to be there anyway. No way would I recommend this place to anyone.
My grandson seemed to love it, though, made great friends and still gets invited to all the birthday parties.

This is an outstanding school in every way. From the clean, safe, and fun facility, to the warm, caring, and professional educators and staff, this place is top-​rate. Of particular note is the wide variety of activities and field trips that are available to the children, and the detailed daily progress reports that the teachers prepare on behalf of each child and provide to the parents. Our daughter has learned a great deal here, made many friends, and enjoyed herself thoroughly. We recommended this school without reservation of any kind.

I’ve been touring all the early education centers in the Southloop area and I am highly impressed with JTA Schools, by far, compared to all the others!!!

My son has been at JTA for over a year and I have nothing but good things to say about it.
Let’s talk education. My son is 4 in the pre-​k program and thriving there. The teachers are great, patient, very professional, and you can tell they really care about providing a quality early childhood education. I am thrilled with the progress he has made in reading, writing and spelling. If there is something you’d like the teachers to work on with your child, tell them and they will work on it with your child. This seems fundamentally simple, but the open communication is really refreshing. I really feel he is getting a solid start and that’s what’s most important. I also love that he’s learning Spanish and that the school is wonderfully diverse.
There are a variety of other optional activities the kids can get involved in. There are programs for crafts, JumpBunch, cooking, dance and more that the kids can do for after school type activities. Overall, it’s a great place for my son and I would recommend JTA to other families as well.

At first, my husband and I were thrilled to send our toddler to this daycare — their previous location on State street. My son came out of his shell — responding extremely well to the teachers and environment. I enjoyed the daily reports, giving us a snapshot of my child’s day. We were happy with our choice.
Then one day I came into pickup my child, and was informed that the State street location was going to be closing down because they «lost their lease». We really felt bad for the director — he now had to shift all of his existing families to the new location in the south loop. We were in JTA’s corner — and we wanted to continue on with them so we agreed that we would transfer to the new location after the short holiday weekend.
The next week I came to pickup my child and the story changed. Suddenly, they hadn’t gotten the correct permits/​certificates and we were told there would be no school for 2 weeks. WHAT? So now I’m left with no childcare for 2 weeks. Parents were scrambling to try and figure out what to do with their children; working out schedules with the JTA’s teachers and trying to make it work. My family was still struggling to be on board, feeling terrible for the director and the situation.
The next week we received an email stating that it would be another week of closure and no school. At this point I had to interview nannies, and using our family members to help out watching our child, sometimes spending double the cost. I talked to the director and voiced my concerns, and that’s when communication from JTA to us ceased.
Long story short — there was a total lack of communication and in all, were were out of childcare for about 8 weeks. We held on as long as we could, but realized we were being had. When we interviewed the new daycare that moved into the same State street location we were told the truth. The director knew that they had to move for 6 months prior to when he let the rest of the families know. This isn’t just our story, but many other families that trusted them — some of which losing tuition that was paid ahead of time.
There are many other trustworthy daycare providers in the south loop area — I urge any parent to do their research before sending their children.

The school at State St. did close but they have moved to their new location at 80 W. Harrison St. which is open and wonderful! My daughter has been going to JTA for 1 ½ years and we are very pleased! The staff is amazing and have a true passion for what they do! My daughter was very shy and reserved before starting at JTA and now she has really opened up– a great start to her education! Thanks JTA!

I was going to send my daughter to this daycare, but they unexpectedly closed. After asking the director about the rumors of them closing, they assured me they would be open this coming fall. Needless to say, they knew for awhile they were going to close. Shady business practices for sure!