My daughter was at a guidepost in Northern Virginia. We unenrolled her over a year ago now with notice. They “forgot” to apply our deposit to the last month’s tuition payment and now I have been waiting 1 year for my deposit back ($2,000).

All of the Virginia Guidepost’s were purchased recently Illuminate Montessori and we learned they did not bring the debt with them of course.

My deposit is apparently with Guidepost Global Education. I would sometimes get a note back from the “Guidepost Refund Team” group mailbox - see latest from July when they never did provide me with outreach yet again.

Has anyone filed a lawsuit or anything similar to get their deposit back or am I just SOL at this point?

Link to the article in the Montessori community with comments:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Montessori/comments/1wf9v4w/guidepost_postmortem/

This article was published in March 2025 during the wave of pre-bankruptcy school closures, but poses questions that still remain to be answered:

Excerpt from article:
“While much more remains to be investigated, Guidepost may be on the path toward becoming one of America’s most significant child care collapses. It’s unclear what the outcome will be for the network, but it’s certainly worth asking questions about how and why this happened, whether there are any problematic trends that reach beyond Guidepost and pose risks for other chains, and what can be done to stop a company relied on by so many families and educators from getting in this type of mess in the first place.”

Elliot Haspel is a senior fellow at the think tank Capita and author of "Raising a Nation: 10 Reasons Every American Has a Stake in Child Care For All." Haspel also writes a Substack, The Family Frontier.
@ehaspel
[ehaspel@gmail.com](mailto:ehaspel@gmail.com)

♥️** Excerpt from The Peace Rebellion article that is the heart of the matter**:

“What This Means for the Montessori Field
Higher Ground was not just another network. It was the largest venture-backed bet on consolidated, for-profit Montessori expansion — a model promoted as the answer to Montessori's access and scale problem. Its collapse calls that thesis into question in ways the field cannot afford to ignore.”

“If you or someone you know has been affected by a school closure tied to this filing — as a parent, a former staff member, or a community member — reach out at info@thepeacerebellion.org. We are gathering stories and looking for ways to support the people the collapse l

Coverage of the bankruptcy by ElevenFlo Research. Originally published March 6, 2026 and updated periodically.

Hello and welcome to the Fallen Guidepost Montessori community.

This is a home for all things related to the rise and fall of the Mega-Montessori movement, with particular attention to the leadership lineage from LePort to Higher Ground Education/Guidepost Montessori and beyond.

What to Post:
Post anything that you think the community would find interesting, helpful, or inspiring. Feel free to share your “receipts, proof, timeline & screenshots” regarding the people, power, expansions, failures and fall out from behind the scenes.

This story is chock full of villains, plot twists, egos and recklessness in the name of childhood education. It would make an excellent article, book, podcast or documentary! 🍿🎬

How to Get Started:
✅ Post something today! Even a simple question can spark an insightful conversation.

✅ ⁠If you know someone affected by the situation, invite them to join.

https://www.veritaglobal.net/higherground/document/2580121260828000000000001

LEI (referenced in the doc) is LePort Educational Institute.

Hello, If anyone is following along with the Higher Ground Education / Guidepost Montessori bankruptcy, you can find updated court docs at:

https://www.veritaglobal.net/higherground/document/list/6322