My daughter has been struggling her whole life in school and we finally get her into Mardan School and she's having an amazing time. She's finally getting the support she needs and the education she deserves thank you to her teachers Mr. John and Mr. Zack thank you so much erin! You are so kind and helpful. Thank you Bonnie for everything thing you do thank you so much read more

I can't say enough about how amazing Mardan is. This school and the staff forever changed my sons life. Prior to coming here , he hated school , had a ton of behavioral issues and was so unhappy and school was just awful for him. We have been here for 4 years now. He loves school , he's thriving and it's absolutely remarkable to see how much he's changed and grown. The staff is amazing and I'll forever be grateful to have found this school. They truly do care about our children and they go above and beyond every day to make this environment a positive one for my son. I highly recommend Mardan if you're needing an alternative to public school , especially for children with special needs. read more

It was not a good school because I didn't fit in with the majority of the students there. They believe that people can discriminate against each other by rejecting them and not being friends with them. The teachers was so disrespectful as much as the students were because they would not do anything when I was being excluded and ostracized. I would highly recommend new students to never attend school because you'll be either be influenced by the bad behavior or bothered by this behavior. It is so unreasonable for this school to even exist. And please do not listen to the five star reviews because something is clearly wrong with those people because they are heartless and delusional. Please stay away! read more

Mardan has been an amazing place for our child! The campus is lovely and spacious, but most importantly the staff are wonderful. the teachers, administrators, counselor, and support team have all played such an important role in our lives these last several years. They are true professionals in their field and through a combination of teamwork and individual meaningful relationships with our son, they have changed his educational and social/emotional paths in very positive ways. Thank you all so much for your support and patience and for making Mardan a great place for kids! read more

This school removes the extra pressure that usually falls on the shoulders of our children and frees them up so they can access their education. This Therapeutic educational environment is where they can thrive and work through their moments and challenges. Everyday is a new day. Where mistakes can be forgotten and grudges aren't held. Its the forgiveness, Kindness, And most of all Trust the children have in this environment. My son is in 6th grade and he is improving. His teacher is Zach. The team is Awsome at Mardan. read more

When I first discovered this school, based on recommendations of parents, doctor, and advocate, I was a bit worried. Mardan had a "reputation" for having difficult, violent kids. So we went to the school and were simply floored as to how wrong the reputation was. The school is magnificent, with high tech (first graders were working on making powerpoint projects) education, including social studies, art, and science which is now lacking in most schools. The teachers, adminstrators, and other parents have been outstanding and supportive. Many kids graduate Mardan and go on to college and successful occupations. My daughter was basically being left behind by school district SDC classes. She has no outbursts, but will quietly not participate. I think that the public school system is very happy to have a warm body to get tax dollars and doesn't care at all about their academic education once in the special education system. In summer school alone, she went from non-reading, to proficency in over 100 sight words. After a year, she can now read level 2 books, is learning to sound out words, and can add and subtract. They are addressing all of her issues and giving her the structure she needs to learn. Some students are attending privately (parents paying), others are through the school distrct's paying the way. The younger kids are generally high-functioning autistic/ ADHD. The older kids all have various reasons for not being able to handle public school. But all are very helpful, polite, and will find a lot of success. My main negative is that there are not enough girls in this school. Parents of girls who are having issues in public school...pay attention, as many girls are diagnosed later than boys with learning disabilities. It's better to intervene early and get help. Mardan is a wonderful place for kids with "different" ways of learning to excel. Please check them out. Mardan is a wonderful resource which is underutilized My daughter now loves to go to school! read more

Mardan School has been the most significant thing that has happened to our family since our son entered school. Our son has grown more socially and academically in the past year (he just finished 2nd grade) than in all his other years combined. Before Mardan, we alternatingly heard that our son's issues were too severe or not severe enough to warrant a specialized school program. At Mardan, the team of teachers and professionals are caring and target his specific needs. Social skills training is integrated into every aspect of his learning enviornment. Individual academic accomplishments are celebrated...he feels smart despite his cognative deficits. It has been so refreshing to be able to talk with intellegent, caring, trained teachers about our son's social and academic challenges at school and at home. We no longer have to hear, "he's not doing that at school, so we can't help". The full-child approach ensures our son is meeting his potential in all aspects of life. Thank you, Mardan, for helping our son become the young man that he is. read more

Everything was going well for me during 4th Grade while I was at Mardan until they hired a new teacher named "Maryanne Jacques" She was physically and verbally abusive towards not only myself but to other students as well. She went as far as dragging my friend with cerebral palsy on the floor by his leg because he refused to put his toys away even though it was lunch time and we had free time before class started again. She also would talk a LOT about herself and was so self-centered. She didn't seem to care about us. Sadly I didn't have my phone on me that day, otherwise I'd have recorded it and would have shown local authorities to have her arrested for child abuse. She would also belittle us by making fun of our disabilities considering the fact that we were all at Mardan for a reason because we struggled in public schools. Thankfully she was fired a year after I left Mardan, and it seems like management has changed and there are plenty of new teachers who actually care about the students. I'm really thankful for David and all the love and support he provided for myself and my family. He is really a good person and genuinely cares about the children at Mardan. read more

The worst school disguised under "therapeutic school." They slowly destroyed my son's self esteem. The worst teacher was Erin Rosenthal, she destroyed his self esteem and made him feel like he was incapable, the opposite of what a teacher should do. She has now been promoted to "Supervisor of Educational Services," that says a lot about this school, promoting a sub-standard teacher that has very limited understanding of learning differences. Also Terrie Gero-Smead is one of the most difficult and rude people to deal with, no people skills and unprofessional. I could not take my son out of here fast enough. My son is now at a school that actually fosters his creativity and recognizes his intelligence, he is thriving and happy! If your child doesn't fit into a traditional curriculum, this school will harm and hinder your child's future if you keep them there. read more

Well I don't 'do' reviews... But Mardan has changed our lives. My child has been going to Mardan for four years. He is diagnosed 'high functioning autism'. We had our son in SDC preschool (decent/good) and then district SDC kindergarten - the most horrible year of my life. We were able to fight for a one to one aid at his public school. My son would try to run away from school daily during his year in kindergarten at his public school. He was miserable, we were miserable! He would frequently cry about going to school. Yes, my son is challenging but this was what they are trained to do - what they choose to do as a profession. After spending thousands upon thousands of dollars for attorneys, advocates, assessments and more we decided to walk away and give Mardan a shot for a summer session. We started in the summer session at Mardan several years ago (self/parent paid). When that first summer session was over I came accross him at home laying on the couch quiely crying. I asked him why he was crying? He wouldn' t answer. I asked him if he missed school (Mardan) he said 'yes'. What a difference! He was truly happy and enjoying himself for the first time in an academic setting. Oh, how's he doing accedemically? Better than he ever did at public. How's he doing socially? A million times better than he ever did at public. He is not ever going to be ostersized for being different at Mardan. Best decision we ever made!! read more

This is the most amazing School! Ms. Jordan and Ms. Tessa are miracle workers. My son loves going to school again. I love the small class size. The entire staff makes you feel welcome. If you have a child that is struggling with behaviors, bring them here. You will not regret it! read more

My step son attends Mardan under the custodial rights of his mother. He is a 1st grader and his teacher is Ms. Jordan. He left his last school because of aggression issues. He was diagnosed as Autistic at 12 months old and showed some delays, the strange thing is, when he is in mine and my husbands care for 5 day stretches, he shows zero signs of Autism and NEVER any aggression. All of the adults in our life with children are surprised when we tell them that he is in a special needs school and "autistic;" no one agrees. Before dismissal from his last elementary school, the elementary school he attended in San Juan Capistrano thought he was ready to join mainstream school. Then his mother moved and he has since been enrolled in two different schools. He has been in three different schools since he started pre-K. Back to Mardan. We were fairly concerned with the lack of transparency and their secretive tendencies. My husband volunteered at the last school once a week for a couple hours in the morning for a year. When his son started this new school, Mardan, he asked if he could observe his son at Mardan, possibly volunteer here as well and they were very difficult in allowing this; he had to set up a special one-time appointment for to have a "glimpse" of his son's classroom. You are not allowed to drop into a classroom and see your child. There are weekly behavior reports that the teacher fills out a daily report on the child with a star-system, 10 stars being the best. Once the child became focused on obtaining 10 stars, any time he would fall shy of that marker, he would get upset. So, they took the star-system away from him and gave him an unlimited point system, as to not upset him. My husband and I thought this was terrible message for impressionable child. While were are preaching responsibility for one's actions and accountability, the teacher is simultaneously enforcing the opposite. We understand the job security at a special needs school, especially at one that costs a college tuition to attend. Additionally, my husband was the only one who would initial and write replies on this weekly behavior report, after a couple months went by, the mom started initially as well, but not writing in-depth responses, a couple months later she started writing, "see ya tomorrow." A couple of weeks ago we noticed that he was struggling with his months of the year, so we started practicing over and over, until he got them. My husband wrote a note to the teacher questioning the educational goals for her first grade class. We picked the child up today, and interestingly in his folder that contains his weekly behavior reports, all of the reports had been replaced and all of my husband's comments from the beginning of September 2014 were GONE. The weekly behavior reports were completely doctored. Not only that, where there had once been zero initials from the mother, there were all of a sudden initials. Unbelievable. This has to be illegal. We called the school promptly, but Ms. Jordan was not in. We spoke to the principal, he sounded shocked and is supposed to call us first thing in the morning. We were already skeptical of this school, but now we're appalled. The child has made zero progress in self development and he is educationally behind. He was receiving care from a counselor at this school and he started to show some improvements for his mom, however that service was stopped. This child is the type that when he is in our care, all he wants to do is learn and he will go sit in his room and MAKE worksheets of spelling / math / reading and then work them. Obviously, our problem is much larger than the under par educational services of this school, but unfortunately California is a pro-mother state and unless the mom is a criminal, or drug addict, the child will never be taken from her care, even if it is proven the child is substantially more successful in the father's care. We'll keep pushing on though and do our best for the child. However, beware of this school, it is an extremely odd setting. What are they hiding? Why would the teacher go through these lengths of cutting out all of my husband's comments (positive, as well as negative). Could it be because the Regional Center is getting involved? Good thing we made copies every week of the reports and have them on file. read more