My son has autism and has communication disability. The school district is unfair and unjust how…read morethey spend money in the special education department. District allows Donnita Hawkins who is special education director to waste money by inviting Attoeney to school IEP meeting when parent brings non-attoeney advocate to facilitated IEP meeting. It has been our experience that Mrs. Hawkins, Special Education Director is very controlling behavior. We had IEE done and she would not allow IEP team to discuss the report. She does not allow us to discuss outside provider information. When complaint of her is brought forward to Karen Remy-Anderson her boss, Superintendant Deb Clemens, Board of Directors and Equity at NTSD. They are All indifferent. They are all reinforcing her negative behaviors without corrective actions. As result Mrs. Hakwins continues to abuse District money on Due Process and brining Attoeney to IEP meetings. She had at least invited 5 or more times school Attoeney to school meetings. Mrs. Hawkins has been very proactive against parent involvement in education. Mrs. Hawkins belief and values "quarterly meetings to discuss progress is more than sufficient to meet student's needs and provide free appropriate education (FAPE). Typically developing student are able to access how the students are doing anytime through skyward. At NTSD, there is bad attitude when parents wants to be involved in student academic. We need some positive change. If Mrs. Hawkins had value of working collaboratively with Parents she would not need to have an Attoeney to school meeting. I believe she is abusing her power and district money. The district gives her unlimited fund for her abuse of district money for Attorney use. Karen Remy-Anderson is 504 Compliance Officer and she is Executive Director of Student Support and Special Education. She will NOT come to IEP meeting to supervise Donnita Hakwins. She has favoritism of Donnita Hawkins. Mrs. Remy-Anderson does not value Parent partnership. She doesn't want parents to know the how the students are doing at school academically. She supports Donnita Hakwins. Dawn Long is Human Resource Director and she Provided response to parent question during Ambassador training on 2-1-2018 witness by 14 ambassadors and Board of Director president that it would be unfair for NTSD to handle complaint of school personnel who is in leadership role. . She talked about how district will have favoritism due to working relationship, and that there will be biases treatment and it would be unfair to the person who brought forth the complaint against the school. I am sharing this experience to increase awareness of what is actually happening in special education department at NTSD. I would love to see some major positive changes. I would like to see increase academic instructional materials, increase collaboration with Parents, and be accountable. I would like to see the leadership model what they speak and write about. The purpose of my review and feedback is to increase awareness what is the REALITY of what is really happening at NTSD. I would highly recommend that Dawn Long, Human Resource Director to provide evidence to the Parents of special education and to the Board of Director her training on working collaboratively with Parents without Discrimianton and biases. It is my recommendation that NTSD provide mandatory Education to Donnita Hawkins, Greg Goble, Paul Dean, Karen Remy-Anderson and Dawn Long regarding cultural competency, autism, and working collaboratively with families of students with disability. There is huge disparity in Special education. Lack of instructional materials at Timberline High School. To this date, the school has not provided any educational material for WA-AIM test preparation for my son. No one can make them do anything when they do not want to do it. There is lack of accountability and their policy and procedure is just for looks. The culture of NTSD special education department is not parent friendly process. The school talks about what district is doing but they themselves can't model the behavior first. I would recommend NTSD to issue Dawn Long to take mandatory corrective action by taking 150 hours of working collaboratively with Patents of different culture. How to Problem solve issues without discrimination. She does not have the human connection to be in Director position. She makes very poor decision making. She doesn't talk with Parents who brings concerns. I believe she lacks the communication skills and tools to be Director of Human Resource. Mrs. Long's behavior is very concerning. She lacks people skills. She discriminates Parent of different culture. Intent: increase awareness and asking for improvement in special education department. Increase parent engagement, and increase parent partnership. Disclaimer: This website allows us to share our experiences or knowledge in which this organization participated.

Hands down this is the best day by far that I have enrolled my baby in! Staff there are very…read morehelpful,loving, and trust worthy! Thank you Mrs. Mugsy, Sandee, and Aaricka for the best and loving care that you provide for the center! Also thank you so much Mrs. Jessica and Mrs. Lacey for loving my Marvin unconditionally. I love how I can just show up and feel as if I'm dropping my son off to some family members! Love you all! Thank you ALL for your hard work. Highly recommend Cadence Academy in this location! Best one yet!

Love the staff and very clean. My granddaughter attended for three years. She has just started…read morekindergarten and still talks about it .

Awesome program. A must to check out. Kobi rocks!!! She is amazing with our kiddos young and old.read more

From the owner: Different Paths provides multiple types of support and education to individuals and families. Our…read morespecialty is working with kids, teens and families who are impacted by special needs, such as attention challenges, sensory issues, autism, and social or emotional challenges. You can learn more about our work on our website! We also run the Social Skillz Theatre School. Right now we are focused on our Summer Camp for kids and teens with special needs. Camp is an inclusive environment for neurodiverse children and teens going into 3rd - 12th grades, regardless of experience or special needs. Social skills are taught through the fun and confidence building magic of theatre. You can learn more or register for camp on our website. Different Paths provides the following types of instruction and support in the Tacoma Area: summer camp day camp theatre classes social skills group social skills classes life skills parenting classes behavior support behavior coaching special needs supports autism support sensory support attention support academic support specialized instruction curriculum modification IEP support

I too would like to shine a light on the good things they do, but sadly am unable to do this. I…read morehave arranged for a pick up THREE times, and the drivers have no-showed THREE times. The first pick up I arranged took a total of 11 phone calls and e-mails. Joan in the donation center is rude and seems to forget that donations are required to keep their organization doing the important work they do. It should not take 11 attempts to arrange for a pick up nor should they NO SHOW three times. There are other organizations that will benefit from my donations in the future. Such a shame that they have such rude and disorganized employees/volunteers.

Yelp!! You really should police your reviews just a tad. A woman reviews an amazing organization…read morethat supports families and people with special needs by complaining about a driver that failed to pickup a vacuum and a shampooer. Really sad that some people feel compelled to use Yelp to trash on others. I'd rather use it to shine a light on what is actually great about our world. Without organizations like Arc we would still live in a world that limits the opportunities of disabled people.

First, this is not so much a review of foundations, but rather with CADENCE…read more regarding Foundations, The teachers are wonderful, especially Ms Sarah and Ms Demi, who are fantastic. The facilities are great, and so is the quality of education they provide. As far as the school goes, I give it a 5 put of 5. That said, recently they have been acquired by a company called cadence. Since then your kid will get sent home for the slightest reason. If they have a fever then it's mandatory three days out instead of 24. For some things it's 5 days. Nor will they accept results of a negative Covid test. Cadence's ridiculous policies puts a tremendous amount of strain on working parents that unfortunately offsets many of the great aspects of the school. In Cadence's defense they will refund some of your tuition back if your child is out for a long time.

The elementary program for this school is less than adequate. We are leaving foundations after my…read moreson's kindergarten year and are working diligently to get him to where we think he needs to be academically. I don't know if that is attributed to the program or the teacher; I know I am not the only parent coming out of this year that feels this way. They test the students on subjects they simply don't teach. And if they do - I hardly saw evidence. The communication with my son's teacher was lackluster at best. During a parent teacher conference, I asked a simple question about reading materials, and she completely shut down. She couldn't answer what the kids use to assist in reading, as I quickly discovered my son hadn't learned anything and needed to know how best to supplement at home. When I asked what materials they use, she stopped talking, put her hands in her lap, and looked down for a good minute. It was truly disturbing. it was as if someone unplugged her. My husband and I were very confused. Communication over day-to-day activities was also lackluster. One Friday, my son dropped his entire lunch (that we provided), and they did nothing to get him anything else to eat. Not even a cracker. Nor was it communicated to me that this had happened. I waited until Monday to ask if he had actually dropped his food, and his teacher did confirm it and told me she looked for some food for him, but 'nobody had any', which is odd considering the school has a chef. Another day I walked up to the playground to see my son eating leaves off the ground. A typical kid thing to do, but his teacher had no idea. Why? Well, I asked what she did when they were outside - in Discovery Park - a pretty heavily wooded area. My son told me she remained at the picnic table for most of their outside time. Then, after he ate a berry off the ground - I emailed again, looping in the program director. I was surprised that they had a berry-producing tree (that the students had full access to); I was told then that 'Obviously, a teacher cannot supervise each and everything all children do while in our care.' Considering there were 10 students, and usually an assistant on the playground with the teacher. I was shocked. One day I got to school early, poor timing on my part; not wanting to interrupt his playtime with friends, I waited in the parking lot where I saw that his teacher indeed sat at the picnic table. She didn't get up once in about a 40 minute period. She sat facing the parking lot, away from the wooded area. This also explained why my son came home with scratches all over his body, with no explanation. The school set some pretty impressive standards for covid, which, to be honest, is why we enrolled him. Those precautions went right out the window; I'd say a month or two into the program. As parents, we weren't informed of this. I know of one event that happened a WEEK into the program that was explicitly against their self-imposed covid protocols. Any time I tried to express my disappointment, or frustration I was met with justification. These are our experiences, and I can imagine that if I receive any response, it will invalidate the things we experienced and justify behaviors. To be honest, I was reluctant to even post this as a review as I feel like in my gut, somehow it could come back on my son. We paid good money for this program, and to come out of it having sent him to daycare his kindergarten year, I'm sure any parent can imagine both the disappointment and the resentment that we feel.

This institution is all about the money. they say what the parents want to hear to persuade them to…read moreenter their institution. Numerous attempts to receive records and other information were disregarded. Other testing facilities would be recommended.

When I came to the ARK as a 34 year old adult learner in college, I never thought I had dyslexia…read morebecause I didn't see words backwards or write my letters backward but I did know I was a slow reader and would often mix up words with similar letters like who and how. I never enjoyed school because it was hard for me and I didn't perform well on testing. I went to the ARK and had an assessment by Caroline and finally got some answers. I was indeed dyslexic which helped me realize that I wasn't unintelligent, I just had to find different styles of learning that would help me overcome my learning disability. Caroline put together and instructional plan to help me with reading comprehension and grammar. It has been 6 years since that instruction and I am still using those tools today. I am forever grateful to the Ark institute of Learning for restoring not only my confidence but my enjoyment in learning.

Such an amazing community to embrace your child! This is our 8th year at the school and highly…read morerecommend it! My children love the school, teachers and families here. The education they are experiencing seems way above and beyond!

This is our 6th year at ECS and we love everything about this school! From the caring teachers,…read morethe staff, the aides, the specialists, the pastors, they all love each of these students as their own. I have seen tremendous academic, spiritual and social growth in all 3 of my children. From preschool to middle school I highly recommend ECS!

David is my daughters speech therapist. What an amazing year it's been to have a child who can't…read morecommunicate, to one that won't shut up ;) ( that is a great thing! ) The program is excellent. Always having events for the kids to attend at childrens museum etc. David has brought out the best and most important thing for our daughter. Her voice. We adore him and are so grateful for all the time he has spent helping us. I know he sees plenty of children every week, I just hope he realizes how big of an impact he's making on all those little lives.

From the owner: ASAPC is one of the region's most progressive organizations for children who have one or more…read moredevelopmental delays. We provide convenient, home-based therapy and educational services, including speech, physical and occupational therapies and special education. Our team of talented and tenacious professionals work with families as partners, advocates and a support system of care. Our pledge is to unlock the full potential in every child we see.