Archway Classical Academy Lincoln – Great Hearts, Chandler | Fees, Rankings, Address, Admission, Vacancies, Reviews & More

As a Mom with a special child, I feel that I need to share our story and our true experience with this school.

Our son is in first grade now. He started attending Archway Lincoln from Kindergarten. I would say our first year with the school was very pleasant. We were so fortunate to have Mrs. Ross as my son’s teacher. Her great effort made my son very successful in Kindergarden. He was staying with his class for the whole day without any problem. He loves Mrs. Ross and Mrs. DeMesse. He loves his classmates and had several very good friends. He enjoyed school for the whole Kindergarden year and succeeded in keeping up with the academic work.

But from the beginning of Aug. 2018 when my son started first grade, everything changed. Two ESS staff Eric and Mr. Michelle left the school. We were assigned a new case manager Mrs. W whom we believe doesn’t have any prior experience with special education. Also, our son had a lot of trouble with his classroom teacher Mrs. C. Approximately once every two weeks, our son went back home crying, telling us that he was bullied by his teacher. Just give two examples: My son has a strong bonding with his belongings and was given accommodation of putting his backpack next to him. But Mrs. W once grabbed my son’s backpack first thing in the morning and put it in another room, which made our son cry and fear of bringing his backpack to school ever since. One afternoon during the school dismissal, when my son was writing on his homework package while waiting for pickup, Mrs. C grabbed his homework and held it up high to stop him from writing.

In addition, my son has speech delay that he can’t pronounce many sounds like /k/ /g/ /s/ /l/ /n/ … clearly, which made his speaking very hard to be understood. Also, he had a difficulty in expressing himself effectively. According to his IEP, he has speech therapy once a week (30min). We asked the school to provide a log with therapist notes showing what was worked on during the speech session for Aug. and Sep. 2018 but the school failed to provide that. In Nov. 2018, the school called on IEP meeting and in their proposed new IEP, the service time for speech was changed to “30min, three times monthly”.

We filed an OCR complaint on Oct. 2018 and we have the choice to mediation, but we felt that even if the school addressed our issue, the systematic flaws in the school’s ESS system would still exist which will negatively impact more students. So we choose to let OCR attorney do investigation. At this time the school called on IEP meeting for my son multiple times in order to change his IEP, but we think this is not the correct time to talk with the school before the OCR investigation results come out.

On Jan. 18, 2019, the school sent us a new “IEP” with a “Prior Written Notice” that the school decided to change my son’s placement: His current IEP stated he will spend >80% of the time with his class. But the school decided to put him in ESS room for 4 hours every day, which means separating him from his classmates and depriving his right to learn science, history, literature and other subjects in a general education class. The only time that my son was allowed to stay in his classroom is the math since the school thinks that is my son’s strongest area.

The school brutally enforced this “decision” even if we clearly stated disagreement. For the two days (today and yesterday), my son only spent less than one hour in his classroom (for math). For all other time he was forced to go to the “ESS” room with Mrs. W whom he already lost trust.

My son used to enjoy his school. Typically when I wait in line outside the playground for pickup, I see him cheerfully run out of the classroom building and waive to me with a big smile on his face. But for these two days, his smile was gone and it is heartbreaking to hear him saying :”Mom, I don’t want to go to school tomorrow.”

We have been at Archway Lincoln for just a little over a month. I felt compelled to write this review because such a large Charter School network and so few reviews . We are all busy. I am drowning in laundry but I think this school deserves two thumbs up!! I personally read reviews to help me make decisions, and deciding how to best educate your child is important….understatement!!! We are transitioning from 5 years of homeschooling and I felt sick to my stomach leaving my child that first day. The teachers, aides, office staff etc. have been lovely. And I don’t know how much the teachers get paid, but I hope it’s a fair wage. They give up their lunch hour to help tutor. When I was an elementary school teacher many moons ago…I needed that down time. I would not have made the same sacrifice but for an occasional pizza party. My only con is this school gives a lot of homework. I’m anti homework. Beyond an hour or so. I love the Montessori philosophy that children should spend their afternoons climbing a tree or studying the violin, etc. My husband is pro homework. Que sera sera! My daughter cried the first few nights and we were exhausted! So give yourself that bit of adjustment time. She says she loves her teachers, loves school, and asked to re-enroll next year. I love a uniform policy. You can find the pants, shorts, and skorts on clearance at Walmart. The polo shirts are going to cost extra due to the school specific logo but when all is said and done you will probably save money on school clothes shopping. I hope this review is helpful to some parent who will be going through the same transition I just made. And if you are a family of faith. I would like to mention that we thought a parochial school would follow homeschooling. That was sadly not something we could budget. But I have not heard my daughter come home and share anything she learned in direct conflict with our faith. Thanks for reading!

My son is in Mrs. Chance’s classroom of 1st grade in Archway Lincoln. He has an IEP. We have been struggling with this school since August 2018. Today, I feel I need to share my experience.
We submitted OCR claims in October 2018 based on denial of FAPE (Free Appropriate Public Education), and the OCR attorney has accepted our claims and is in the process of investigation of this school. We think the school retaliate us by putting my son out of his classroom for the most of the time today (According to what my son told us).
According to his IEP, he needs to stay in his classroom for >80% of the school time. The headmaster Oluwatoyin Atolagbe sent us an email today stating that the school decided to change my son’s placement without our consent. According to IEDA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act), IEP can not be changed without parents’ permission. The school administration is not doing the right thing. We are extremely outraged. We will see how thing goes during the OCR investigation. I will update as time goes.