Washington Junior High School

"Disappointing. We moved from a top school district and were happy to enroll our child in a Naperville school. Our child has an IEP, mild reading/language disability but the last district did a nice job and we saw consistently growth over the years in our child's ability to learn and confidence. Our year at Washington was unpleasant. Our child complained that the special education teachers just gave answers to tests, did not help our child learn. At one point our child was very upset and said the special education teacher just marked the questions that were wrong on the test then gave it back and told our child to change them. When we questioned this with the school and district administrations the only thing that happened was retaliation. Our child then received no services at all. When asking the special education teacher to clarify a question on a test (that is one of our child's accommodations) our child was sarcastically told they were not allowed to help. It was an awful year. At her IEP review you could feel the tension and the assistant principal was irritated. He tried to remove IEP services and said there was no way he would approve it except for the fact we had enrolled our child in a private school. District 203 parents give the district everything on a silver platter: tax money, wonderful facilities, great pay and retirement. Can't they find employees who truly care if students learn? Is education here just a game of figures - showing that the special needs kids pass their classes when in fact they are just passed along? Naperville residents deserve better, the schools are here to serve the children, not the other way around. I have heard from another with the same experience who removed her child. If you have the same experience and the district is not responsive please contact ISBE with your story. There are some wonderful teachers there, they should have the support of professional special education services and administration."

"Disappointing. We moved from a top school district and were happy to enroll our child in a Naperville school. Our child has an IEP, mild reading/language disability but the last district did a nice job and we saw consistently growth over the years in our child's ability to learn and confidence. Our year at Washington was unpleasant. Our child complained that the special education teachers just gave answers to tests, did not help our child learn. At one point our child was very upset and said the special education teacher just marked the questions that were wrong on the test then gave it back and told our child to change them. When we questioned this with the school and district administrations the only thing that happened was retaliation. Our child then received no services at all. When asking the special education teacher to clarify a question on a test (that is one of our child's accommodations) our child was sarcastically told they were not allowed to help. It was an awful year. At her IEP review you could feel the tension and the assistant principal was irritated. He tried to remove IEP services and said there was no way he would approve it except for the fact we had enrolled our child in a private school. District 203 parents give the district everything on a silver platter: tax money, wonderful facilities, great pay and retirement. Can't they find employees who truly care if students learn? Is education here just a game of figures - showing that the special needs kids pass their classes when in fact they are just passed along? Naperville residents deserve better, the schools are here to serve the children, not the other way around. I have heard from another with the same experience who removed her child. If you have the same experience and the district is not responsive please contact ISBE with your story. There are some wonderful teachers there, they should have the support of professional special education services and administration."