Talk to Catholic parents of children with special needs, and you’ll soon hear stories that corroborate the results of a recent survey: Catholic schools vary wildly in their accommodation of learning disabilities.
For decades, it was all but impossible for parents to enroll their child with special needs in a Catholic school. In more recent years, there have been some initiatives — mostly parent-led — to make Catholic schools more accessible, such as the Catholic Coalition for Special Education in Maryland and the FIRE Foundation in Colorado.
But for every school that offers accommodation for children with learning disabilities, there are many others that don’t have the resources, funding, or training to make it possible.
Enter Secret Garden Educational Pathways (SGEP), a company that bridges the gap between Catholic education and learning disabilities through virtual educational services. Serving both homeschool families and traditional schools, SGEP offers essential remediation and parent/teacher education to effectively support students in any learning environment — and it’s all available online.
“I didn't ever want Catholic families to feel like they needed to turn to secular support to educate their children well,” SGEP founder Margaret Walsh told Aleteia.
SGEP tutors work with students across a wide range of challenges, including dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, ADHD, autism spectrum, and executive function and memory difficulties.
A Catholic approach to literacy
Educational support changes when it’s grounded in a Catholic worldview, Walsh told Aleteia:
There is a dire need for Catholic special education and reading support because teachers need to see students as individuals created and loved by God… If one understands the powers of the soul and the ultimate end of learning, then all the research-based interventions fall into place.
She shared a story of tutoring high school students who struggled with comprehension. “I asked them to compare Hades, the Greek underworld, with Purgatory, and they thought it was the same thing,” she recalled. Their response sparked a fruitful discussion diving into Catholic theology: “I want students to know about God and I see this as a very special way I can help in the vineyard.”
SGEP tailors their approach in a unique way to each school, working with private schools in several ways:
- Providing guidance and support in creating individual plans for students
- Providing professional development for teachers
- Training and mentoring resource teachers
- Working directly with students in small pullouts to support their academic development toward independent learning
SGEP also works with homeschooling families, providing parent guidance and support as well as direct classes with students.
Walsh explained why SGEP seeks to help Catholic schools support students with special needs:
Students with learning disabilities absolutely should be integrated into Catholic schools...
Catholic schools not only have the ability to love the students as they should, but they also have the flexibility to serve them better than public schools do. Catholic schools can potentially be leaders in championing models of what real support can look like.
SGEP is a solution for schools who may not have the in-house resources to support students, or schools who are still searching for the right candidate who is mission aligned, or schools where some support is already in place and who want to take things to the next level. With zero setup costs and individually tailored partnerships, we hope to provide each school with the specific support they need.
Students’ lives changed
Krista Willertz, a Catholic school principal who worked with SGEP to support students at her school said, “Each student experienced success and growth they would not have been able to make with classroom instruction alone. Secret Garden is a Godsend!”
She shared the story of an at-risk student who entered 8th grade “from a less than ideal homeschooling environment” testing at a 1.8 grade level in Reading. After working diligently with SGEP, the student increased her score over 25 points and tested at a high 6th grade level on at least two different assessments by the end of the school year—an increase of over four grade levels in one academic year, making it possible for the student to graduate eighth grade ready for high school.
Walsh distilled much of her expertise about literacy interventions based on a Catholic understanding of the human person into her new book, A Catholic Approach to Literacy for Struggling Students: Connecting Philosophy and Practice.
Literacy is connected to the action of the human soul, Walsh said: “Setting best practices within the framework of Catholic anthropology and philosophy lends a power to the otherwise confusing and complicated world of literacy strategies.”
The book is a helpful resource for educators seeking a deeper understanding of the gold-standard Orton-Gillingham approach to reading instruction along with philosophical underpinnings that also support students’ spiritual lives.
“SGEP would love to partner with schools who want to go beyond band-aid fixes to support their students through academic intervention and increase students' capabilities and success,” Walsh said. “We see our work as a vocation through teaching.”
