Success Academy saved my daughter — yet now it’s being falsely accused of kicking out kids just like her.
Readers should consider my experience as a real Success parent.
Three years ago, my daughter was found to have traits consistent with sensory-processing disorder. Experts warned that if I placed her in the regular public school, I’d most assuredly “lose” her. So I started looking at alternatives.
I researched and applied to 22 charter schools, visited nearly 20 parochial and private schools and assessed our zoned school. I met charter-school parents. I questioned teachers and checked statistics. Finally, I decided on Success Academy Hell’s Kitchen.
I am not a naïve Success follower. I’m an educated, informed, committed parent. And I’m exhausted from the constant mischaracterizations, misinformation and, frankly, libelous accusations spewed by anti-charter advocates, such as American Federation of Teachers President Randi Weingarten, who actually compared a suspension for a serious infraction to an assault by a police officer on a student and falsely claimed Success expelled kindergartners.
The Success Academy I know in no way resembles the descriptions pushed by the anti-charter crowd. The entire school community — parents, teachers, administrators — is thoroughly committed to the success of all our children.
The students are immersed in an environment that focuses just as intently on their character as on academic achievement. The school makes a bigger deal about caring for others than about getting a perfect score on a spelling test.
During my daughter’s first week, I was terrified she’d be overwhelmed, as she could barely handle the stimulation in her pre-k classroom. Her teacher asked me to write a summary of my daughter — her strengths, challenges, what I wanted her to accomplish — and she developed an action plan to integrate her into the classroom.
Some teachers would have interpreted my daughter’s inability to make eye contact as disrespect. They might have thought she was being aggressive when she yelled at kids to keep away because she was overstimulated. Instead, her teacher made her comfortable and helped the other kids understand her.
Within months, she was the most popular girl in class and had overcome some major challenges.
In first grade, she struggled with reading and was evaluated for special-education services. Never once did Success suggest moving her out of the school when she was falling behind. Instead, the school gave her extra tutoring, and developed a new plan to accommodate her needs. Her reading improved, and that support continued.
My daughter’s now in second grade. She still works hard to overcome reading problems and faces a likely ADD diagnosis. But she is confident, loves her teacher and is excelling in science and math.
The school’s thoughtful, strongly structured environment is delivering great results for my daughter. This is not a zero-tolerance institution, callously pushing out “troublemakers” to achieve perfection, as critics claim. Rather, it’s a school that’s welcoming, supportive, committed, fun and, above all, safe.
It is a place that values good behavior and respect.
Sure, the structure and phone calls home can be frustrating. But for a parent like me, stressing over work, home and two kids with health needs, the last thing I want to worry about is whether my child is safe in school or whether her classroom is being hijacked by a disruptive child preventing her from learning.
So, yes, if a student deliberately kicks a teacher, bites a classmate or creates an unsafe situation, that child should be removed from the classroom and perhaps suspended.
The parents must take an honest look at their child and whether the teacher addressed the situation appropriately, which most do. But even a suspension is not an expulsion; it’s a timeout, in most cases, a meaningful reset.
We are a community of parents who do not shrink from accountability, but we are also our children’s dedicated advocates. We would never stand by and watch our children be exiled, as charter foes allege.
For all the lofty statements made by Weingarten and others about what a school environment “should” look like, we don’t have another 40 years for the Department of Education to figure it out. We need real solutions — now.
Success Academy’s delivering fantastic results — today. It deserves all the help it can get to fight the educational inequalities that have plagued our schools for far too long.
Tanya Duprey-Matos lives in The Bronx with her husband and two daughters.