Our family's experience with Marcus Pointe Baptist was ultimately very disappointing, particularly…read morein how concerns about our daughter's academic needs and safety were handled.
Our daughter has mild ADHD and is a bright, capable student who does not require intensive academic support. The school actually presented accommodations to us as a routine, straightforward process. We were told we simply needed documentation from her doctor, which we obtained and submitted immediately.
The accommodations were basic classroom supports, yet they were repeatedly not provided consistently by her teacher. We tried to address this respectfully throughout the year, including friendly reminders when accommodations were missed, but the same issues continued.
There was also significant confusion surrounding the accommodations themselves. We were told we would receive her "504 plan," but what we were ultimately given was an accommodations/strategies sheet rather than a formal 504 plan. This left us questioning how clearly her accommodations had been documented, communicated to her teacher, and monitored throughout the year.
Separate from the academic issues, we had serious concerns about how peer conflict and our daughter's safety were handled.
On one occasion, our daughter was cornered on the playground by another student and became very upset and began crying. She reported seeking help from multiple teachers. Instead of receiving support, she reported responses including "I'm not dealing with this" before a teacher walked away and being told that if she could not calm down, she would have to sit in the front office.
Children have conflicts. Our concern was not simply that an incident occurred, but how the adults responsible for supervising her responded when a young child was distressed and actively asking for help.
We also raised concerns with administration about ongoing peer behavior and bullying-type situations. During those conversations, we were told statements along the lines of "boys will be boys" and that boys "pull your hair and tease you when they like you." We made it very clear that this is not a message we teach our daughter. Unwanted physical contact or teasing should not be normalized because another child may "like" her. We expected the school to reinforce appropriate boundaries and respectful behavior.
When we raised these concerns more directly with administration, we hoped for a conversation about what had happened, why agreed-upon accommodations were not consistently followed, how the playground concerns had been handled, and what could be done differently.
Instead, we received an email stating, "We feel it is best for Finley to finish the school year at home." This was approximately a week and a half before the end of school, and assignments were sent home for her to complete.
This was completely unexpected. Our daughter had attended Marcus Pointe since K4 and had NEVER been in trouble of any kind. She was not a child with a history of behavioral or disciplinary problems. We had followed the school's accommodation process, immediately provided the documentation they requested, sent friendly reminders when accommodations were missed, and advocated for her when we had concerns about her safety.
Yet after we raised those concerns more directly, our daughter was ultimately the one who lost her final days in the classroom.
There were teachers and staff members at Marcus Pointe whom we genuinely appreciated, and this review is not intended to suggest every person at the school contributed to our experience. However, I strongly encourage prospective parents, particularly those whose children have ADHD, need even minor accommodations, or may need support with peer conflict, to ask detailed questions about how those situations are actually handled.
A school can have policies and accommodations on paper. What mattered to us was how they were implemented day to day and how administration responded when we raised concerns that they were not working. Unfortunately, our experience left us with very little confidence in that process.
