181 Coker Loop
Cleveland, TX 77328

AWFUL school if you have special needs children. I, along with several other people I know, have had their child's education gravely deprived being involved in the "special services" for this district. I just got done unenrolling my daughter for the second time. The first time, in 1st grade, it got to a point where i was calling nearly every day because my daughter wasn't being cleaned up, no one was taking her for scheduled potty breaks so she was peeing her pants 3, 4 times a day, they kept losing her jackets and lunch pails, etc. They repeatedly told me they would pay more attention, and she just kept coming home the same way. The final straw was when the extremely incompetent and unprofessional Principal suggested that perhaps she wasn't being cleaned up due to "a allergy to wipes"...My child isn't allergic to wipes and that's totally irrelevant when there's paper products. I unenrolled her for homeschooling for the remainder of the year. I really wanted her in public school however, because its very hard to work with an autistic child without trained professionals so we decided to try again this year, perhaps new teachers would help. Wrong. They have her enlisted as a special services child, I now know because the school receives more money for special ed students, but do not treat or give her the allowances a handicapped child would have. She does not have an aid in class, as they should have staffed, so instead she's sent to Ms. Jander anytime she needs help, who is a wonderful woman, but she's helping ALL the special ed kids do ALL the subjects. Not fair to her or the kids. They expect her to sit in a desk for hours without speaking and when she does, they constantly complain about her behavior as though shes a neurotypical child. They refuse to place her in a special education environment, and instead put her in regular class and expect her to adhere to a standard she doesn't even understand. To top it off, I started receiving letters about her absences so i spoke with Mrs. Meekings, the principal. She assured me she is allowed extra absences due to all her medical issues. Then a month later I have a officer threatening me with truancy court if shes absent one more time, even though she has a doctors note for every single day , minus 14 days she took out when her grandma died and she was badly emotionally distraught. If you have a choice, dont.

Myself as a high school student have been to 5 different school districts and out of all of these schools I found that shepherd was the best. Shepherd may be put down because we are a low income district and our scores are what state wants but that's not all that matters, Its also the environment itself. We have amazing teachers and staff that are trying there absolute best to make our school a better place. People need to open up there eyes and realize this and stop making excuses for themselves. I have now been at shepherd on and off for about 7 years and I cant complain

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