NCRC

[Anonymous]

For those of you with experience with NCRC, how has it been for the special needs children and their families? Have you found it to be warm, welcoming, etc? Have the other parents and children been judgmental? We think it looks like a great school but are worried about these things.

[Anonymous]

Did you hear from them yet?

[Anonymous]

I can't speak to how a family with a special needs child experiences the school. I can, however, speak from the experience of someone who is now on her second child at the school.

The entire community is very warm and welcoming. Educating special needs children is part of NCRC's mission and culture, so everyone embraces it and believes in it. No one knows who the special needs children are unless the challenges a particular child faces is obvious (uses a walker for mobility, etc.). Even in that case, people are very aware that these are people we especially want at our school, so there is never anyone behind them in line huffing about being held up, etc. I hope I am making sense and being clear and not just making a mess of this!

Dealing with judgmental people is not something I have ever experienced at NCRC. As the head of our parent's association said in another context, "That's not how we roll here." The school just went through a huge renovation and accompanying capital campaign, and people were very moved by it and proud of what we accomplished for the school and for future children. The fundraising auction this year, in this terrible environment, raised more money in the pure donation to the scholarship portion of the auction than it ever has (this is where you just pledge money, you don't buy anything, even though the money from the "things" aslo goes to the scholarship fund).

The biggest problem I have with NCRC is that it can cause you to develop an almost cult-like devotion to the place. The reason this is a problem is that the school ends at pre-K, so you have to leave it!

[Anonymous]

Do most of the NCRC kids stay on through pre-k or leave to do pre-k at other schools?

[Anonymous]

You face a really difficult choice: choose to leave a school you really love a year earlier than you have to or stay and give up new schools that have their big entry points at pre-K. We chose to apply out to only one school we really loved for pre-K, didn't get in, and were thrilled to spend another year at NCRC before finding a K school that fit my child well. My anecdotal observation is that more than half of the kids stay for pre-K, maybe even 75%, but you would have to get the hard numbers from the school.