Merlin Day Academy has been a wonderful, supportive place for our son. He has thrived there and we…read moreare grateful for all of the kindness and patience that the staff has showed to both him and all of the children. He has made real gains with using his AAC device and also learning strategies to help him control behavior. They have also presumed competence in his education and have helped him move up the ladder academically. He has benefitted from all of the therapy modalities and I have been impressed with everyone he's worked with: parapros, teachers, and therapists.

This is our 3rd year at Merlin; before that our son was at Blue Bird Day, a preschool also under…read morethe Eya's Landing umbrella. We have only had positive experiences at both schools. Merlin provides comprehensive therapeutic services, including ABA, ST, PT, OT, and Social Work, in addition to educational services. The staff are insightful, creative, patient, compassionate and fun, and my son absolutely loves his time at school. The learning mixed with therapeutic play is just right for him developmentally, and his therapists take a holistic approach to building social and academic, and other skills he'll need to function throughout life. As someone who taught for nearly a decade and has worked in school settings since, I can fully appreciate the level of individual attention he gets from his therapists and therapeutic assistants, the extensive communication with families to stay up to date on our goals for our child and to let us know how his day is going (including notes and photos throughout the day!). And mostly I appreciate that he is not just sitting around at a desk all day doing differentiated work--I he is active and thinking, engaged, and having fun as he builds new skills. I see the review from two and a half months ago, and I think the context there is important: hers was the very first child to transition from private insurance to ISBE funding, so it makes sense that she personally would have experienced the growing pains as they adjust to a different system. I can imagine that this is a steep learning curve, and I'd extend some grace to them as they figure it out. In our second year at the Avondale location, I'd say they have worked out a lot of kinks, and that this is a joyful place for my child to learn throughout the day. We have found it to be a godsend.

Chicago is extremely lucky to have a fantastic wine instructor in Jessica Bell and the Midwest Wine…read moreSchool. I completed both the Intermediate and the Advanced WSET courses via Jessica and MWS, and was blown away with her knowledge, professionalism, and teaching style. As a wine educator myself, I've seen many, many wine instructors in action, and Jessica might be the best I've seen. If your'e interested in the WSET courses, the MWS is a great place to get it done: class size is perfect, lots of opportunity for interaction, the course material is presented extremely well, and Jessica chose perfect "text book" versions of sampling wines, a feat which cannot be underestimated given the blind tasting portion of the Advanced exam. Would recommend Midwest Wine School without hesitation.

Ok- Let me say this,…read moreJessica Bell KNOWS her stuff, from A to Z, in reference to wine. The Advance class is a 13 session course, meeting from 1pm to 4pm, on Saturday's. The unfortunate thing, is that each session runs straight through, with NO breaks, no reviews at the beginning or end of each session. Don't get me wrong, it is an amazing course, but some days, I found myself doubting the whole process. The trainers need to take a course on how to run effective training sessions. From the beginning, middle and end. Although I took the Advance course, I spoke with others in the intermediate course and the feeling was the same, "knowledgeable instructors, but, no structure or process built into the coursre to assess and review the information". Since the sessions are 3 hours, there needs to be two 10min breaks, an assessment, and/or review, built into each session as well. NO EXCEPTIONS, especially since the packages ranges from $300.00 to $1,100.00, per wine level course. example- http://knol.google.com... Also, some instructors need more coaching-training, than others; specifically, the German instructor, she spent 2.5hrs speaking about German wines, etc. and even that 2.5hrs was a cluster! She was unorganized and lost train of thought, often! As I have been in other seminars, trainings, etc. WSET needs to ensure that their instructors go through a training course as well.

Mo is an amazing and knowledgeable advocate in her field. I would highly recommend her. She was a…read moregreat listener, understood al the in's & outs of the bureaucracy surrounding special needs. She helped us get our son's district to send him to a private therapy ASD school and have the district pay for it and transportation. She's a blessing for those of us who want to advocate for our kids but don't know how.

I had the pleasure of meeting Mo at a resource fair and hearing her presentation on IEP 101. She is…read morevery knowledgeable, thorough in reviewing and captures the important details to an IEP. Mo took the lead at the IEP meeting and was very helpful in communicating with the team on adjusting areas of the IEP, adding more information to the IEP and making recommendations for evaluations. This was my second time working/learning from Mo and I will continue to refer back to her when needed and for my next meetings.

I have been call IREM since 6/2019 regarding issues with the course…read more .Initially all of my work from June was canceled due to a transition in July 2019. I have not been able to access my courses successfully since March 2020. I have called the 800 number on the website (800) 837-0706)several times and 312-329-6086 with no return calls and more recently I've discovered it's been disconnected leaving me no way to communicate. I have sent emails that have gone on reply to. I have attached the consumer fraud report that was submitted to the Chicago Illinois website. https://311.chicago.gov/s/article/Consumer-fraud-complaints?language=en_US complaint tracking number is SR20-04524820. Don't take classes with this company.

IREM is doing a great job remaining relevant in the industry, in addition to keeping current in…read moreeducating professionals, they're making it fun. Seminars and interesting tours. Today we did the Old Main Post Office, now a City of Chicago Historical Landmark! Great day!

There's nothing about this program that could improve. The teachers are rude and are very…read moredisrespectful to the students. Why might people ask? Cuz they don't give a sh*t. The teachers don't do their jobs. They're always overreacting about everything. They are a bunch of idiots who were very rude to me and my girlfriend. If this program closes down in the next couple of years, I'm not gonna be surprised.

I was a student at PACE (2017-2020) I did not graduate because i decided to leave to focus on my…read moremental health and felt that I didn't need this program. i am a very open person about my disability, however my needs were not met. there were good things that came from me attending this Program. i met new people. and I cherish the friendships I have made and am grateful I met them through PACE, unfortunately, this was the only positive thing for me. there are MANY flaws in the program when I attended. for example, I was rediagnosed by a medical professional. when I started here I had Bipolar disorder, then in 2018 I was rediagnodes with Borderline Personality Disorder (making Bipolar disorder a misdiagnosis). my parents advocated for me to recieve very specific treatment to help my BPD, and help me continue to be stable and functional in life. however it was revealed to me by my parents (after I left the program completemy) that the staff who were in charge of the program disagreed about my new diagnosis of Borderline Personality Disorder, they told my parents "She doesn't have that! we don't think she has that! she will not be accommodated to do her treatment program instead of school/internship." fast forward to late March/early April of 2021, I was admitted into a mental health facility. i was in the treatment center april 12, 2021 - July 28, 2021 fora mental health issues that was so severe on my health (I was so unstable because I didn't recieve the treatment when I was first recommended to start the intensive treatment. i didn't have the correct and effective coping skills and knowledge of what I have. because I didnt get this help in 2018 I had no idea what was going on with me, i almost did something I would've regretted) I believe it I were to have done this intensive treatment called Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT) in 2018, I most likely wouldn't have gone into a severe depression and anxiety and slowly slipping away from my life because I would've had the coping skills and intensive skills knowledge to manage my life in a healthy way. But my accommodations my parents and I were trying to get me we're rejected. also, another example is that I had been threatened verbally by another peer countless times and reported it to the staff in PACE, (I wasn't the only student being threatened by this one person). there were countless times I would stick up for myself AND my peers who were also victims of this one individual peer who would constantly bully other students. i had brought this up to all the staff and they didn't do much to help. they just suspended the student and brought him back. i would ask my parents for help with talking to the staff about being verbally attacked and threatened to be physically harmed. the student got suspended multiple times, when they should've been expelled. (the student just graduated this year 2022) I know that because i have friends who graduated in 2022 as well. i did NOT feel safe at this program. I i am currently in therapy. and one of the main topics I discuss are my time at PACE and the Trauma I have triggered and caused by the situations at the program. i don't think I can select 0 stars for the rating of this program. my rating of this program is 1 star total. and that is generous of me. because I did meet friends. other than that, this program sucks and I am disgusted and angered by my time here.