Potential parents who would like to enroll their child should read the public record, the Assurance of Voluntary Compliance (AVC), issued to Waterfront Academy, Inc., by the Attorney General's Office of DC (June 5, 2023). This public record can be retrieved via the District's Freedom of Information Act. The AVC addresses a pattern of behavior, regarding the omission of material information "in connection with the solicitation and receipt of tuition payments." My family's experience mirrored those documented in this record. We had completed early re-enrollment for our son with the expectation that Waterfront would remain at 924 Pennsylvania Ave SE, which it did not. Not only did it change school locations 4 times within 12 months (in summer 2024, they had moved from their M street location to Pennsylvania Avenue), from September 3, 2024 to February 28, 2025, Waterfront Academy engaged in knowing misrepresentation and concealed the material fact about the school's actual operating locations. Waterfront Academy operated in part from the Hill Center across the street at 921 Pennsylvania Avenue SE. Next, Waterfront began operating exclusively out of the Hill Center on March 3, 2025, due to lease termination at its 924 Pennsylvania Avenue location. (A termination that was not explained to parents). A few weeks later it settled into the "new" home on D Street on April 7, 2025. Given the staggering mismanagement of the school's location, we decided to un-enroll our child. We were not refunded, even though as a direct result of the behavior and manipulation regarding the location of the school lessons, we suffered the following damages: financial loss in paid school tuition; emotional distress; and wasted time. Even given the above, the school administration was unwavering: "Tuition and fee payments are non-refundable," and we have suffered the financial burden. read more

Sadly we can confirm the accuracy of Kaira's post dated Nov 12, 2025. Our son attended Waterfront from Jan 2023 till Jun 2025. Melissa withheld information from parents during the 2024-25 school year regarding 924 Pennsylvania Ave SE, Waterfront's ostensible school building at the time, which we came to understand never had a certificate of occupancy appropriate for a school to operate in. Melissa also avoided informing parents that students were spending at least half of the school day at the Hill Center between September 2024 and February 2025, which we believe to have been an attempt to work around the lack of a certificate of occupancy. When classes were being conducted at the Hill Center, children did not have access to the Montessori materials. To this day, we do not know what our child was doing in "class" at the Hill Center. In February 2025 the school's landlord terminated the lease, which Melissa told parents on an emergency call was connected to the pending opening of a nearby marijuana shop - an assertion we could never find a basis for. Parents had to piece together what was going on. We eventually concluded the termination was related to the certificate of occupancy and possibly other issues. When explicitly asked why the lease was terminated, Melissa refused to answer. From there the school moved twice in the remaining four months of the school year. Melissa's misrepresentations and deceptions multiplied - they are too many to list here. The moves were chaotic; the interim location (the Hill Center, now on a full-day basis) was loud and chaotic and lacked appropriate school furniture. The progress we had seen our son make in the previous two school years ground virtually to a halt. The strain on his teachers, who were excellent and always warm and kind with the children, was apparent, and neither of them work for the school anymore. We would advise anyone considering sending their child to Waterfront to reconsider. read more

Kids screaming, running, and playing, outside between 8:00-8:30am EST in a residential courtyard of a luxury apartment building. When Melissa was asked to adjust outdoor playtime to a more reasonable hour to rectify the negative impact she's having on the community, she responded with sarcasm and unprofessionalism. read more

Waterfront Academy has been fantastic for our family. Our daughter attended both summer camp and pre-primary dual immersion (English-Spanish) Montessori programs; we were and continue to be impressed. The communication and guidelines/rules established by Waterfront Academy are clear, concise, and helpful as parents move from daycare/nanny shares to preschool programs. Community: The program provides a chance for parent interaction through school sponsored educational events. Program parents and the kids are all very impressive with diverse backgrounds. Culture: Transitions are never easy for kids, parents, or teachers, we are all human and have emotions. My daughter had a rough time transitioning from the summer camp fun to school. Although a previous poster mentioned the director's hesitation to help her daughter through the transition, we had the exact opposite experience. Melissa coached me through the experience and the teachers worked hard to ensure our daughter was handling school and her emotions as comfortably as possible. She loves Waterfront Academy again thanks to the help of school staff. Curriculum: This is our first experience with Montessori education, but from research and other school tours, we are confident in the authenticity. We love the Spanish immersion and my daughter is singing songs and saying phrases in Spanish all the time. We are happy with what she has learned thus far and it's exceeded our expectations. All in all, our daughter is happy and so are we! read more

My experience with Waterfront Academy: Melissa Rohan refused to refund the school deposit to me, the single mother of a special needs child. After doing some research and talking to Melissa, the head of school, I decided to enroll my son, 2.5 at the time, at Waterfront Academy in June 2017. I made the $3,000 deposit. I told Melissa that he required speech therapy for an hour a week which she told me was fine - he could get it during lunch or aftercare. I also told her that he was being professionally evaluated as speech did not appear to be the only issue he was facing. She said that was fine and that we would work together. August 1st 2017, my son's diagnosis was "mild autism" and his psychologist did not believe that the Montessori classroom would be appropriate for him. She spoke to Melissa directly and, while she found Melissa's desire to be helpful laudable, ultimately she believed he would not do well in that environment. He needs to have a behavior therapist with him for at least two hours a day - in the classroom with him - to help with his social and language development. I reached out to Melissa to withdraw my son and request a refund of the deposit. She said that the deposit had already been used to buy materials and enroll her teachers in professional development that would make them more prepared to work with an autistic child. I did not know how this was possible since there were only a few DAYS lapsed between the diagnosis and our withdrawal. Moreover, Melissa had said she would work with us - but bought materials and selected professional development without the guidance of our psychologist OR us? Melissa insisted that she could not refund the money. I insisted that these were exigent circumstances and requested an audience with her board of directors. She accepted and said we could write a letter to the board and the board would vote on refunding the money. This was September/October 2017. Despite multiple calls and emails, there has been NO outcome. At this point, we just want an answer - either way. We would take an IRS donation letter so at least we could recoup some of our losses. As of today, Melissa isn't even returning emails or calls. I find it shocking that someone who is the head of a FAITH based school is so dishonest and duplicitous. Just give us an answer. Shame on you. read more

We have had a wonderful experience at Waterfront Academy. Our son has been a student there for a year (since he was 2.5) and he has grown so much in his time at the school. We have watched his confidence, curiosity, and focus develop, and he is well cared for by the teachers at Waterfront. We have been able to observe his class on occasion and the environment is amazingly peaceful and supportive. His Spanish has also improved significantly. Most importantly, he is always happy when we pick him up and asks about his Waterfront friends and teachers outside of school. We recommend it to anyone looking for an enriching and nurturing environment for your children. read more

This is a review for the Toddler Saturday session. It was horrible. I would give it zero stars if I could. I recommend avoiding this organization and finding another place for your child to learn. We enrolled our 2-year-old in the Saturday morning program because she is very shy and we wanted her to have an opportunity to be around other kids her age without us or her other regular caregivers. The program is an hour and a half every Saturday morning for 6 weeks. And it's completely in Spanish. That was pretty much all the website disclosed regarding the class. We arrived at school the first Saturday and our daughter began exploring the toys and looking at the other kids. When it came time for class to begin, the parents were told we had to wait in the hallway for the duration of the class. What? Nowhere on the website or in any of the correspondence from the school did it say that the parents had to cool their heels in a narrow hallway while their kids were in class. Apparently, it was a fire code regulation that required kiddos under a certain age to have an adult with them in case of a fire so they could safely get down three flights of stairs. Okay. So, my husband went to get coffee and I stayed with the other parents and my newborn. Predictably, a few kids started crying, my daughter included. Melissa, the founder and President of the school, said that it's typical of the first week, but it gets better. Since this was the first time my daughter was away from us or her typical caregivers, she cried for a while. We expected this, and were not upset by it. Again, we wanted our daughter to get used to playing without us. Apparently, though, the teachers were upset by our daughter's crying, because after 20 minutes they removed her from the class and brought her to me in the hallway. Melissa made up an excuse about crying being bad for a kid's immune system, but it was clear that she just didn't want a crying child in her class. Which is confusing to us because she opened a school and has a toddler program. Two year olds cry. I would expect teachers of a toddler program could deal with it, but I was wrong. These teachers had no idea what to do. I did note to Melissa that if this was any normal Montessori program or daycare (ones that aren't on the third floor of the building), the teacher would have to deal with a crying child by soothing or otherwise distracting or engaging with the child. Just because the parents have to stay on the floor for fire code reasons does not give them a license to give up on a kid when it's inconvenient to have the kid in class. Even though Melissa told us to "try again next week," we encouraged Melissa to let our daughter back into the class. Melissa made a feeble attempt to ask our daughter if she wanted to go back in (obviously the answer she was given was no) and kind of gave up. At that point, our daughter was too upset by the whole ordeal, so we left. It ruined our Saturday morning. The next day, we took her to Sunday school and she did beautifully in essentially the same situation, which further leads us to conclude that her distress at Waterfront was due to the incompetence of the teachers, and not just to her shyness. Given that it was clear Waterfront is not capable of handling a crying child, and we were not confident our daughter would not cry if she went back, we requested a refund of the $300 tuition. We assumed this would not be a problem given that (1) we did not receive the service we paid for because we were told to leave not even half way through the class, (2) we were told to leave because our daughter was crying, which was bound to happen again, and (3) there was no requirement that your child not cry to attend the class, so they were not justified in asking us to leave. Melissa (again, founder and President) refused to give us a refund, saying that she would only give us a "credit" to be used at another Toddler Saturday class or at a summer camp. We obviously wouldn't do another Toddler Saturday class and are unwilling to spend more money for a camp when the school is incapable of dealing with normal toddler behavior. We decided to let it go and let Waterfront keep the $300 that they didn't earn. This school might be for you if your child is a perfect angel, if you want to waste an hour and a half staring at other parents in a stuffy hallway every Saturday, and if you like giving money to an organization that does not feel the need to fulfill its end of the bargain. But if this doesn't describe your kid or you, look elsewhere. read more

We absolutely love Waterfront Academy! Our son has been going there for a year and counting (since 4 years old). We have seen a major improvement in his bilingual skills, social interactions, and his confidence in academics. He has become a leader in the classroom from the shy child at his previous school. We had such a horrific experience with the DCPS school system that we decided to go private. We were pleasantly surprised with Waterfront's ability to assist our son in adapting to his new environment and welcome our input as parents regularly. Melissa and her staff have done an amazing job of proactively seeking feedback on how they can improve his experience and keeping us abreast of his progress. They do a wonderful job of keeping us engaged year round and making sure the Waterfront Academy community is a safe, nurturing and productive environment. Our son is always excited to get to school and always needs "5 more minutes" when it's time to leave school. Words can't even describe the teaching staff's dedication to our son's progress as a student and young child. I would recommend Waterfront to anyone who wants a great Montessori experience along with dedicated professionals. read more