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My children are looking forward to returning to Disney this school year. Our family has had a great experience over the past three years. The teachers have helped both of my children, but my daughter has really made tremendous gains with her reading and math skills. This past year, her teacher took the time to really understand her needs and invested extra time in helping her learn the material. Both of my children made lots of friends and came home happy to share their day with us. Our interactions with teachers and staff have all been positive and you can tell they really care about their students.

My child has had a great experience at Disney Magnet. He is excited to go to school and comes home to share the amazing learning taking place in his classroom. My child is building friendships and progressing academically. I also appreciate that the teachers are building classroom community amongst their students. Another reason we have had a positive experience at the school is because of the many beautiful events for Disney families to attend. The school really embraces diversity and culture as highlighted at some of the school events. The school embraces the arts, which is something our family really appreciates.

My oldest child has been at Disney for 8 years & all the above reviews are 100% correct; it has gone downhill terribly. The safety of our youngest child is a major concern yet Admin & principals give you lip service without ANY action; not until you call a meeting & list out all the violations that have occurred will they maybe get the ball rolling. There is a great deal of nepotism in the school. the principal was a former teacher & worked with all the teachers and is not playing his part as a professional principal. The teachers call you DURING CLASS for the pettiest things; such as your child is not following directions or being disrespectful, as if they don’t know how to redirect a student at all, during the call you hear yelling. They have security people who respond to teachers calls for assistance yet these folks are completely unprofessional for example, one has cursed at my child, threatened to throw chairs at my child, and recently laughed at my child while he was crying in his office! The theme of the school being great is basically from 1980/90’s when it was a good school & ran professionally. The teachers do what they want & the principal does nothing to ensure the Teachers are staying on task doing what they’re supposed to. It’s very sad when you have professionals w/degrees & senior staff who are not doing what they’re supposed to; just waiting to retire because they know there’s no consequence for their behavior.Also, it is loud, Google/Research the pod system Because it is not for all kids, it is very hard to focus while you are not in a traditional classroom with the door that can be shut. I can say there are a handful of great teachers who want to see your kid thrive, and we have hired several of them as tutors over the summer.However, the school as a whole is completely awful right now. Safety is our concern along with implementation of our sons IEP, which many of the team members have chose to ignore. I never thought I would have to treat my child’s school as a job but it is becoming an urgent problem so much that all emails have been forwarded to Perdo Martinez, CPS CEO. And sadly, many families with children who have IEP/504 have advocates on retainer to Attend meetings & advocate 4 the child.Wish I had a great review b/c it started out wonderfully, but there is no way my child will continue at Disney with such safety concerns going on and unaddressed.Also my son was verbally threatened by a Mom & the principal did zero follow up!

"Disney was just recently voted the best elementary school in Ill and I disagree with the choice. Though the school may look amazing from the outside, it is not like that on the inside. The students are either bullies or weird, and this is coming from a ""weird"" kid. The school was AMAZING a few years ago when I was in 5th and younger, but ever since the school's principal changed from Dr. H to Dr. Riskus the school downgraded. He is nice, just to nice. He does not care what ANYONE, not just students, are doing. A lot of teachers have become lazy and rude, and the students have become lazier. The only people who do anything are Mr. Jackson and Ms. M(3rd floor counselor). Parents used to try so hard to get their kids into Disney and would drive across the city to send their kids here, but now less and less parents are considering Disney and just don't see a point in sending their kid(s) here."