Our family recently disenrolled our 2.5-year-old toddler from Oakwood Academy. As an African…read moreAmerican parent, I want to share our experience because feeling welcomed, respected, and heard by our child's school is important to our family.
Before making our decision to disenroll, I read all available reviews. Notably, multiple African American families described experiences that were strikingly similar to ours, including concerns regarding communication, behavioral responses, and feeling unwelcome. While I cannot independently verify the experiences of other families, the consistency of these accounts, including reviews spanning several years, raises serious concerns for me about an unresolved pattern of implicit and, in some instances, explicit bias.
Our primary concerns involved safety, supervision, communication, and collaboration. Our toddler was given no grace as this was a new environment and had attended the school for less than one month. Our toddler exited the classroom, and we were told that two staff members were assigned to the classroom. There are two classrooms separated by a partition. Our toddler crossed the partition and entered another classroom. We understand that leaving the classroom is a safety concern. At the same time, we wanted to understand the circumstances surrounding the exit and the supervision in place at the time. The immediate decision to have our toddler removed from school was difficult for us to understand and, given his age, felt punitive rather than educational. Our toddler crossed a partition and was subsequently removed from school.
Our concerns about the overall environment also came from our direct observations. My child would say hello to staff and was sometimes not acknowledged. I observed his teacher look at him when he arrived without speaking to him. On other occasions, staff either looked at me without speaking or did not make eye contact. When my hands were full, an elementary school student helped me open the toddler gate while staff members were only a few feet away and talking among themselves.
We also had difficulty with some relatively simple requests. For example, we asked for adjustments to our individual access codes and requested that staff use our child's shortened name, which he was able to pronounce. We did not feel these requests were met with the level of flexibility or collaboration we were seeking.
I am sharing our experience so prospective families can make an informed decision. I deeply regret entrusting our child to this school. Families should be able to expect respectful communication, appropriate supervision, and meaningful collaboration when concerns involving their child arise.
