At preschool, Sahil Sundaram's parents noticed that he was having trouble paying attention and talking to his teacher. While the other kids were concentrating on the day's lessons, he was staring up at the ceiling.
Sahil, then 3 years old, was soon diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), confirming his parents' suspicions.
His mother, Anila Sundaram, knows that he must continue to receive a strong education and requests an individualized education plan and has him sit at the front of the classroom so he doesn't fall behind. He asked for consideration, such as doing so.
But in the Shelton School Assessment Center, far north of Dallas, the Sundarams found a nearly half-century-old private school with a reputation for meeting the needs of students like Sahil.
Shelton is unique in that we exclusively serve students with learning differences that can complicate reading, writing, and spelling skills, such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, and ADHD.
“Shelton does a really good job of developing kids and making them feel accepted and welcome,” Anila Sundaram said. “I don't feel that you're different.”
It's also expensive. Tuition for the 2023-24 school year ranges from $19,000 to $38,000, depending on the student's age or grade. Approximately 15% of students receive financial aid.
The Texas Legislature spent a lot of time last year on school choice, pushing initiatives like vouchers to help families pay for private education. Public school advocates, meanwhile, were concerned about the lack of accountability for these efforts and the financial consequences they would face if they lost more students to private schools.
As the debate over school choice continues, some families who chose private, specialized campuses like Shelton say the move has made a difference for their children.
After enrolling Sahil in 2016, his parents were able to take a step back because Shelton had already provided all the necessary accommodations for students like him.
“I've gotten much better at concentrating,” Sahil said. With the help of his teacher, at the age of 15 he realized that he was a “really great writer” and was interested in becoming one.
“This is a complete program,” Anila Sundaram said. “It’s great to be able to send your kids to school and feel like they’re getting what they need.”
Teaching students with learning differences
Shelton educators are trained to work with students with learning differences and help them overcome challenges that arise in the classroom.
To keep students focused, classes from early childhood through fourth grade focus on multisensory or hands-on learning. The techniques used engage students by engaging different senses, keeping them focused, providing different ways to process information, and making learning more enjoyable.
For example, children might trace their fingers along a letter made with sandpaper and repeat the sound. This helps develop motor skills and lays the foundation for learning to read, write, and spell.
For example, in one class, third and fourth graders sat on a rug and listened intently as one of their two teachers read a children's fantasy novel by Mary Norton. Borrowers,aloud. The children then discussed and imagined what rolling potatoes would look like if they were small, like the families in this book, and then drew the scene.
Through fourth grade, there are two teachers for every 12 students in the classroom. Starting in 5th grade, most classes consist of around 10 students and a teacher. Overall, the school's student-to-teacher ratio is 6:1.
Officials say classroom sizes are designed to be small so each student receives appropriate attention.
The school also emphasizes student participation in leadership, fine arts, athletics, and other extracurricular activities. Executive director Suzanne Stell said such activities weren't always an option for some students before Shelton. This is because students had to use their free time to catch up on lessons.
“Many of our students stay with tutors until 9 or 10 p.m. [before enrolling at Shelton]. They haven’t experienced life,” Stell said. “[Extracurriculars] The kids had to survive instead of grow up, and they miss all of that. ”
Unlike public schools, which must admit all students, private schools are selective in their admissions and are not required to admit students who require accommodations.
There are only about 40 private schools in Texas that focus on serving students with learning differences and disabilities, according to the Texas Private School Association. For comparison, about 5.5%, or 302,409, of the state's roughly 5.5 million public school students have dyslexia, according to the Texas Education Agency.
For the 92 Shelton fourth-graders who graduated this year, students say the school's focus on their needs paid off. In total, they got her accepted into over 160 different colleges and received approximately $9.6 million in merit scholarships.
“We learned to study harder than the average student at other schools. We learned how to overcome challenges that others could not imagine. We learned how to overcome challenges that others could not imagine. I learned to adapt to everything,” class valedictorian Callie Wakefield said in her commencement speech in May.
“Most importantly, we learned to embrace our differences and turn them into strengths.”
expand the reach of the school
Shelton's efforts to support students with learning differences extend beyond campus. For more than 30 years, the school has impacted lives through its support of the community.
The school was founded in 1976 to serve students with learning differences in North Texas. Its leaders wanted to reach out to people other than Shelton.
In 1991, Joyce Pickering, Shelton's executive director emeritus, established the school's Outreach and Training Department, which organizes workshops, speaker presentations, and graduate courses.
Much of the focus is on teaching other educators how to better support children with learning differences. The department has trained more than 3,500 educators across the country and around the world, including educators from China, Spain, Australia and Brazil.
Kristin Bedenbaugh, director of outreach and teacher training for Shelton schools, said the department trained about 350 educators last summer. At the school, he offers three courses for teachers of students with dyslexia.
“We felt it was our duty,” she said. “We could never reach the hundreds of thousands of students who need the types of programs we offer at Shelton.”
Resources are also available for local families to visit the Shelton Assessment Center to determine if their child has a learning difference and receive guidance on how to request accommodations at their school. I can.
Through the Shelton Scholars Program, out-of-school students have access to the curriculum used in classrooms. This program was created to help students ages 6 and up with reading, writing, spelling, handwriting, distinguishing between the sounds of similar words, and memorization.
This program is available on Saturdays throughout the year or during the summer. Tuition fees range from $850 to $1,000.
Shelton is “life-changing and amazing,” Anila Sundaram said. “All you want as a parent is for your child to go to school and learn.”
The DMN Education Lab deepens our coverage and conversations about pressing education issues that matter to the future of North Texas.
DMN Education Lab is a community-funded journalism initiative supported by Bobby and Lottie Lyle, Community Foundation of Texas, Dallas Foundation, Dallas Regional Chamber, Dee Dee Rhodes, Garrett and Cecilia Boone, Meadows Foundation, Murrell Foundation, Solutions I am receiving Journalism Network, Southern Methodist University, Sidney Smith Hicks, University of Texas at Dallas. The Dallas Morning News retains full editorial control over Education Lab's journalism.
