Happiness House reviews

How sad to have a name like Happiness House—facade like no other. Our town and area are slowly seeing that this organization is place driven by money hungry “professionals” who could care less about the “special needs preschool”. The broken sign out front says it all. The CEO never walks through the school. If the state did, there would very likely be a shutdown. Parents seem to think it is an “ideal place” for their children, yet few actually see what happens behinds the locked doors of the front lobby. The autism room lost its veteran, and exceptionally gifted and well regarded, teacher in September because HR doesn’t like it when they are faced with any type of challenge. A Teacher’s Assistant ran the show for months until they brought in a new Special Education teacher who quit within weeks. Months went by and parents made CPS calls because of the conditions of the room. An administrator signed off on all forms to make it look like there was in fact a teacher in there. They finally filled the role in February. We will see how long this one lasts. Teachers have made bullying allegations (because this is something that goes on regularly and some seem to have just gotten used to it being part of their day) to Human Resources and have paid the price for being whistle blowers. Teachers are miserable. Sick. Injured. Depressed. There is a stench like no other every Monday. The source of the smell “can not be located” and comes from the OT/PT area making it not useable for days, even months, at a time. The playground’s surface is wood chips...imagine pushing a wheelchair on wood chips? Imagine being the child in the wheelchair being pushed on woodchips. There is no ramp from the sidewalk to the playground, making it nearly impossible to get a wheel chair to the playground (and this is a Special Needs School). There are two year olds placed in oversized and (25 kids at a time), understaffed rooms. There are many, many days when there is literally no one to cover the absence of a staff member. The whole place is falling apart, one staff member at a time. As a parent, I wouldn’t even think for a minute about sending my child here. If the above wasn’t enough to convince you, maybe this will be: There is one part time cleaning person. The other one just quit. Many times the classrooms are, aside from a quick sweep and vacuumed, not properly cleaned. All of those germs and limited ventilation... and unless an exhausted, overworked staff member comes in on the weekend to disinfect, it is not done. Find a part time nanny and a decent half day program. Drive a little bit further each day. But whatever you do, do not work here or send your child here.