Research Mount Pleasant Cottage School public Schools in Peekskill, New York

“The school has finally received the related services staff denied to them by the State Education Department. New leadership in the CSE office has enabled parents to be a vital part of the process. Students continue to benefit from the non-coercive approach to developing appropriate behaviors as well as increased focus on academics that is enabling children to pass Regents exams at unprecedented levels. Coordination with the agencies and CSEs that send students to this special school continues to improve. The staff all share the mission of helping students become thinking caring and productive adults. The after school program offers enrichment in areas from chess to cooking to basketball.”

“I have found the staff at this school to be either inexperienced or incompetent. I have spoken to other parent advocacy groups who have told me that parents who try to be involved are treated as adversaries which mirrors my personal experience. Children are not receiving services that they are mandated to and when questioned the staff becomes threatening. IEPs are at best vague and at worst dangerous in that they are not specific and lack evaluations by professionals who care about the population they serve.”