Communications Director

Last year Trevor was starting 3rd grade and could not read; he could not even identify words like and or the. Math was basically the same story, Trevor could not count to 100 without help. He was a great student behavior wise — calm, quite and attentive — but things were just not clicking for him.

In second grade we found out he was dyslexic. We knew we had to push for help that public school didn’t have time or properly trained staff to give him. His second grade public school teacher literally told us she just does not have the time to help. Our friends told us about The Reform Alliance and the Succeed Scholarship. She told us it turned her daughter’s life around in less than one school year. We called Emmy, who was so sweet and gave us so much information. We felt like it wasn’t hopeless, and our son was going to get to feel like he wasn’t “stupid” or “a dummy” and not worth his teachers time. We hooked up with Immaculate Conception School who helped us, along with Emi.

On to third grade we went, new school, new teachers, new friends but still the “I am a dummy” attitude. The first month was tough because of adjustments. Then the first report card came out: It was near perfect! His confidence was boosted, his attitude about himself and his abilities was changed. After that it was one hurdle after another.

My baby was happy so we where happy. Trevor worked hard because his teachers worked hard with him. He wanted it for himself and to make us all proud. Fast forward to last week, our second week of fourth grade. Trevor got his book out on the car ride to school and told me he wanted to get some extra reading in. He read it flawlessly. It was a proud mommy moment that was 100% Facebook-worthy news. Trevor can now read books at his grade level and is starting to learn division. Without this organization and your funds Trevor would still not be able to read, write or do basic math. Thank you!

I have attached the picture I took last week of my little man reading. It’s truly a blessing!

– Jamie, parent

The Succeed Scholarship has allowed our child to develop the best of skills. He is thriving in a small school and small classroom! We are forever grateful for the countless hours that physicians, therapists and now teachers are dedicating to his growth! His future is bright!

– Ashley, parent

Our son was 3 years old when he was diagnosed with autism. Although the public school system offers therapy, there is not a program specifically designed for his specific needs like the program offered at Access Academy. We are so thankful for this scholarship because although we make enough to buy or send a lunch and transportation is not an issue for our family, we would not be able to afford the tuition on our own. It has given us freedom to make the best choice for our child and his special needs. He is 8 now and has made such progress. He is happy and that is the most important to us. I don’t think children can be measured by a single set of standards or that a specific accreditation program is going to be right for everyone. That is what we like about our school is the fact that it is flexible and able to work around what works for the child not how the child performs for that certain program. Thank you for reading our story and please know this family is truly fortunate to have found the best fit for us. Hopefully, this will not go away!

– Caroline, parent

The scholarship has helped my daughter Ayanna out a lot. She is at Easter Seals Academy at Riverdale; before that she was in public school. They took all her therapies — my baby couldn’t talk, was not potty trained, among other things. She has suffered a lot in her life among a lot of surgeries. This scholarship has helped me get her into a school that has really helped her. She is speaking a little now and almost potty trained. She is doing PT, OT and speech, and she loves it! With the small setting, more focus is on the children. I could not have done it without the help of the scholarship check because I am a single parent.

Thank you!

– June, parent

Dear Congressional leaders,

I would like to start by saying “Thank you” for your service to fellow Arkansans on a daily basis. I would also like to say as leaders in our community, I believe you have a responsibility to listen to all sides of a story before determining the BEST INTEREST of our kids and I’m profoundly disturbed by the letter that was sent to each of you regarding the Succeed Scholarship Program (Succeed Vouchers) by organizations that represent themselves as education equity organizations.

I too have concerns regarding the funding of this program as my family is a first time recipient of this voucher for the academic year of 2020-2021, and it’s allowed our 11-year-old son the opportunity to get specialized education for dyslexia for the first time in his life. So, my family and I are profoundly appreciative of the opportunity this scholarship presents, to not only our family but the hundreds of families across our state that receive and depend on these monies to fund a better education for their children.

This letter will be longer that I would care to write, but I feel that context matters, and I would like for each of you to know a little more about our family and the parties impacted by these funds. My wife and I have been married for over 25 years and have two biological sons, three adopted sons and one adopted daughter, so we are a larger family of eight total. Our two older sons are attending college at Arkansas State University (ASU), our 11-year-old son attends Hannah School in Maumelle for dyslexia, our 7-year-old daughter and 6-year-old son attend Robinson Elementary School in Pulaski County, and our youngest child attends Allen School, a school that specializes in early intervention for children with special needs.

Our two older sons that are at ASU started in the public school system, moved to the charter system at a school named ESTEM in Little Rock and then both graduated from Catholic High School for Boys, so our family has been involved in several schools systems and have seen the good and bad of several different academic settings.

I graduated from UALR with a BA in Criminal Justice and Psychology, and my wife graduated from the University of Central Arkansas with a BA in Science in Nursing, so we also have some formal education that we draw on as well in making decisions for our family.

I’ll start by saying that I am NOT and educator, nor am I a teacher and neither my wife or I have any special qualifications other than 22 years of child raising, 8-10 years in dealing with fostering and adoption processes with the state and stable work experience over the last 30+ years to use as my basis for the comments that I’ll make and requests, that you consider in determining the future of the Succeed Scholarship program.

I’d start by saying that based on the statistics used from these organizations websites the public school system is tragically flawed and needs major revisions to effectively educate our children today.

By their own statistics 93% of our children are educated in the public school system, and they’re failing to provide the basic educational levels our children need in order to thrive in life and increased funding in a failing system is not the answer. I would also say there is strong national data to prove that our current status of public education is failing our kids, and – in order change things for our kids’ futures – we need new thoughts and programs similar to the Succeed Scholarship. Families need control over their children’s educational progress through more charter schools and educational choice vouchers that would allow tax-paying citizens the opportunity to pull students from failing public schools and use tax paid dollars to offset expenses for alternate education.

The bottom line is quality education and not misappropriating funds in the public school system for football fields and other training facilities that only impact a small percentage of the school population is a fundamental problem that needs to be fixed. Public school money and funding is NOT the issue; it is the determination of funds appropriations and accountability at the local school level that’s the issue. Covid 19 is not the primary issue in our public school systems right now; it’s the degradation of education over the last 20 years. I would strongly encourage increasing the funding in the Succeed Scholarship program, charter schools funding and private school vouchers. Just a personal example:
Our 11-year-old son attended a charter school while in foster care at our home and during our adoption process, but in order to provide a more structured and localized education we moved him to public school close to our home in third grade where he attended through his fifth grade year. He was developmentally delayed in his education due to environmental circumstances prior to coming into our home and was making improvements in the charter school system up through his second grade year. We transferred him to a public school in third grade, and from the third grade through the fifth he continued to struggle with reading.

We asked for specialized testing to be done in the public school, but the testing he received was not sufficient to diagnose his dyslexia, so we had private testing done and those tests proved that he was struggling with dyslexia. I don’t feel it was the school overall, it was the lack of experience by the teachers dealing with special needs of students that set our son back educationally for three years. Teachers are only as good as their training and some are better equipped to handle special challenges more than others, but for three years the teachers in the public school setting failed to notice or address his reading issues, so we looked for alternate educational facilities.

The Hannah School that specializes in dyslexia education was brought to our attention, and it’s only by receiving the Succeed Scholarship that we are blessed with the opportunity to improve and address his reading needs at a specialized school that deals with his specific needs. He has only been attending the Hannah School for a short period of time, but the fundamentals they are teaching him will affect his life forever.

I don’t have all the statistics on the on biennial Succeed Voucher reporting, but to address inequities mentioned in the letter, I believe increasing the funding on Succeed Scholarship program and educating the families across the state on the benefits of the program would help improve these numbers. It has been our experience that the public school system is not set up to educate children with special needs or educational delays.

More choices are the answer, not limiting the funding in these type programs, so I would strongly encourage each of you to continue to support these programs and other great ideas that are generated by the local communities.

As far as addressing inequalities due to race and minority representation in these programs, I think the proper response would be to increase the involvement of local community leaders in the areas that are underrepresented and work to improve alternate educational resources other than public educational facilities. We continue to throw money at a broken system that’s not educating our children to the level of most parents expectations and options are the answer, NOT restrictions.

– Donald, parent

The public school system failed my son. Moss is ADHD and requires extra attention in some areas. The day before school was letting out of my son’s 4th grade year we found out he was testing on a 2nd grade math level. Not once were we notified that there was a problem (not even on report cards). No homework was ever sent home, and at parent/teacher conferences we were told he was fine. He was just pushed through year after year where he got more and more behind. Their solution? Send him to the 5th grade!

We knew something had to change. We found the Academy of Excellence, and they assured us that they could give Moss the extra attention he needed, and that’s just what they did. He has finally been able to catch up. If it wasn’t for the Succeed Scholarship, Moss would not be able to go to the Academy. He would still be behind in public school and he may never have caught up. Please don’t do away with this scholarship; it makes such a difference in my son’s life.

– Caley, parent

The Succeed Scholarship has been such a blessing to our family and to Sam. He has thrived with smaller class sizes and his teacher and supporting staff are just a email or phone call away with quick responses. Please continue funding for this amazing support to at need students.

– Katie, parent

I first met my children 5 years ago when a social worker brought them to my house at 11 pm on a Monday night. Brandon was 20 months old and his sister Skylah was only 6 months old. Brandon did not speak or have any expression on his face. It was 4 months before a saw the first spark of life behind his eyes. Three years later, the adoption was final. At this point, Brandon had already been diagnosed with Autism. He was making improvements, but he still did not speak (unless he was quoting Mickey Mouse). When it was time to start kindergarten, I went to the public school and talked to them about Brandon. He was going to have to go to a different school than the one we are zoned for, and his special education class would have 14 students in it. My son, who couldn’t communicate or sit still for 3 seconds, would have been lost.

Then I meet with the director of Compass Academy. Brandon was in a class of 5 students. He was able to receive all of his therapies including ABBA at school. His communication skills have exploded. He is starting to write his name and letters. This would not have been possible in a larger classroom at a public school. He is now in 1st grade and continues to thrive thanks to his Succeed Scholarship and Compass Academy. I’m a single parent. I would not have been able to send Brandon to Compass Academy without the scholarship, even though I earn a very good salary a Pediatric nurse practitioner at Arkansas Children’s Hospital.

I read the letter written by the education equality organizations, and what they fail to realize is that children need attention and love not just knowledge. This is especially true for children with disabilities and children in foster care. These children are never going to be able to learn if their emotional needs are not met first. This is not going to happen in the large classes in public schools. The “educators” in these organizations and the school boards need to learn that there is more to teaching than just test scores.

I have nothing against public schools. My daughter just started kindergarten at public school, but education is not one size fits all. That does not exist, trust me!

– Sherrie, parent

The Succeed Scholarship has made a significant impact not only on our child but on our entire family. My son, Jackson, has dyslexia and severe speech delays. While attending public school, he was reading significantly below his grade level and fell through the cracks with no indicators or suggestion for testing to understand his imminent diagnosis. We are diligent with out-of-pocket therapies and reading tutors, but the biggest impact is credited to the Succeed Scholarship. The scholarship enabled us to move him to a much more nurturing environment that immediately addressed the need for further intervention to address his disabilities.

While he was in public school, he was lost in the shuffle of over-crowded classes and while he had an IEP for services, they were shared with multiple other students and his progress was limited. He was bullied while he was there because he was unable to correctly pronounce his name. It is heartbreaking to have a child not understand why he is different than others and they throw rocks at him and spit in his glasses at recess. A child should never endure this emotional and physical abuse. They deserve the opportunity to get the help they need to excel beyond their disabilities and maximize their abilities.

This scholarship has allowed him to get the 1:1 intervention he desperately needed in a supportive environment where he is thriving and is much more confident academically and socially.

The Succeed Scholarship ensures parents can choose the most appropriate environment specific to the needs of their child. This underserved population rely on advocacy to provide an equal playing field for educational success. I will continue to advocate for Jackson and others like him that rely on this Scholarship as a bridge to the environment necessary for him to thrive academically and develop the confidence necessary to succeed in life.

– Cheryl, parent