24131 Del Monte Dr #186
Santa Clarita, CA 91355

I went to Hart and graduated in 2006. Back then, west ranch didn’t exist. I originally went to Valencia high for my freshman year and then we moved to Stevenson ranch where I had to start Hart my sophomore year. The BEST high school ever!!!! The teachers were mostly all supportive and extremely helpful. I think I had a hard time with maybe 2-3 teachers. I felt so much racism and class issues at Valencia high. At Hart, I fit in right away. I felt like there was more diversity. My first day at Hart, and students were already approaching me to be their friends. I could not say the same about Valencia. I was a better student at Hart. They prepared me well for college and had a ton of extracurricular activities. If I lived in Santa Clarita again, I would send my children to Hart. No questions asked.

My daughter is in the Special Education program at Placerita for the last 2 years. She loves the school and so do we. The staff is very helpful with any concerns and the principal is very welcoming. This school has been great both academically and socially for our daughter.

AOC has to rethink its policies and create a student-focused school environment and it especially needs to readjust its policies and treatment of special needs students.There is too much unnecessary homework at this school. The instructions are confusing, sometimes conflict, and the instructions change without email notice to the students.Most weekends and holidays have to be spent doing homework and projects and studying for tests for AOC and COC classes. There is not much free time or time to develop a students' individual interests and goals that would help them in their college applications. Too much group projects where some of the students try to dominate and mistreat others and/or do not do their fair share of the work. Some of these students even use profanity and encourage each other to do sex and drugs in group texts.The large clique of group of students exclude and bully some of the students. Some of the teachers can be rude, mean, and incredibly unjust in their policies. A teacher even made threatening comments to students. But not much is done about issues when it's reported.In order to even attend this school, special needs students' parents have been required to sign away their rights to special needs services such as speech and language therapy or resource therapy. AOC sometimes does not follow the IEP accommodations such as extra time that is stated in their IEP (as is mandated by IDEA law) during the regular school year or summer school. For example, during the Summer Honors Geometry, students with special needs were not granted extra time as stated in their IEP and they felt forced to drop out of this class when they worked so hard to qualify for this class (when they got As in Honors Algebra 1, Honors Algebra 2/ Trig classes that they had to take prior to Summer Honors Geometry. This summer geometry teacher emailed that even if a students fails one test the student would fail entire geometry course (even because of an illness or internet issues). In fact they got all As in their classes were not allowed to move onto COC precalculus in the fall (whey they qualified with their A grades and COC algorithm for math) and now are forced to take regular geometry over the school year (because AOC does not have summer geometry over the school year) where they are not being given complete test reviews with problems and solutions (as the rest of the math classes are for AOC or other jr. high and high schools in the district have been given)

We switched elementary schools based on test scores and couldn't be happier with Valencia Valley. It seems smaller than others in the area with more of a neighborhood feel. All the teachers and staff make an effort to know your child on a first-name basis to ensure a feeling of belonging. Our child is thriving at this school and has been accepted with open arms. The teachers are focused and enthusiastic, not burned out and just going through the motions. The principal is very active and engaged. We have seen her greeting students by first name throughout the few years we have been at VV. She is making a huge effort to keep the kids engaged and parents informed. This school is focused on high standards but also on having fun with the kids. We feel fully engaged and motivated to stay at VV and grateful for the attention our child receives.