About Us

The "Learning Steps" Philosophy

Our qualified staff is dedicated to providing academic, social and emotional support to children of all abilities, ethnicities, religious backgrounds and family structures. Beginning at birth, children have the capacity to engage in and respond to "special moments" with supportive and nurturing caregivers. Our goal is to provide all age groups with various learning opportunities that will benefit the child, the family and the community.

At Learning Steps Preschool and Childcare Center, we believe that children and adults of all backgrounds do their best in learning environments where they feel safe and respected. You will notice that we firmly believe in building relationships as the foundation of this respect and we spend a good portion of time working on this. When solid foundations are built, learning comes more naturally.

We are an early childhood education program, which means that we help in the development of the whole child from infants through school aged children in an environment where learning occurs in the course of actively exploring purposeful activities and materials. Our goal is to nurture every aspect of development in typically and atypically developing children with social, emotional, physical and cognitive support. We emphasize warm, loving caregivers who create a comfortable, family like environment. We make keeping our children safe and happy a priority. We understand that learning takes many forms and academics are only one type. To guide us in developing meaningful experiences for each child, we use Connecticut's Guidelines for the Development of Infant and Toddler Early Learning and the Connecticut Preschool Curriculum and Assessment Frameworks as the basis for planning learning experiences, observing and documenting child progress and implementing teaching strategies.

We are a community and strive to create a family atmosphere. We believe that raising our children well is an extremely important job. We believe in supporting our center in every way possible. We welcome new families to our community and do our best to make them feel comfortable. We treasure our staff as valuable professional resources and endeavor to integrate them into our community. We encourage relationships among all children regardless of their age. We welcome all families to our center regardless of background or family characteristics as long as we believe we can meet the child's needs.

Our Staff Goals

We strive to serve the needs of working parents by our dedication to excellence in the early care and education of young children by providing a warm and nurturing atmosphere in a safe, healthy environment. We encourage the growth of the whole child- socially, emotionally, mentally and physically. We provide an environment that helps children recognize their value as individuals and promotes self respect. We also foster development in respect for others by allowing opportunities for children to grow in social skills through positive interaction with other people while respecting others' diversity. We develop a love of learning through a variety of creative and discovery experiences that will sustain children throughout their lives. Through all this we create a sense of community based on mutual respect.

Meet the Owner of Learning Steps:
Debra Mendoza, BSW

Debra Mendoza is the Owner and Program Director at Learning Steps Pre-School & Childcare Center. She is an experienced Early Childhood Educator and began her career nearly two decades ago. She started off as an Assistant Teacher at two different childcare centers in Connecticut and New York. Afterwards she went on to work in schools and helped as an assistant in classrooms for children with special needs. In 2013, she would go on to open her own family daycare in New Britain, which she ran successfully for 2 years before relocating to Bristol. While running her daycare center in Bristol, she was accepted to Central Connecticut State University and was awarded a Bachelor’s degree in Social work in 2019. In 2020, Debra decided it was time for her to serve more children and families and she opened Learning Steps Pre-School & Childcare Center in Granby.

Debra has always strived to create a space where children could develop their strong foundation in a loving and caring atmosphere. Having come from experiencing vastly different cultures whilst growing up in Colombia, Japan, and in the United States, Debra aims to incorporate the best aspects of those cultures into the environment here at Learning Steps Pre-School. She strives to build strong foundations for children, while using her unique background to improve the Learning Steps experience.

Debra is the proud mother of two beautiful children of her own. In her spare time, she enjoys traveling and doing strength training.