PARKSIDE SCHOOL

Families with a child in PK through 5th grade who has a diagnosed or suspected language-based learning difference — dyslexia, processing speed issues, expressive or receptive language challenges — and who want a small, therapy-integrated environment where every adult in the building is oriented toward how that child learns.

• Integrated clinical team — speech-language, occupational therapy, and social work are part of the school day, not add-on services families coordinate separately.
• Orton-Gillingham-based reading instruction delivered in extremely small groups, with the school's own Parkside Learning Line methodology coordinating what happens in and out of the therapy room.
• A 5.6:1 student-teacher ratio that lets instruction be genuinely individualized rather than just aspirationally small.
• Rolling admissions, which is unusual for private elementary schools and useful for families who identify a need mid-year or after a difficult Pre-K experience.
• Arts and movement programming (art, music, drama) treated as core rather than enrichment, with parents crediting these blocks for real gains in social confidence.

• The school only goes through 5th grade. Families will need an honest plan for middle school — and a transition conversation with Parkside about what's next.
• At $73,000, this is a serious financial commitment on top of any outside tutoring or evaluations the family may also be paying for.
• Parkside is a specialized fit. It is designed for kids with language-based learning differences, and a child without that profile would likely be under-served relative to a general academic program.
• The small size is a feature, but it also means a narrow social pool and fewer peer comparisons than a larger elementary school offers.
• Rolling admissions cuts both ways — flexibility for families, but also no fixed 'class of' cohort and an admissions process that can feel more like a clinical intake than a school tour.