Low-Income Weighting Gave Us a Chance—ACCESS Gave Us a Future

10/15/2025 2:27 pm

I found out about ACCESS through my child's special ed team in kindergarten. He showed very clear academic advancement and was highly advanced in language basically since he was a baby. When I taught him to read at age 4, he excelled dramatically. They told me about ACCESS and I was immediately interested in transferring him there when and if the opportunity arose.

It was an obvious choice because I knew his needs were not being served in general education. He was struggling behaviorally—even though he had graduated out of special ed—because he was not being challenged by the content, and the staff and instructors were clearly not equipped to support 2E children. It was frustrating having him out of special ed, because he no longer had the support of staff who understood his neurology and wouldn't punish, shame, or isolate him due to his particular behaviors and needs. Yet, special ed wasn’t necessarily appropriate either, because he was technically able to be in gen ed, and his academic needs far exceeded what was being offered to him.

Applying to ACCESS was a no-brainer. Thankfully, applying as a low-income family weighted our application in the lottery system, and he got in on our first try. I was overjoyed—but I had no idea just how great it was going to be.

At his old school, he struggled to make friends. He had kids he’d play with, but no one he seemed excited about or particularly close to. In his first week at ACCESS, he came home telling me about all the friends he was making and seemed genuinely excited about them—friends he is still close with now, two years later. It was very clear that the social environment is more supportive, especially since many of the kids are in the same boat, being 2E, and seem to understand one another on a deeper, more fundamental level.

But what really blew me away was the staff. The level of care and attention they give their students, the foundational understanding they have of how to support the unique population of kids that make up ACCESS—I was not fighting them to understand my child. I wasn’t stressing that he would feel ashamed, misunderstood, or come to dislike his school experience and suffer academically for it. The staff just got him. They knew exactly how to support him.

He has blossomed and thrived at ACCESS. It is a very special school—a wonderful place I have the utmost trust in to have my child’s best interest at heart.

- Juni, parent of 4th grader