104 E 36th St
Des Moines, IA 50317

Treats children like they are preparing them for prison.

We were warned about sending our kids to this school as we were new to the area. We did attempt to open enroll to another school but being as we moved so late, they were full so I can’t help but feel we got “stuck” with this school.This will be our first and only year at this school. The kids that attend here are terribly behaved. Bullying is an issue, there seems to be no dress code, and there are A LOT of thieves here. My son also got into a fight here (he was defending himself from a kid who was bothering him the entire year) and it was poorly handled by the school. Basically was told to come pick up our child and the lady wasn’t even going to tell me what happened that had led up to the fight. That was annoying. We’re military so we move often and we have never had issues with any school like this or dealt with kids like the ones that go to this school. The kids here have severe behavior issues.

Willard Elementary likes to bully children with special needs. They are aware of disabilities the child has but does the complete opposite when trying to "help" the child. They grab children and yell at them. Even those with PTSD which that behavior can make matters worse and the child's behavior worse. I would not recommend this school especially for special needs students