San Mateo · Licensed center
Challenge School
- Large Creative Curriculum center, licensed for 88 children.
What the state has found
The state lists 4 visits below. Shortlist has not read the reports behind them, so there is no share of visits that cited something to set beside other providers yet.
State record — California CDSS Community Care Licensing
California CDSS Community Care Licensing records this provider’s license as “Closed, Single License Conversion”, closed October 9, 2024. That is the state’s own wording, quoted as published. The record below is one the state published, and the state still publishes it. Check with the provider or the state directly.
- Last visit
- March 7, 2024
- On file
- 4 visits since March 2022
- Most serious
- Type A —
(a) A licensee shall not operate a child care center beyond the conditions and limitations specified on the license, including the capacity limitation. This requirement is not met as evidenced by: Based on observation, the licensee did not comply with the section cited above. There were 25 children in a classroom that can only accomidate 13 kids, which poses an immediate health, safety or personal rights risk to persons in care. Per measurements of classrrom, the square footage 461.21 sq ft divided by 35 equals 13 children in classroom 1(Big Catapiller room). Classroom 4 (Small Caterpiller room) accomidates 7. LPAs observed Room 1 (combined caterpillar rooms) to be over capacity.
· February 22, 2024
California CDSS publishes the full investigation narrative for a complaint, including its disposition, and classifies a citation Type A — an immediate risk to a child — or Type B.
Feb 2024 Licensing visit 1 finding
Licensing visit · February 22, 2024
CCR 101161(a) · Type A
(a) A licensee shall not operate a child care center beyond the conditions and limitations specified on the license, including the capacity limitation. This requirement is not met as evidenced by: Based on observation, the licensee did not comply with the section cited above. There were 25 children in a classroom that can only accomidate 13 kids, which poses an immediate health, safety or personal rights risk to persons in care. Per measurements of classrrom, the square footage 461.21 sq ft divided by 35 equals 13 children in classroom 1(Big Catapiller room). Classroom 4 (Small Caterpiller room) accomidates 7. LPAs observed Room 1 (combined caterpillar rooms) to be over capacity.
Shortlist replaces people’s names in the state’s text with initials. This is done by rule, not by hand, so it can miss a name or shorten a word that isn’t one. The state’s report, linked on each row, has the original.
Openings, child care subsidies, tuition, and sick and biting policies aren’t on this page.
How they teach
Creative Curriculum, play-based and bilingual
“Our preschool program provides a bilingual Kindermusik curriculum in the morning/afternoon.”
Who cares for your child
Kelly (Belmont Chinese School Director) since 2008, Grace (Executive Director) since 2009, Sally (San Carlos Preschool Director) since 2014, Vivian (Program Director) since 2014, Mei (Founder & Executive Director), 10 years in early childhood, Nicole (San Mateo Preschool Administrative Director), 13 years in early childhood, Hanan (Operations and Preschool Curriculum Director), 20 years in early childhood and Catherine (Foster City Preschool Director), 10 years in early childhood.
Of 905 Bay Area providers, 29 publish how long a named staff member has been there; the longest tenure at each of those has a median of sixteen years.
What it costs
- Application fee
- $100
A day here
- Hours
- 8:00 AM to 6:00 PM, 5 days a week
- Updates for parents
- Roadmap parent portal for learning materials and family communication
- Schedule
- full-time (Monday-Friday)
Details
- Website
- challengeschool.us
- Address
- 1661 Fashion Island Blvd.
- License
- 414002960, active
- Established
- 2003
The state licenses this address more than once, to the same licensee.
The day-care-center license is published separately, with its own license and its own inspection record:
Challenge SchoolRun Challenge School? Correct or add anything here, free.
Add what is missingSources and dates
Where every fact on this page came from, and when Shortlist last checked it against that source. Anything Shortlist could not source is named here rather than left blank.
How they teach
- Approach — Checked July 2026 challengeschool.us
Who cares for your child
- Staff challengeschool.us
What it costs
- Application fee — Checked July 2026 challengeschool.us
A day here
- Updates for parents — Checked July 2026 challengeschool.us
- Hours, Schedule — Checked July 2026 challengeschool.us
Details
- Phone, Address, License — Checked July 2026 ccld.dss.ca.gov
- Website — Checked July 2026 challengeschool.us
- Established — Checked July 2026 challengeschool.us
Large means the biggest quarter of Bay Area’s 439 licensed centers by state-licensed capacity: 76 to 312 children. Small is 8 to 30; medium is 31 to 75.