Baldwin Park Elementary

As the saying goes: “not all that glitters is gold.” This could not be more true when deciding which school is right for your little one.

Baldwin Park Elementary has a beautiful edifice filled with mostly neurotypical students from privileged families. These children tend to thrive scholastically in this environment, as evidenced by the school’s strong academic record. On the other hand are the relatively few neurodivergent children, some of whom come from marginalized communities. I do not believe such students fare well in the BPE community.

As a parent of a student who attended BPE, I met various staff members - from those working in the registrar to those assigned to the classroom. It saddens me to report that many of these individuals were not the most considerate or sincere. From what I observed and experienced, they do not operate in good faith when it comes to special needs students and their families. As the parent, you're expected to do the impossible, even when the school isn't fulfilling its obligation to the child. An example here is warranted.

My daughter who is on the spectrum attended BPE for roughly four months. While enrolled, there were days when I struggled to get her out the door to school due to intense meltdowns that lasted for hours sometimes. Through it all, I kept the school informed of the issue and its impact on punctuality and attendance. In response, I received no empathy or support and was instead made to feel as though the fault was mine.

At the same time, my daughter’s IEP required her to have a 1:1 paraprofessional for safety and support at school, but BPE failed to provide one reliably. There were also days when her teacher called me frantically, within an hour or two of drop off, asking if I could come and get her because it’s “very hard.” While I am always eager to assist as needed, the school was less than willing to grant same when I was the one in need of assistance.

If you're having an issue with your child's teacher or anything school-related, the new principal can not be counted on to help. When I was faced with such concerns, I attempted multiple times to reach out to him in person and in writing. His responses each time lacked compassion and sounded dismissive. He has a habit of not following up and getting back to you on the issue, even when he says he will. On the contrary, there’s the new staffing specialist who I believe wanted to help, but I think her efforts were constrained by others in that environment.

As for my child's former classroom teacher - her attitude does not befit a professional. She frequently failed to greet me and other family members and rarely looked us in the eye while conversing. Fleeting glances were what we were given at best while she unnaturally engaged my daughter. She also held grudges over the smallest of disagreements and completely ignored me whenever she felt the least bit inconvenienced. Some of my messages to her, for example, went unanswered.

From my observation, this teacher is a performer who puts on a good show when she's being watched. But as soon as the curtains close, her true colors are revealed. I say this because she was noticeably more appropriate in her interactions with me when certain individuals were present compared with when they were not. Her classroom assistant is no different in terms of attitude. Her disregard for us was more blatant to be frank. I am therefore left with no choice but to question the quality of care my special needs daughter was receiving behind the scenes.

I will close with something that irks me to this day. Every parent looks forward to their child’s birthday and making him or her feel special. In October of this year, my little girl’s eighth birthday was on a school day. I dressed her nicely in her tutu birthday outfit and handed her over to her classroom teacher along with party favors for the entire class, including students and five adults. I also included custom made thank you cards with a note inside for each person. For clarification, the thank you cards were not given for something in particular, but as a way to encourage.

Prior to this, I was told by her classroom teacher that she enjoys art and music. To date, it’s unclear to me if she was made to feel celebrated at all or whether she enjoyed the day, despite my best efforts. I have no idea how the day unfolded for her, as the only thing that was written on her daily report was she had an “okay day” and “Happy Birthday.”

Do better Baldwin Park Elementary!