Mardan School

This is the most amazing School! Ms. Jordan and Ms. Tessa are miracle workers. My son loves going to school again. I love the small class size. The entire staff makes you feel welcome. If you have a child that is struggling with behaviors, bring them here. You will not regret it!

Well I don’t ‘do’ reviews… But Mardan has changed our lives.
My child has been going to Mardan for four years. He is diagnosed ‘high functioning autism’. We had our son in SDC preschool (decent/​good) and then district SDC kindergarten — the most horrible year of my life. We were able to fight for a one to one aid at his public school. My son would try to run away from school daily during his year in kindergarten at his public school. He was miserable, we were miserable! He would frequently cry about going to school. Yes, my son is challenging but this was what they are trained to do — what they choose to do as a profession. After spending thousands upon thousands of dollars for attorneys, advocates, assessments and more we decided to walk away and give Mardan a shot for a summer session. We started in the summer session at Mardan several years ago (self/​parent paid). When that first summer session was over I came accross him at home laying on the couch quiely crying. I asked him why he was crying? He wouldn’ t answer. I asked him if he missed school (Mardan) he said ‘yes’. What a difference! He was truly happy and enjoying himself for the first time in an academic setting.
Oh, how’s he doing accedemically? Better than he ever did at public. How’s he doing socially? A million times better than he ever did at public. He is not ever going to be ostersized for being different at Mardan. Best decision we ever made!

When I first discovered this school, based on recommendations of parents, doctor, and advocate, I was a bit worried. Mardan had a «reputation» for having difficult, violent kids. So we went to the school and were simply floored as to how wrong the reputation was.
The school is magnificent, with high tech (first graders were working on making powerpoint projects) education, including social studies, art, and science which is now lacking in most schools.
The teachers, adminstrators, and other parents have been outstanding and supportive. Many kids graduate Mardan and go on to college and successful occupations.
My daughter was basically being left behind by school district SDC classes. She has no outbursts, but will quietly not participate. I think that the public school system is very happy to have a warm body to get tax dollars and doesn’t care at all about their academic education once in the special education system.
In summer school alone, she went from non-​reading, to proficency in over 100 sight words. After a year, she can now read level 2 books, is learning to sound out words, and can add and subtract. They are addressing all of her issues and giving her the structure she needs to learn.
Some students are attending privately (parents paying), others are through the school distrct’s paying the way.
The younger kids are generally high-​functioning autistic/​ADHD. The older kids all have various reasons for not being able to handle public school. But all are very helpful, polite, and will find a lot of success.
My main negative is that there are not enough girls in this school. Parents of girls who are having issues in public school… pay attention, as many girls are diagnosed later than boys with learning disabilities. It’s better to intervene early and get help. Mardan is a wonderful place for kids with «different» ways of learning to excel.
Please check them out. Mardan is a wonderful resource which is underutilized
My daughter now loves to go to school!