Marindale School

I am also a mom of a little girl with delayed speech. My four-year-old daughter has been attending Marindale now for a year and a half. We also had started out at an expensive pre-school and were told our child just needed to wait until she was 'ready' for pre-K. When we said she had already been diagnosed with a speech delay, they said we should pay for a full-time aide! Instead, she has been receiving an intense, supportive education in a class with just six children working with wonderful teachers, aids, and therapists for speech and occupational therapy. I have heard that this is one of those programs that keeps getting their funding lowered and lowered, and the school had to lay off teachers last summer and has again lowered its staff this next year. This program is a real treasure for our county and the investment in early education, particularly for kids with delays, pays off multiple times for everyone when these children can leap forward in progress (something that is much easier to do at the pre-K age than waiting to address these issues when they are older). As a Marindale parent, you are welcomed and encouraged to be proactive and involved so be sure to ask the therapists and teachers for specific ways you can support your child's continued progress at home! Good luck! more

My son has been going to school here for awhile now. I live in Marin and had many options. I was accepted to all the prestigious schools around me. However, since my son could not speak by the age of the 3 and was not potty trained the schools kept telling me to wait that he was not ready. This was not true he was ready....he just was not ready to speak yet. He has a learning disability and was being punished for having one. When I found out about his disability I thought for surely the private schools I was accepted to would welcome us and help us overcome this hump...I was going to be paying them top dollars!! Unfortunately that was not the case.....As it turns out it was all for the better. The teachers and staff at Marindale have bent over backwards to welcome our son and for the first time ever he is thrilled about going to school. He is not treated as if he has a ""problem"" he is fully accepted and completely thriving. I am blown away at the progress he has made. No the school may not be the most physically attractive school at all. I could not even find it had it not been for the map they sent me in the mail. It is hidden amongst other preschools and not advertised at all. I guess the state feels it is important to keep the identity of the children anonymous. I am a proud mother of a student who attends Marindale. I am so happy to have been pointed in their direction. And the icing on the cake is that it is FREE. The state pays for it. It is part of our tax dollars that go to the bill of ""NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND"". Thank goodness I did not send him to the over rated and over priced private schools that I was going to send him to. Now he has self esteem intact and I am finally seeing something marvelous done with my tax dollars at work. This really is something that state has done right. more