Lighthouse Christian School

The special needs kids at the school get excellent, dedicated care. The staff have such loving hearts!

We moved here from out of state and my children started attending Dewar in 2021. We are absolutely love having our kids at Dewar, the staff and teachers are amazing and my kids absolutely love it here. I have 2 boys on an IEP and the school has always been great with communication when it comes to the IEP and services for my kids. I have another son not on an IEP and I feel every teacher we have has always been eager to help them in their educational journey, even going as far as giving me suggestions of how I can support my boys at home. Every teacher we've ever had has been amazing and makes us feel like family. Teachers here make the learning environment fun and memorable for students by doing things such as making a lemonade stand to talk about money and math, a"coffee shop" in 4th grade and Harry Potter themed lesson to go alone with their math lessons. This type of environment has really encouraged my kids to learn and enjoy the process of learning. Admin is quick to respond to us whenever we've had questions or needed help/support with something and are quick to resolve any issues or concerns we've had.I work as a Para at another school in Lowndes County which gives me the ability to put my kids at any school of my choice as an employee. My kids refuse to leave Dewar and transfer to my school, which really says something about how much they love everyone at DES. I have complete peace of mind knowing my children go to school here!

I wanted to wait to write this,, since I needed to confirm that it wasn't just my own bias as a mother. Now I can safely and confidently say that I cannot recommend this school. Especially for neurodivergent children. My son is neither mean nor malicious, yet he was in ISS multiple times a week. The teacher and administrators had many meetings with me, we tried to work together and every time they were going to try a new approach to redirect his impulsively, they failed to try more than once. They effectively wasted all of my PTO on meetings, I almost lost my job. Please keep in mind, my son was in kindergarten! I didn't even know ISS was an option for kindergarten. Long story short, my son would come home crying, saying things like "I'm just a bad kid" or "I know what the problem is, I'm just no good. I can't behave." "I'll always be a bad kid". Talk about heartbreaking. I had to take him out and move to a whole new school district. Now he goes to Dewar elementary and just finished 1st grade with 0 days in ISS or the principals office. His teacher at Dewar has been a blessing. Post removal, I have met several parents from sallas Mahone who are all struggling with the same problems I was. They put any kid who is even mildly disruptive in ISS and then they push you to get them tested for ADHD and medicated. 5 parents, with the same story. They have a 3 write ups = ISS policy. I understand the need for this, but if a 5 or 6 year old gets to 3 write ups on Friday, then they go straight to ISS on Monday, they have no idea why and have already forgotten the three things they they last week. These kids are still learning how to be humans. Please, if you have the option, don't move to this district and if you don't have that option, there's online and local charter schools that would much better than this place.

If your child needs any type of special needs, do not have them attend this school. They expelled my son for needing speech therapy. The school's communication is also horrid.At first, we were met with threats of DFACS if we were to check out our son 30 minutes early, twice a week, so we could bring him to speech therapy. This is something that used to be facilitated on campus but abruptly stopped.After debunking claims of truancy and chronic absenteeism, the school refused my four requests to schedule a meeting. After 6 days of hearing nothing, we were handed a letter on a Friday, along with a "have a great weekend", notifying us of our son's expulsion.This is a for profit, non federally funded, private school so the rights for parents are limited. However, they have showcased their inability to operate in good faith. I do NOT recommend this school. No family should have to go through what my family has just endured the last four weeks.