There is Never a Wrong Time to Find the Right School for Your Child
By Brandie D'Orazio, Co-founder and Head of School, The Promise School
As I write this, we're just a few weeks into the new school year here at The Promise School, and I'm watching something beautiful unfold in our classrooms every single day.
Children who arrived at our doors feeling defeated, frustrated, and convinced they weren't "smart enough" are beginning to discover something profound: they're not broken, they're just different. And different, in the most wonderful way, can be extraordinary.
But I know that for many parents reading this, your child might still be sitting in a classroom somewhere else, struggling. Maybe they're hiding their reading difficulties behind behavioral issues, or perhaps they've become so quiet and withdrawn that teachers describe them as "shy."
You might be thinking, "We'll figure this out next year," or "Maybe they'll catch up," or even, "Is it too late to make a change mid-year?"
Let me tell you something...I've learned through our own family's journey with dyslexia, and through watching hundreds of families navigate this path:
There is never a wrong time to find the right school for your child.
The Urgency of Now
This year brings a particular weight for South Carolina families. With the new third-grade retention mandate, parents are facing decisions they never anticipated. I've had countless conversations with mothers and fathers who are suddenly asking themselves, "What if my child doesn't pass? What happens then?"
But here's what I want you to know: waiting until retention becomes a reality is waiting too long. The signs are there earlier – much earlier – if we know how to look for them.
Anna, one of our students, recently shared her story about pretending to read in first grade, sitting under trees with friends who effortlessly enjoyed their picture books while she stared at pages that might as well have been written in a foreign language. She knew every letter "a" on the page, but nothing else made sense. So she pretended. For years, she pretended.
How many of our children are pretending right now?
Recognizing the Signs Early
As an educator specializing in language-based learning differences, I see the patterns that often go unnoticed in traditional classroom settings:
The Bright Child Paradox: Your child is clearly intelligent – they can tell you everything about dinosaurs, solve complex puzzles, or create elaborate stories – but they can't seem to decode simple words.
The Homework Battles: What should take 20 minutes stretches into hours, with tears, frustration, and family stress becoming the norm.
The Confidence Erosion: A once-enthusiastic learner begins saying things like "I'm stupid" or "I'm not good at school."
The Coping Mechanisms: They become the class clown, the perfectionist, or the invisible child – anything to deflect attention from their struggles.
If any of these resonate, your instincts are probably right. Trust them.
The Myth of Perfect Timing
I often hear parents say, "We don't want to disrupt their year," or "Maybe they'll mature into it." I understand this hesitation – change is hard, and we want to protect our children from upheaval. But here's what I've learned through our own journey with two dyslexic children and our work at The Promise School: the disruption of staying in the wrong environment far outweighs the temporary adjustment of finding the right one.
Every day your child spends in an environment that doesn't understand their learning style is another day they're internalizing messages about their capabilities that simply aren't true. Every day is another opportunity for their natural curiosity and love of learning to diminish.
At The Promise School, we've welcomed students at all points during the academic year. Some arrive in October, others in February. What we consistently see is that once children are in an environment where their learning differences are understood and addressed with evidence-based methods like the Orton-Gillingham approach, they don't just catch up – they flourish.
What the Right Environment Looks Like
The right school for a child with dyslexia isn't just about smaller class sizes or extra help. It's about a fundamental understanding of how these brilliant minds work:
Language-Based Learning Differences Require Specialized Instruction: Our teachers are trained specifically in multisensory, structured literacy approaches. They understand that teaching a dyslexic child to read isn't just a matter of more practice – it requires a completely different methodology.
Seeing Gifts, Not Deficits: Our son Leo taught us about seeing potential rather than limitations. Every child who walks through our doors is viewed through the lens of their strengths, their gifts, their unique way of thinking that often leads to incredible creativity and problem-solving abilities.
Individual Pacing: We don't believe in grade-level expectations that ignore individual learning profiles. A child might be reading at a second-grade level but thinking at a high school level. We meet them where they are and build from there.
Building Self-Advocacy: We teach our students to understand their own learning differences, to articulate their needs, and to see their dyslexia not as a limitation but as a different way of processing the world – one that often comes with remarkable gifts.
The Reality of Retention vs. The Promise of Growth
With South Carolina's retention mandate looming, many families are facing a choice they never wanted to make. But I want you to consider this: retention in the same environment that hasn't worked for your child isn't likely to suddenly become successful. It's often just another year of the same struggles, the same mismatched teaching methods, the same erosion of confidence.
At The Promise School, we offer something different. Our intermediate program provides the structured, evidence-based instruction children need at a more accessible investment level. We understand that families are looking for alternatives to retention that actually work.
But more than that, we understand that every child deserves to experience the joy of learning, the satisfaction of reading a book independently, the confidence that comes from understanding that their brain works beautifully – just differently.
A Personal Invitation
If you're reading this and recognizing your child in these words, I want you to know that you're not alone. Dan and I started The Promise School because we've walked this path. We've sat through difficult meetings with well-meaning teachers who didn't understand. We've watched our children struggle and wondered if we were missing something, doing something wrong.
We weren't. And neither are you.
We created The Promise School to be the place we wished existed when we were navigating those early, difficult years. A place where children with dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia aren't just accommodated – they're celebrated.
We're currently accepting applications for our programs, including our new intermediate track designed specifically for families facing the retention decision. We offer rolling admissions because we believe that when a family is ready to make a change, we should be ready to welcome them.
The Time is Now
I started this piece by saying there's never a wrong time to find the right school for your child, and I mean that with every fiber of my being. Whether your child is in kindergarten and showing early signs of reading difficulties, or they're in third grade and facing retention, or they're older and have been struggling for years – it's not too late.
Every day we wait is another day our children are learning to see themselves as less capable, less intelligent, less worthy than their peers. Every day we wait is another day they're missing out on the joy and confidence that comes from learning in an environment designed for how their minds work.
Your child doesn't need to be fixed because they're not broken. They need to be understood, supported, and taught in a way that honors how their remarkable brain processes the world.
At The Promise School, we don't just teach children to read – we teach them that they are capable, intelligent, and filled with potential. We help them understand that learning with dyslexia isn't about overcoming a deficit; it's about embracing a different kind of brilliance.
If your heart is telling you that your child needs something different, trust that voice. Reach out to us. Come visit. See what happens when children with learning differences are placed in an environment where those differences are not just understood, but valued.
Because here's what I know after years of this work: when children find their right place, they don't just survive – they truly soar!
Brandie D'Orazio is Co-founder and Head of School at The Promise School in Charleston, South Carolina. The Promise School is a private, independent, non-profit school serving students with language-based learning differences such as dyslexia, dysgraphia, and dyscalculia. For more information about admissions or to schedule a visit, contact admissions@promise-school.com or call 843.604.5355.
