WLRN

After Juliet Sanomi came to the realization that traditional public school wasn’t the right setting for her son, who has autism, she decided to take matters into her own hands. She started a school where he and others like him would thrive. She began that mission 12 years ago in Plantation. The K-12 private school mostly serves students with special needs — about 85% have intellectual disabilities — with a model focused on strategies that specifically help students with disabilities succeed. ”   This is a program to change the life of a child who the system says is impossible,” said Juliet Sanomi, the school’s founder and principal. “They’re now over there doing what the world says they could not do,” Sanomi told WLRN. “This is home to children.” 

But the school’s future is at risk. Private school owners, like Sanomi, began facing financial struggles after the state dramatically expanded the school voucher program in 2023 and struggled to pay them in a timely fashion.