Maryland State Wire

A parent of a struggling autistic child says the online program provided by Acellus Academy has dramatically impacted her daughter's happiness and improved her ability to learn.

“Jasmine’s negative behavior and frustration with schooling has decreased 95% and her speech increased over 80%,” Jacquece Moore said. “She will be enrolled in this school for years to come.”

Moore says that before joining Acellus Academy, her daughter Jasmine trudged through kindergarten and first grade while Jacquece endured countless IEP meetings to discuss her daughter’s progress in class, but got nowhere. It became increasingly clear that Jasmine needed a change, Jacquece said. 

That is when Jacquece decided to enroll Jasmine into the Acellus Academy, a self-paced online elementary school that teaches core subjects such as mathematics, language arts, reading, science and social studies, but allows for students to take the time to master each course as needed. The program also customizes the instruction to precisely suit the gaps in children's learning abilities.

Acellus Academy is fully accredited by the Accrediting Commission for Schools and the Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) – a regional accreditation agency, the website says.

Jacquece was immediately pleased to learn that her daughter could pick the subjects she wanted to work on each day because, for Jasmine, taking on too much could be overwhelming. Jacquece found that the Acellus Academy system allowed Jasmine to focus on a single subject per day, enabling her to comfortably keep pace with her school work. 

Jacquece says the personalized scheduling helped Jasmine stop and replay the video-based content as often as she needed. Interactive video lessons and the adaptive nature of Acellus gave Jasmine the experience of “one-to-one" instruction.

“Her grades improved as did her overall composure as a child,” Jacquece told Maryland State Wire. “She was visibly advancing.”

Jacquece said that Jasmine began making comments like, "I like my teacher!" and that the program let Jasmine restore the building blocks to understanding each subject, allowing her to succeed. Jacquece says that she has noticed dramatic improvement over time and that her daughter's confidence and willingness to learn have greatly improved.