Ann Arbor Preschool and Family Center

Jo Ann (the vice principal) is a bully and demonstrates passive aggressiveness towards other adults, which creates a very toxic environment. The principal doesn't even respond to emails or phone calls. The teachers are nice and seem to genuinely care about the kids. If the administration fails, how can the school function? This place is setting itself up for a potential lawsuit in the near future with this "I don't give a care" mentality.

Amazing autism services! Great school with AMAZING teachers that know the latest autism info! My son made amazing progress in the two years that he went to preschool here!

My son is also in the level 2 autism classroom (last year he was in level 1) and its been AMAZING. Better than all of our expensive therapy at UM combined. Each special education classroom has a team and based on our sons needs he saw a speech language pathologist and occupational therapist, as well as being in his classroom with kind compassionate well educated autism teachers. Things were perfect. Five stars. Amazing. Then came the lay offs. Then came the tears. Then came shuffling students in and out of classrooms. It was one big mess initiated from people who had never stepped into these miracle making classrooms. I am not happy with the program compared to what it was two years ago. However the actual teachers and therapists have been AMAZING. School board: ARE YOU LISTENING? Preserve these teachers and these highly specialized classrooms. It's what makes AAPS special and sought after. We moved in district for this early education service and it seems to be crumbling. Please preserve what has been established for the sake of our children, many of which do not tolerate sudden change well based on their neurological disabilities.

My son attended an "Autism Level 2" class at this preschool for two years. Tuition is free. Classes have about 8 kids, one lead teacher, and 3 assistants, plus plenty of visits from speech and occupational therapists. The first year, my son's teacher was AMAZING!!!! She really knew how to reach out to an autistic little child and make it fun and rewarding for him to connect to people and communicate. However, the special ed bureaucracy in the Ann Arbor Public Schools is insane, and so they FIRED this amazing teacher. My son's teacher the next year was good and skilled, but not the warm loving amazing teacher who we had lost. In general at this school, you can expect really good teachers, but sudden horrifying policy changes that are handed down from the special ed bureaucracy -- changes that really jerk people around and make things worse for the kids. One neat thing to come out of being jerked around the way we were is that the parents banded together and really got to know each other, as we fought to save our teacher's job and fix some other problems at the school. We didn't save the teacher's job, but it did build a wonderful parent community where there had not been one.