Private Special Education School in Jacksonville, Florida

Being a Special Education Teacher, I often volunteer, either during summer months, holidays or time off and one of my favorite places to volunteer is the Broach school in Jacksonville Florida. Many people do not realize that you have an option for private education , when you have a child with special needs. The Broach School of Jacksonville stands out as an exemplary school for students with learning disabilities.

Tommie Broach was the founder of the Broach School. She began the school in 1973 for students who had learning disabilities. She founded the school to serve students who had varying degrees of learning disabilities. Receiving her degree in Texas, and teaching in New York for a while, Tommie decided to come back to her home town and ended up staying and starting the first school, thanks to her father who donated the building for the very first school. Her brother Larry Broach, joined her in helping to start the schools. The school grew to seven campuses in the Jacksonville, Florida area and later expanded to the Tampa Bay and St. Petersburg area. Between the two cities, she owns 11 campuses. In recent years, she is taking less of a role in the 11 campuses, choosing instead to sell the rights to a company in Tennessee, but remaining on the advisory board for a period of five years. ( http://jacksonville.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/stories/2009/08/10/story1.html) ( http://www.jacksonville.com/tu-online/stories/021902/met8658154.html)

The first thing that impressed me about the Broach School is the low student to teacher ratio. The school specializes in learning disabled, autism, attention deficit, specific learning disabilities such as reading problems, and the lower learner student. The school also focuses on what the average school would consider a problem student. Sometimes, these are merely students who need more one on one instruction. The school of course tries to group students together with like ability to maximize learning. Their student teacher ratio is usually 1 teacher to 13 students.

The school has seen an increase in student attendance since the inception of the Florida McKay Scholarship. This scholarship gives parents the chance to let their child attend a private school, with part or all of the tuition being covered by the scholarship. As a special education teacher, I have noticed that children who are learning disabled are more apt to get their entire tuition covered by the scholarship.

When I volunteer at the Broach School, it is usually at the West Side campus. I usually offer to read to the students, help out in the small library or work one on one with the students. The school strives to work individually with each student. They maintain a firm, but far discipline with each child, focusing on self respect and respect for adults. This seems to work, from all that I have seen.

For further information about the 11 campuses between the Jacksonville and Tampa area, check out their web site at www.broachschool.com. I was very impressed with the school and I'm sure you will be too. You can also check out all of their Jacksonville locations at google maps by putting in Broach Schools in Jacksonville Florida. It will give you the complete listing of all schools in the Jacksonville area, complete with phone numbers.