2117 Darden St
Chesapeake, VA 23322

This school may have a rating of “9”, but the kids here are not very positive. There is extreme bullying and drug use. AT A MIDDLE SCHOOL. The teachers and staff try to prevent this; my kids have mentioned several times that lockers are checked. However, it still happens. Also, the excessive use of racial slurs can be unbearable. If you don’t mind your kids being influenced by drugs, alcohol, and being racist, this is the school for you! My poor kids have just learned to deal with it and can’t wait to leave. We’ve been in several school districts due to military, and I can say the kids here, far exceed all negative stereotypes. My older son was spit on and called the “N” word and nothing was done, but hey this is the pinnacle of the Chesapeake school district. To that I laughed!!! However, the TEACHERS AND GREAT AT WHAT THEY DO. I truly applaud them!

The school does not have an inclusive philosophy for children with developmental or intellectual delays. They still use self-contained classrooms as the primary placement. Southeastern happened to be our school district, but many of my daughter’s classmates were bussed in from other schools to attend the self-contained class, further separating those students from their peers by not only being in a separate class but also a different school. My daughter was not challenged in this setting, she was not exposed to the same curriculum as her Gen. Ed. peers, even after I obtained the Gen Ed materials from other parents and videoed her doing the work. We eventually pulled her and placed her in a private school where she is 100% included. While the VA DOE does have a published guidebook for inclusion, this school does not follow it. They have not implemented the practices discussed in the guide book such as a written inclusion policy, development of an inclusion advisory team, or universal design learning. I gave this school 2 stars rather than 1 because I believe the teachers did indeed care about my daughter but were not supported by the policies in place, lack of 1:1 aides, and training on inclusive practices. I blame the admin and district rather than the individual teachers.

I have had an overall TERRIBLE experience with Grassfield’s staff and admin team throughout the two years I have attended (I am a Junior this year).The teachers here are great. Almost all of them are understanding and patient, although around half of them gave out quick busy work after a fast slideshow presentation about the topic before going on their phone/talking to other students/staff. These kinds of teachers were still loved by other students and staff. The STEM teachers, although, are amazing. You can tell they truly want to work with the children in the field they teach. Halfway through my freshman year, I got a 504 plan due to my autism, but more than half of my teachers ignored all or part of my accommodations. Many of them did not respond to emails concerning needs not being met. It took a call to the school to get them to recognize my accommodations needed to be met, which I was met with an upset attitude with all of these teachers for them having to have my needs met.The councilors and admin in this school is HORRENDOUS. Admin never enforced the mask requirement the year school became in-person again. I had experiences with the councilors due to my extremely poor mental state. They got upset me for being mentally ill (got upset at me for having issues with depression and self-harm) and tried making me out to be the person at fault. They got upset at me for not making eye contact (symptom of autism), while stating they were trying to get to “know me”. They could have easily found out about my disability, so it’s clear these councilors have no intention of truly getting to know your child. They forced me to agree to things I hadn’t agreed with them on for conversation to continue and said my attitude got “better” when I agreed with whatever they had said to me without disagreement. They will get mad if you try and correct them. They forced me to show them scars on my arms I was not comfortable showing to them (as I do not know these people whatsoever), tried forcing me into a therapy program with other Grassfield military children although I expressed I wasn’t comfortable (due to my extreme anxiety at the time), lied to my mother, got up in my face, called me out of class multiple times, causing my grade to drop, and so much more. I cannot express how terrible the councilors at this school are. They do not care about your child or their well-being. If they are mentally unwell, they will treat your child like a burden.