On Your Mark Academy

From the visual tools, to hands on learning, everything at On Your Mark Academy is designed with special needs children in mind. "Children who are essentially nonverbal can learn, we just have to figure out their learning styles," says co-founder Marsha Desillas. Desillas founded the nonprofit elementary school with Kym Hannah. Desillas' son Stephan and Hannah's daughter Myrah both have cerebral palsy. "We needed a school that was going to be one on one," Hannah says. "She wasn't going to be taught life skills but reading, writing, math, all that stuff." Becky Carney is the academy's lead teacher. She incorporates movement and therapy into her lessons. "It's totally engrossed me as a teacher, thinking about not just the cerebral part of the learning process but the physicality involved with teaching students with cerebral palsy," she says. The academy also focuses on high expectations for their students. Parents and teachers say there's no limit on learning. "Since coming here all she wants to do is work on spelling, work on her numbers, wanting to count, it's like its opened up a whole new world for her that she didn't really know existed," Hannah says. "It's kind of brought tears to my eyes seeing how they have progressed, it's really been remarkable," Carney adds. Hannah and Desillas hope to secure more funding, which would allow them to lower tuition and expand.

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