By Annie Piekarczyk / STAFF

Alexsander Academy is determined to provide students who have neurologically based learning issues with a rigorous academic learning experience. The academy is a fairly new school and will have been opened one year in September, serving students with sensory processing issues, autism, Aspergers Syndrome, ADHD, emotional and behavioral needs and auditory processing and or communication disorders.  

In the public school spectrum, these disorders are too often associated with negative labels, which in turn limits the children’s’ learning experiences as well as their teachers’ expectations. The negative assumptions typically pigeon-hole children with disorders, and in fact many times, the negative labels associated with the disorders limit the children’s learning opportunities and experiences more than the disorder itself.  

Stefanie Smith, executive director of the academy, is passionate about offering students like her son, Ben who has autism, the opportunity to learn academics like every other child has in public schools. 

“All of our kids are capable,” said Smith. “If we teach them the way they learn best and are in an environment where they feel comfortable learning and interacting, then they can reach their maximum potential. They just need the opportunity.”

Taking that opportunity

Before Alexsander Academy, the opportunity Smith talked about was almost non-existent. Many programs offered for children with sensory issues and disorders do not operate under the pretense that children can learn in spite of their disorders, can learn to cope with their disorders or can learn to work with their disorders and form their own coping strategies. Many programs don’t try to teach academics at all. Smith, who has personal experience dealing with public school programs of the sort was unhappy when she couldn’t find the right program for her son that would challenge him academically.

“It became very difficult to find a program that would accept kids that had more extensive needs but would still challenge them from an academic perspective,” Smith said. “And as I looked as a parent to find a program that would accept a child on the autism spectrum and still have a rigorous program, I could not find one.” That’s when she, along with her son’s long-time therapist Maya Mehanna, education director, decided to form Alexsander Academy which in its first year of operation became SB 10 approved and provisionally accredited, which does not typically happen. 

The students at Alexsander Academy are following the same curriculum public schools are following, but they are taught it in a way that is tailored to each individual child so they can best learn the material. If a student needs more time on one subject, they’ll be able to get that extra time, help and attention. If a student needs to take a break and go back later to a subject to understand it better, then their needs will be accommodated – which is just not an offered luxury in over-crowded public schools. 

Smith said one of the most daunting aspects of public schools is the size of the classrooms. With so many students in one classroom, not each child gets the attention or extra help they might need to fully understand a topic. At Alexsander Academy, the largest classroom won’t consist of more than eight students, one certified teacher and one adult supporter.  

Smith and Mehanna hold high expectations for their students. Their goal is that every student that comes through their doors be able to leave, having passed an 8th grade CRCT test. While Smith admits it might be a lofty goal, she also firmly believes all of their students are capable. 

“We have to expose them to everything – everything that any other kid is learning – to expect the best, and to give them the chance they may not receive elsewhere,” said Smith. “Or we’ll just never know what they’re capable of.”

There are no pre-conceived notions of what a child with a disorder can or cannot accomplish at Alexsander Academy. The sky is the limit, and according to Smith, for children to succeed, they simply need the opportunity. 

However, the opportunity to enroll in programs like Alexsander Academy, just like any private school, comes at a small financial sacrifice even with special SB 10 funding. But to promote the opportunity to enroll in Alexsander Academy or any other private school, Smith and May Mehanna are inviting anyone who might be interested to their open house on Monday, August 17th to learn about the Georgia bill HB 1133, which provides scholarship money to parents who are looking for ways to fund their child’s private school education.

The bill basically says that the state of Georgia has earmarked 50 million dollars a year to help pay for private education. The way that it works is tax payers or businesses make a donation and receive a dollar for dollar tax credit back when they file their taxes. So in the long run, it does not cost the donator anything. They do have to be able to pay the money up front, but they will get it all back and on top of that, will be able to receive a federal tax deduction on top of it.

The process to donate is very simple. Once the donor fills out a form, they can send it to the Student Support Organization, which is a non-profit organization which handles the donation money, and the SSO will help the donor with the paperwork and eventually the donor will be able to write a check to either a particular school associated with the SSO or to a particular student at one of those schools.

“That money can be earmarked to a particular school working with that organization and even to an individual child,” said Smith. “So as a parent, you can get neighbors, family members, to get that paperwork in and get the money from the system for your child. As long as your school is part of that student support organization, that organization has a window of time to turn that money around to that school for open scholarships or for the student of your choice – as long as they’re coming from a public school.”

For kids with special needs, tuition levels are pretty high and it can easily get to be tough on parents. This bill offers an opportunity for school-choice. Instead of being pigeon-holed into one school, one classroom that only teaches one way of learning, students have an entire spectrum of schools and classes they can choose from to fit their needs best.

A person running one of the Student Support Organizations will be speaking at the seminar.

For seminar times and to RSVP, you can contact Stefanie Smith, Executive Director at smith@alexsanderacademy.org or 404-839-5910. Or visit their website at www.alexsanderacademy.org.