---
date: "2025-05-18"
speaker: "Vicki Asher"
organization: "Head of School, Horizon Academy"
topic: "Learning Disabilities School"
blurb: "Horizon Academy empowers students diagnosed with specific learning disabilities to become effective learners and confident self-advocates."
---

# Vicki Asher - Learning Disabilities School

**Date:** 2025-05-18  
**Organization:** Head of School, Horizon Academy

> Horizon Academy empowers students diagnosed with specific learning disabilities to become effective learners and confident self-advocates.

## Notes from May 18th - Vicki Asher - Horizon Academy

[Vicki Asher bio](https://horizon-academy.org/staff/vicki-asher/) | [Horizon Academy](https://horizon-academy.org/)

### Overview:
- **Mission:** Empowers students with dyslexia and language-based learning disabilities to become effective learners and confident self-advocates.
- **Vision:** Be the premier educational center for students with dyslexia and related conditions and serve as a training resource for the community.
- **Founded:** 1999 by parents dissatisfied with traditional schools' handling of learning disabilities.
- **Campus:** Roeland Park, KS (since 2001)
- **Type:** Independent, non-profit 501(c)(3), receives no state funding
- **Accredited by:** ISACS, AdvancED, Orton-Gillingham Academy (OGA). Member of NAIS.

### Student Profile & Diagnoses:
- Primary: Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, Dyscalculia; ADHD may be considered
- **Autism alone is NOT a sufficient learning disability to qualify for admittance**
- Students have average/above-average cognitive ability with challenges in: reading, spelling, written/oral expression, math skills, handwriting, executive function, social skills

### Instructional Approach:
- Methods: Orton-Gillingham, Multi-Sensory Math, Writing Revolution
- Class size: 12 students; intervention groups: 1-6
- Each student has an Individualized Learning Plan (ILP)
- Support team includes SLPs, OTs, psychologists, counselors, interventionists
- **Transition model** with average stay ~3 years
- Ticket system rewards closing learning gaps and self-advocacy

### Programs & Services:
- School year: Grades K-9
- Tutoring: Grades 1-12
- Summer program: Additional June session
- Learning Center (since 2016): Diagnostic testing and 1:1 tutoring
- Community outreach: Parent education, teacher training in OGA methods

### Enrollment & Demographics (2024-25):
- 121 students; ~$30K tuition; 35% on financial aid
- ~50 faculty/staff
- 57% male, 43% female
- 45 zip codes represented
- Southern Johnson County: 30.8%, Midtown/Brookside/North of River: 20.5%, Shawnee/Lenexa/Bonner Springs: 14.9%

### Misc:
- They do not allow RBTs to push in (interferes with pod-based learning approach)
- There is not a parent training on the Orton-Gillingham program
- Over 600 students served successfully; many return to traditional schools