7307 Halldale Ave
Los Angeles, CA 90047

My child’s first week of kindergarten, I overheard a staff member encouraging a parent to use corporal punishment against their child. “Some kids need more than just time out,” she explained. I took my concern directly to the school psychologist. There was no follow up with me, and that staff member still works there.My kindergartener was sent home with at least an hour of homework every night. There was a journal, numerous worksheets for ELA and math, and for every book we read, they were supposed to fill out a “book report” page. IN KINDERGARTEN. I pushed for an entire school year for some sort of speech therapy intervention, as my kid clearly was struggling to pronounce things, and it was obviously affecting her ability to learn phonics. They wouldn’t even consider it until more than halfway through the year. Then they said they would have her assessed—and nothing else ever happened. I asked repeatedly when my child would be meeting with the speech therapist. Heck, when was **I** going to meet with the speech therapist? Apparently the answer was “never,” as just two months later, COVID happened. So imagine my surprise when I came back a few months later (the next academic school year) and found out that other parents had been receiving speech therapy services via video conferencing (Zoom or whatever) ALL SUMMER?I want to give them a pass for the scramble of when COVID hit, but after that, returning for the next school year, they had this absolutely ungainly system of iPads with half a dozen or more apps. Every teacher was given free rein to use from a huge list of programs. I asked if my student could use a different math program, as they were operating way ahead of grade level on math. “No,” was the resounding answer. The teacher had worked all summer on this plan and everyone was going to be using the same apps, at the same time, while on video with the teacher and other students. Why? Why??? Most of these programs are designed to be operated by a child with no one over their shoulder. How are any of these kids helped by being shoehorned into the exact same spot in the exact same curriculum instead of letting them work at their own pace? All this technology and y’all want to act like they are literally sharing the same textbook—“Now, Timmy, you can’t turn the page until Susie is done reading.”They bragged a lot about their music and arts programs, and my child never even experienced one. Later explanation was: “Oh, those start in 2nd grade.”