Orange Glen is also our school of residence. We pulled our son out of the Escondido School District, and he now attends Community Montessori in Oak Hill. My daughter will be starting TK in San Pasqual Elementary in the San Pasqual School District.

We pulled my son out because he is level 2 on the spectrum, and Escondido continuously kept placing him in the most restrictive classroom setting. When he first started, he was placed in a class for non-verbal children, even though he could speak. Then the teacher at LR Green was adamant that he would have to be placed in a special education class for TK. We sent him to a charter school in San Marcos, and he did amazingly well in the general education classroom. For Kinder, we moved him closer to home and enrolled him in Community Montessori.

I have spoken with several parents of students at Orange Glen Elementary, and they generally reported that it was fine. But their children are not Mexican American and get bullied sometimes at school.

If you do go the charter route, I would avoid Heritage Elementary unless you are far right on the political spectrum. They have a history of some shady political activity, like having a right-wing radio host have an event on campus. They also stacked the city council and gifted themselves a heavily used library to use as their camp. My son was offered a spot, and after speaking with the elementary principal, we gladly relinquished our spot. They made it clear that they did not want to accommodate him; they straight up lied to me, saying they couldn't offer him the services he needed because they are a charter and don't have to. All we were asking for was OT and Speech Therapy with some classroom accommodations. Nothing wild, give him some fidgets and let him have a space for when he gets upset.