The Children's Institute of Pittsburgh

Annie and Brooke are amazing and we are so excited to have them work with our daughter!!

have many difficult memories from my time at this facility. I graduated high school in 2019 and have since struggled with complex post-traumatic stress related to some of my experiences there. While I appreciated certain aspects of the program—especially my occupational therapy sessions—I often felt that the overall environment was not supportive or understanding of my needs as a person with disabilities. In my personal experience, the setting did not feel emotionally safe or inclusive, and I sometimes felt that staff members lacked the awareness or training needed to meaningfully accommodate disabled individuals. It seemed that the focus was more on helping disabled people adjust to non-disabled environments rather than educating others on how to provide genuine accessibility and respect. At times, I also felt that some of the nursing staff acted beyond their professional roles or made assumptions about how to treat people with disabilities. This created an atmosphere that, in my experience, felt dismissive and at times discriminatory. From my perspective, the facility did not do enough to promote education about discrimination or inclusion. It often felt as though the system supported those already comfortable with the status quo instead of empowering or advocating for individuals with disabilities who needed true understanding and equitable treatment. Because of these experiences, I personally would not feel comfortable sending my children there.

I was there a long long time ago why was 10 or 11 if memory serves I am 23 now and special needs but high functioning and what they did their they just say not nice I had cold sores on the side of my mouth on the outside and it's not right what they did and I still think about to this day I'm sure stuff changed now but I'm still pleasing my mind half the time I just want to share that

Apparently this place thinks it’s totally fine to hire people I personally warned them about—the ones who think bullying autistic kids is somehow okay. Including my own child. Instead of protecting vulnerable children, they opened the door and rolled out the welcome mat. If your hiring checklist doesn’t include “must be kind to autistic kids,” then you don’t need a new employee—you need a whole new checklist. Protecting children isn’t optional, it’s literally the bare minimum. Because let’s be honest: if you can’t keep the most vulnerable children safe, you’re not running a trustworthy institution. You’re running a liability. Case closed…

As Michael Jackson said: they don’t care…

This rating is for the Children's Institute outpatient services only! The Day School is 5 stars! The day school staff is excellent and very caring for the students. However, The Outpatient program that is separate from the Day School I give a 0 star rating. I received a letter in the mail on February 13, 2024 , that was dated January 26, 2024. In the letter, they discharged my daughter from the (therapy depth) services and removed her from the waitlist without previous warning. They falsely claimed they did this because they couldn't get a hold of me. They never reached out to me via phone. The only letter in the mail I received was the dismissal letter. I looked back in my emails from November, December, January, and didn't receive one email from the Outpatient Office. Administration never once made an attempt to reach me . I guess their numbers are up since the Pandemic is over and don't care about families as long as they met their quotas . I challenge the outpatient administration to forward me any emails that they attempted to get a hold of me. Administration due your job and contact the parents and don't hide behind a letter with your secretary's name on it when you make the decision to dismiss families from your services for no reason!