Rivercliff Lutheran School

Overall wonderful school, my child has excelled and the teachers are so attentive. Administration is great and keeps parents informed.

This is, without question, one of the worst schools I have ever encountered. I am a mother of two, with my oldest child graduating from college soon, and I have never experienced such gross negligence, lack of accountability, and disregard for a child’s well-being.My younger son is on the autism spectrum—Level 2 for social communication and Level 3 for repetitive behaviors. He struggles with sensory overload, large crowds, and social interaction, yet he is an exceptionally bright, kind, and academically gifted child. Despite his clearly documented needs, this school repeatedly failed him at every level.From the start, there was significant resistance and pushback regarding his evaluation, even though a private evaluation had already been completed. Teachers, administrators, and staff directly responsible for my son showed a dismissive, unconcerned attitude toward his challenges and needs. It was evident that supporting a neurodivergent child was viewed as an inconvenience rather than a responsibility.My son was bullied at this school. He came home with visible scratches on his hands and face caused by another student. He was targeted in the cafeteria, mocked, and had his lunch knocked out of his hands. These incidents were either minimized or inadequately addressed, leaving my child unsafe and unprotected in what should have been a nurturing environment.When it became clear that my son was not receiving appropriate services or protection, I hired an educational advocate. Instead of correcting their failures, the school became increasingly resistant once they were held accountable by someone knowledgeable about the system. My son continued to be denied necessary supports and accommodations.As a result of these ongoing failures, I filed a formal complaint with the state. An investigation was conducted, and the school was found liable for multiple gaps and violations in their systems and services. Ultimately, I was forced to withdraw my son to protect his emotional, physical, and developmental well-being.I would never recommend this school to any family—especially those with children who have disabilities or require specialized support. The treatment my son received was unacceptable, inhumane, and deeply disturbing. This school failed not only my child, but its fundamental duty to care for and protect vulnerable students.

Unbelievably good experience. Lots of opportunities for children. Plenty of fun parent activities after school. Lots of positive reinforcement programs.

We initially chose High Meadows amongst a list of the top private schools in the area based on the outdoor/activity component and the IB curriculum. Our child has been at HMS since Pre-K and stayed through 1st grade. There are many parts of the HMS experience we find so unique; we love the play based learning philosophy, the hour of play time at lunch, the beauty of the 42 acre campus with unique buildings, barnyard time with the animals, a "no phones" policy, the community gatherings, a strong music program - there are so many reasons it should be the best school experience money can buy. But, we found it's the most critical parts of a community that are completely missing for our child and our family. Despite being an extremely gregarious family who have lived in other countries/multiple US cities, we did not make any true friends at this school in our multiple years there. This is a very small school, so you may be lucky and get a great group of kids/families like our neighbors, but there is also the chance you may end up like us...it has been the most unfriendly group of kids/parents we've experienced absolutely anywhere. It's hard to get a take on that from trying out the 'Mornings on the Meadow' or even from feedback from other families as we've found connection with families many years above and below our grade but absolutely NONE within it. We have found most of the teachers seem great, but it doesn't make up for the kids your child will interact with and their parents. There was a 75% percentage of boys in our Kindergarten class and most of the boys are "red-shirted" in the Southern standard. Outdoor time in Kindergarten was experienced as "teachers are always screaming at the boys for bad behavior". While the head of school is inspiring, the elementary school principal did not present any leadership skills to handle problems amongst children. Be prepared to receive CONSTANT and overwhelming amounts of communication from the school about absolute nonsense and non-stop requests for donations, but when you have a true issue and need to reach out, there will be radio silence from everyone.

I absolutely HATED my experience. The work would always be due on around the same day, some specific teachers clearly favored one person or one gender in my opinion. All of my classmates didn't like the school and I have yet to meet a student who would say they liked ILM Academy. I had high hopes as a student there and I was let down. The rules also kept progressively getting stricter and it now seems like it's hard to fit in at times. Yes it might be a Muslim school but I did not enjoy my experience there.