Hannah More School

Our son, who has a high-functioning autism diagnosis, has absolutely thrived at this school. He previously attended a large public middle school that was a nightmare experience. The public school was not meeting his IEP goals and his grades plummeted. The worst part was that every day that he attended he was petrified and bullied. When he was approved to attend Hannah More School, he immediately experienced success. His grades improved, he came home happy and was never afraid to go to school. The school has great support systems with classroom aides, social workers, a psychiatrist, nurse etc... Best of all, our son is learning and thriving, is challenged and feels safe. He is even socializing and making friends for the first time. Any behavior issues are dealt with expeditiously, and bullying is not tolerated. Within the last few years, unfortunately, state and county funding shortfalls have meant cuts to staff and services. It would be a real shame to lose such a unique and valuable institution...
--Submitted by a parent

We have a son with autism and this is his third year at Hannah More. We are so happy to finally find a school where he is a good fit. It didn't start out that way, my son had a lot of behaviors to escape doing his work. Each year he makes more progress and the teachers and staff have worked with us to help him succeed. He will graduate with a diploma and we are looking forward to college for him.
--Submitted by a parent

If you have a child with special needs, avoid this school at all costs. The teachers here are not trained and are completely unprepared to handle children with special needs. I know, I was a student here. The school hardly accomadated my IEP and held me back on my education by teaching me material that was elementary when I was actually in the 8th grade. The behavioral system meant to "help" the students is a complete mess and only causes more problems for the students. Time out rooms are used as an alternate means to helping students with there problems. There was one student there who seemed to have autism and I always saw him in the time out room with the teachers sitting around doing nothing while the child is screaming and unaware of his behavior. It seemed to me like they were just letting him tire himself out. The school is horrible and even though most of the kids there were really nice and there wasn't much bullying, It always seemed like the teachers were the bullies.

I am a parent of a child who attended Hannah More School several years ago. Thank God and with the help of supportive friends we pulled him out of this horrible school and thank God we did. It was the best decision we ever made. This school does not promote healing, encouragement, and encourages medications for an excuse to get away with their inability and lack of training to follow IEP guidelines! In the near future, One day, I will share to the public the manner in which we experienced this school and will use concrete examples of information pertaining to the school's lack of treating special needs children in a more humane, healing and natural way.
--Submitted by a parent

Hannah More is a spectacular institution that thrived with student input when I was there. The teachers were involved, caring, and demonstrated an ability to lead their classrooms, not simply control them. I love Hannah More!
--Submitted by a student

If all schools were run like Hannah More, schools would still have a decent reputation and kids would be more likely to succeed.
--Submitted by a parent