Photos by Jane Kortright Photography

For families of children with disabilities, everyday life can feel like living on isolated islands with few resources or help in sight. The therapeutic or educational needs of their children often encroach on work and school schedules or nights at home while overwhelmed parents struggle to survive and provide for their families. 

“Having a child with special needs, especially if the parents are not aware of the diagnosis in utero, can bring a flood of emotions to the delivery room. And then afterward, there can be profound fear and worry not only about raising the child with the best possible care, but managing a job and a household,” says Dr. John Stewart, whose first child Jane’s disability was evident at birth.

In Richmond, Aiken and Columbia counties there is an estimated 2300 children under the age of five with special needs who require educational and often physical assistance. Research proves that the brain develops most rapidly in the first three years of life, which becomes an even more critical window for children who are disabled. 

Intervention is a major pinnacle for their success, but most preschools — whether due to undertrained staff or a lack of funding — do not accept children with special needs. Many vulnerable members of our community are abandoned into the shadows of learning while rescue is delayed at best, and elusive at worst.

I will send out an army to find you
In the middle of the darkest night
It’s true, I will rescue you

“Rescue” lyrics, 
Lauren Daigle 

There is one leader in our beautiful city who chose to champion these at-risk members of our community through a prayerful vision and a heart willing to risk all. She has initiated and maintained a powerful and permanent advocacy. 

Jennifer Jones, founder and executive director of Apparo Academy, felt God call her to the vision of a highly individualized, integrated and inclusive, therapeutic school for families of children with special needs in 2016. “I was a speech pathologist and had a private practice for 19 years. And through that process, which is a long story, God just put it on my heart to start a school,” she says. “It was hard continually hearing all these young moms coming to therapy saying, ‘I am exhausted. I need help. I don’t have any support … I can’t work ….’”

So, in 2018, a former daycare on Skinner Mill Road went up for sale. Jones knew when she visited the location that it was the place for the non-profit, faith-based preschool. After some skillful (and miraculous) negotiations, Jones purchased the property fully furnished. “We brought in volunteers from our church along with RW Allen Construction to gut it and totally refurbish it, and we opened in July 2019,” she says.

Shortly after, the second miracle happened. “I always thought I would sell my private practice, but God’s plan was different. After my idea fell through, my therapists and the billing department came with me as well as all the patients from the clinic. So, we literally opened our doors with earned revenue. In fact, we have never been in the red because God has taken care of us,” she remarks. 

In 2022, Jones expanded her original vision to include 16,000 more square feet, so there are now 10 classrooms, two therapy pods, a therapy pool (one of two only in the area and funded by Georgia Rehabilitation Institute, Inc., and the Creel-Harison Foundation, Inc.), nursing offices, and adaptive and therapeutic playgrounds — including a wheelchair-accessible merry-go-round, roller slides for students with cochlear implants, 12-inch rubber surfaces and static-free grass turfs. The first partnership that Apparo received within the community was with the Children’s Hospital of Georgia who continues to provide a full-time registered nurse. 

The school allows 10 students per classroom (no more than six children with special needs) to three teachers, along with push-ins of speech and occupational services and additional spaces for physical therapy. 

“It is a therapeutic and integrated education which allows the teachers to see what the therapists are doing — that back-and-forth awareness among the specialized groups, which is highly individualized, is carried over all day long,” Jones explains. 

Dr. Stewart recalls it was this specialized care that focused on his child’s needs which landed his family at Apparo. “Jane was non-verbal. We got most of our cues from her beautiful blue eyes which communicated her emotions. We had to overcome our fear of wondering if someone else could care for our daughter like we could. But we saw how the folks at Apparo rounded out Jane’s life in a way that we could not — she learned that others loved her in a way that was different from us. We saw firsthand from her improvements that she benefitted from the environment, and it allowed us to take that big step of letting go because we could trust that she was loved, cared for and safe,” he says.

Jones emphasizes that this integrated approach is virtually nonexistent in traditional school settings, which is why “children make no gains once they go to elementary schools.” The therapeutic assistance is siloed — separated, often in physically different locations, with no cross-overs — so the full intervention of the student is not monopolized. Apparo’s one-stop model enhances comprehensive improvements.

As an inclusion school (typical and atypical students), atypical students can better mirror typical activities like walking, communicating, social behaviors, etc. And research shows that typical students in these settings are better leaders with stronger compassion and empathetic undertones. “Here [typical] students become the helper, the encourager … they get a ball for a friend who is in a wheelchair. Most of our kids with special needs have a best friend who is typically developing,” she says. 

As we walk through the keycard entry, explosions of laughter can be heard in a large play area. We are led past the therapy pool, nurses’ offices and into a private room housing Speech Generated Devices (SGDs) — small screen devices with touch responses for non-verbal students to communicate. 

Jones says that kids in traditional school systems don’t typically get these devices until they are eight or older. “I believe every child should have access to language by the time they are two because that’s when our children are communicating,” she states. 

Early intervention is Jones’ rally call. “The human brain has one million neuro connections every second under the age of three. So, intervention at the youngest age possible is key. The cause and effect of early intervention — Apparo starts kids at six weeks old — is evidenced by many of our students functioning well into adulthood because they have been taught how to manage physical, mental or emotional challenges or disabilities,” she says.

Tuition at Apparo does not come near to matching its professional services — at $950 per month — with the largest revenue for the school arriving through therapy sessions, joining state subsidies for foster kids as well as some for families of special needs, and thirty percent of the tuition provided through grants. 

Philanthropy covers 30% of the operational costs, but when the school is closed due to snow or a hurricane, the loss is compounding. “We were closed for 8 ½ days for Helene, which was very hard for our staff and families. But we were blessed to get help from the Hurricane Helene Crisis Fund from an Augusta National Golf Club grant through the Community Foundation that covered not only our lost revenue but also allowed us to support our working families,” she states. 

I asked Jones what she would like the community to know about Apparo Academy. “A lot of people don’t know that Apparo has an outpatient clinic, that we are not just a school, but we also have a clinic,” she says. “And it’s important for us to have philanthropy. Even the monthly donor who gives regularly helps our operations.”

In almost every room we visited, Jones had a painted Bible verse on the wall. “I had Bible verses put up in the rooms that referenced the room’s activities,” she says. It’s one small way to encourage her staff and clinicians, and help them remember they are appreciated.

Visiting the classrooms, I felt this encouragement while interacting with the students. I spoke to one non-verbal student in a wheelchair who struggled to communicate, yet I recognized his universal expression of joy as we clapped and cheered for his yellow handprint on the paper. 

Another young girl who championed her weak legs with indomitable spirit was coquettishly drawn to our camera lens, rendering a beautiful smile of excitement. And another young boy couldn’t wait to show us how he could pin his activity on the activity board, resonating with pride. 

The spirit of life was inescapably evident, and the gift for each of us to thrive side-by-side revealed a more integrated approach to living. At the end of our visit, I was reminded how our worth is not categorized by standardized abilities, but by the uncomplicated commonality of what we are: human by design.

You are above me, O God,

you are within.

You are in all things

yet contained by no thing.

Teach me to seek you in all that has life

that I may see you as the Light of Life.

Teach me to search for you in my own depths

that I may find you in every living soul.

Sounds of the Eternal: A Celtic Psalter, J Philip Newell

For information on Apparo Academy, donations or volunteering, visit apparoacademy.org.

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Seen in the 2025 April issue of Augusta magazine

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