Prairie Park Elementary School

I wish this wasn't the only Lawrence Public Preschool. My son struggled in preschool so they did special education testing but didn't come up with anything and so didn't offer any services. I went with my mother instincts and had CMH do testing which showed multiple needs for special education. That leads me to believe the staff doing the testing aren't qualified to do a good quality job. I think I only met the principal once. Where as at other schools you see and are able to interact with the principal almost daily. It's also a very unwelcoming place. The narrow hallways are difficult to socially distance in. The hall closets that they have converted into private meeting rooms. The amount of windows/classroom visibility from the parking lot gives an unsafe feeling. The morning drop off is a complete joke, it's unstaffed, and the parking lot is too small to accommodate all of the people so it overflows into the street which blocks traffic and often times you have to circle the lot in order to park to walk your preschooler into the building. I really don't recommend this school at all.

My daughter attended school here and had so many behavioral issues due to staff and peers. She was bullied and jumped by a bunch of 4th graders at recess and the principle refused to have 3rd and 4th graders have recess at separate times. I pulled my daughter from this school in Nov 2024 and immediately we seen great results at her new school in a new district. She had so many emotional issues at New York that we had to pull her. Which the right thing to do. Don't send your children to Usd497. Trust a parent who had 2 kids in this district. It was a nightmare and costed us thousands of dollars to correct by moving and getting our children therapy because of this district. They turned the comments off on Google because they don't want you to know the truth.

All my children attended St. John Preschool and have loved it! It is a great program!