Smith Mills

Special education in this district is awful! There is no help for children with disabilities. Children with special needs diagnoses will not receive the help they need.

We thought we had picked the right school for our dyslexic child. However, we had our child tested by a neurophysiologist several years apart. Before enrolling and a few years later (tested apples to apples). It had proven my child was falling extremely far behind not just in math but across the board. It was alarming to say the least. The Sally Borden program is plagued with issues. Academically extremely slow and lacking social interaction. They do not work one on one with the students. The school takes in children with all different learning profiles including children on the spectrum so if your child is strictly dyslexic the disruption to learning is fierce. As your child gets older they are separated from the general population more and more. One example is up until 5th grade they take science with all non dyslexic children. Then in sixth they move them into a separate small SB classrooms. This sends a very poor message if your child has a learning disability. Letters to the head of school with concern went unanswered. Every time we questioned the academics we were told they were meeting our child where they are at. Never once stating our child was behind or referencing any grade level standards. We felt we were pouring money into the school with little return. Any extra curricular programs were run by a parent or friend of the school. There has been an overturn in longtime teachers being replaced with new inexperienced ones. Quite a disappointment overall.