Private School Spotlight: Achievement Unlocked
Recently, I visited Achievement Unlocked in Brooklyn. Achievement Unlocked doesn’t limit itself to a specific type of student. Rather, their mission is to serve kids who have failed to succeed in other school settings. Brendan Wolff is the founder of the school and I met with school director, Michele Lipman.
I've had a good working relationship with Achievement Unlocked pretty much since the time that the school opened up a few years ago.
We took a walk around their building. It's a real small school, with about twenty-something kids, and as I’ve said, they take on a pretty wide population. As a result, all of the kids have special needs, but they're able to offer a really diverse student body where many, though not all, of the kids, are within the average range or higher, and they can provide really suitable social and academic role models for each other — in a way that more targeted schools may struggle with.
Achievement Unlocked has an interesting school setup. They really take the philosophy of helping kids who have failed to succeed in other placements seriously. So Brendan and Michelle really go above and beyond what other schools are willing to do when it comes to finding a home for kids.
When kids struggle with defiance or oppositional behaviors, or even somewhat socially aggressive behaviors, Achievement Unlocked earnestly holds to the philosophy that there are no bad kids. I've never known a school so willing to bend over backwards to accommodate a kid who just could not get out of his own way.
I'm thinking of a particular case with a particular client of ours where rather than just expel him, Achievement Unlocked is working with the family and developing a remote learning program so that they can find a way to continue to meet his needs academically — while working on his socio-emotional issues so that he can return to school full time. And a lot of schools wouldn't have the patience to do that.
During the tour, I got to see a couple of clients’ children, and it was really nice to put a face to some of those kids whose families I've been representing since they first started Achievement Unlocked, but whom I've never encountered.
These kids were not shy. As soon as I walked into the room, they wanted to know what I did for a living. They had a lot of questions about the law. One student asked whether it was legal for a school to take a kid's phone away during the school day. And contrary to what I would have expected, he really was interested in the answer. As I was walking out, the teacher ended up just rolling with it and turned it into an open discussion for the class as a whole, what they thought about the issue.
It was refreshing to see a school where the teachers are willing to play in that sense, where they can see the wisdom in giving them a minute to pull this thread, and then they can get back on task. It was really cool to see, and the care that they have for these kids is just extraordinary.
Michele has testified in a number of our hearings, but it was just a real pleasure to finally meet her face to face. It was really evident from talking with Michele, she really cares. We talked a little while about recent developments in tuition reimbursement law. I gave them some input on where I think the industry and the field of laws is headed, and it was a really lovely visit.
Marc Gottlieb
Partner
195 Montague Street
14th Floor
Brooklyn Heights, NY, 11201
Marc@GottliebFirm.com
(646) 820-8506