Financial shenanigans outweigh quality education
While there are many quality and caring teachers at Guidepost Montessori-Lawrenceville and while my child received a wonderful education, the school's administrative staff and the corporate hierarchy are incompetent if not outright crooked.
My child's last day of school was in late August of this year (2025). I have still not received the remainder of the deposit. Part of the tuition deposit had been applied to the tuition for my child's last month of school. $335 was left over, which is supposed to be refunded according to their policies.
I was initially told by the Assistant Head of School that I could expect the remainder of the deposit some time in September.
Having not received the deposit by that time, I followed up via email on September 26, 2025, which went unanswered, and then again on October 6, 2025. On the latter date, the Assistant Head of School advised that “as of 10/1 the check in the amount of $335 has been cleared to mail.”
When I did not receive the check by early November, I stopped by the school on November 7, 2025, and spoke with the Head of School. She claimed that two individuals in accounting had told her that deposit refund checks for families who had left the school in August would be received by November 17, 2025.
As of early December 2025, the refund remains outstanding. Nonetheless, my balance in the SmartCare app has shown as $0 since August. Interesting accounting, that.
I have sent a formal demand letter to the so-called leadership group for the school, cc'ing the head of school. So far, I have not received a response.
My final dealings with the school have been deeply unpleasant. The Assistant Head of School and Head of School keep changing their story about the refund, perhaps willfully engaging in deception, while the anonymous higher ups ignore my requests for further information. These people are rude and unprofessional. I can only assume that the lack of response indicates that they have no intention of providing the deposit refund.
Despite the wonderful teachers at this school, I cannot recommend it due to the financial incompetence and sketchiness of the organization's administration.
12/23/25 UPDATE:
I finally received the tuition deposit refund check in the mail. I don't know if the demand letter threatening a small claims court complaint prompted the refund or if they finally had enough cash in the bank to send the check out.
I never received any communication from the school in response to my demand letter. However, I did reach out to a Guidepost Global Education employee who looked into the matter and advised that the check was already in the mail. Hint: if you can find someone's name, all Guidepost emails seem to follow the same pattern.
Réponse de Guidepost Montessori - Lawrenceville
Erin, thank you for taking the time to share your experience and for acknowledging the care and quality of education provided by our classroom team at Lawrenceville. We’re genuinely sorry for the frustration and stress caused by the delay in your tuition deposit refund and for the breakdowns in communication you experienced along the way.
This is not the experience we aim to provide our families, and we understand how disappointing this situation was, particularly after an otherwise positive educational journey for your child. While we’re glad the refund has now been received, we recognize that the process took far longer than it should have and that clearer, more timely communication was needed.
We appreciate you bringing this to our attention and regret that it required escalation to be resolved. Your feedback has been shared internally to help improve our processes and accountability moving forward. We truly value our families’ trust and are committed to learning from situations like this to do better.