Elon University has received what school officials are calling a "once-in-a-generation" donation to create a new private school on its campus designed to exclusively serve children with dyslexia.
"This is a real gift to Elon, a real gift to our region, and a real gift to our state," said Ann Bullock, Dean of the Dr. Jo Watts School of Education at Elon.
The university plans to use an undisclosed amount of funds to open an elementary school in Fall 2026. The school will admit between 150 and 200 students annually once fully enrolled, with up to a dozen children per classroom.
This will be the fourth school in the country for students with dyslexia funded by the Hal and Marjorie Roberts family, and the only one of its kind at a North Carolina university. Several of the donors' grandchildren have dyslexia and benefited from attending a similar school, the Schenck School in Atlanta, Georgia.
The Roberts Academy at Elon University will launch next fall for an initial cohort of third and fourth graders, with plans to expand to a full elementary school serving students in first through sixth grade. However, Bullock said the school is intended for each student to attend for only a few years.
"Our goal is to provide an intervention," Bullock explained. "Meaning that you transition in, you have an intervention for two to three years to get you on track and back on reading level – or above reading level – and then you transition out."
Bullock added that the goal is not to keep children out of their home communities and local schools, given that at other Roberts Academies, students and their families often make the commitment to travel weekly or relocate to attend the specialized schools.
"Any child could apply for the school from anywhere, but it will be a face-to-face school, so they would have to be able to come to school at Elon University every day," Bullock said. "We expect to pull from our region, beyond our county walls, so we feel like being in the central part of the state will be very important."
Students seeking admission who have an individualized education plan (IEP) will be eligible to apply for North Carolina's two state-funded vouchers - Opportunity Scholarships and ESA+ funds - to help cover the cost of tuition.
Elon University is hosting a public event on Dec. 10 called Discovering Dyslexia, where interested families, educators and community members can learn more.
Benefits of housing the school at a university
Each of the private schools founded by the Roberts family are housed on university campuses. Bullock said that provides many opportunities for research and scholarship on dyslexia.
Part of the donation announced this week will fund the Roberts Center for Dyslexia and Engaged Learning, housed within Elon's school of education. The center will be a hub for educators, researchers, and policymakers to share the latest evidence-based information on dyslexia.
The Roberts Academy at Elon will also be used as a site to train college students majoring in education in the Orton-Gillingham method for teaching dyslexic students how to read. Elon students studying special education will have opportunities to visit or teach at the school, working in small class sizes.
"Our candidates graduate and they go all over the country," Bullock said. "They will take this knowledge and skills that they learn in this learning environment, and take them and impact other students."
The Roberts family chose Elon in part for its reputation for serving undergraduate students. The U.S. News & World report has named Elon the number one school for undergraduate teaching five years in a row.
“We’re very pleased that Elon shares our passion for creating a school for children with dyslexia in North Carolina,” said Hal Roberts. “We’ve seen these schools change lives, and with Elon’s national reputation for teaching excellence, this partnership feels like the perfect next step in our journey.”
