Elkhorn

My son went to this school for almost a whole school year and unfortunately I had to pull my special needs son out immediately.I initiated updating my sons transportation and made three points of contact, two written, to update this. They mistakenly sent my special needs son to the wrong home to which we both had severe emotional reactions to. The issue is when i asked for a meeting and an apology directly to my son by phone and in writing to ensure his safety was a priority they ignored several requests. All of this i have written proof for and I have reported the school. But the Assistant Principal and Special Needs Coordinator Kim Woods handled things incredibly unprofessionally so I removed my son.

Principals, teachers, support staff here lack the understanding of developmental stages and the ability to work with students that require them. They are in need of educational support to understand that children with behavioral and learning needs are not managed the way they manage their own personal family issues and will never meet the standards or expectations of a caring community or village. They are not equipped to provide a safe learning environment for children and need to be vetted on their safety protocols and implementation of educational support for children with 504s and IEPs.

From a parent’s perspective, I want to share our experience in a calm and balanced way. My children are very bright and have generally done well in school, so it was concerning to learn that my daughter was going through a brief period of difficulty academically and emotionally.During that time, I had expected more proactive communication from the teacher so that we could address the situation early. Instead, we did not receive timely feedback about her struggles. When my husband and I reached out to better understand what was happening and how we could support her at home, we felt that our concerns were not fully engaged with, and it was difficult to establish a collaborative dialogue.We also had a challenging experience with the IEP team. From our perspective, the process did not feel as collaborative as we had hoped. We expected a partnership approach where parents and school staff work closely together to support the child’s needs, but instead we often felt that our input was not fully incorporated into the discussion.Overall, while we recognize that many educators are doing their best and appreciate the effort that goes into supporting students, our experience left us hoping for a more open and cooperative approach between parents and the school, particularly when addressing student challenges.

I have had two children who have gone through their fair share of challenges this year. Having Mrs. Katie Carter as the principal has been extremely amazing for our family and our community. She is the best principal I have ever had the pleasure of meeting and engaging with. She is responsive and takes action every time and makes our community a better place. Safety and professionalism is her priority and you can tell she cares for the students, her staff and parents. SFES kindergarten and 1st grade teachers are all also amazing and caring. Our children are fortunate to have had them this school year.

My kid got hit 23 times and that is NOT ok