Special needs charter school approved in ‘resource desert’ Clayton County

“I believe our district already offers the same curriculum in addition to more comprehensive services and support for all students, including those with special needs,” Hill said.

Parents in Atlanta Public Schools lobbied for Tapestry to replicate its model there, but the school board denied the proposal twice, most recently in September 2023. While that was a blow to school and community leaders, Tapestry CEO and Principal Matthew Tyson said expanding into Clayton County means the school can be part of a broader effort to revitalize the area.

“What I want to do is to tie in the birth of this hopeful new Tapestry as part of that new Clayton beginning,” he said.

As part of the revitalization effort, Delta Air Lines and its foundation recently announced a $16.5 million donation to the county, which includes $13.5 million for the school district through programs like Junior Achievement and the Boys and Girls Club.

Tyson sees Tapestry as a resource hub that can provide services to the community, such as teacher training sessions and guidance for parents.

“By finding, bringing the experts to them, bringing the resources to them, and having an outpost there where we can be (a) resource for the community but also for the district itself,” he said.

Credit: Miguel Martinez

Credit: Miguel Martinez

That rings true for Patricia Nealy, a longtime Clayton resident whose eighth grade son is on the autism spectrum and has been diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder.

“Clayton, unfortunately, is a resource desert,” she said. “We lack a lot of resources. When I have to go looking for resources for my son, I have to go outside of Clayton County.”

Nealy drove roughly 40 miles north to Johns Creek to get her son evaluated for autism. It took roughly four trips — the first three for interviews and the evaluation process and the fourth to go over the diagnosis.

“We want Clayton County to be just as prominent and viable and alive as any other major metro area, but it starts with us bringing the things that we need here, and that starts with schools.”

Nealy’s son had a good experience in elementary school in Clayton County. She decided to enroll him in a charter school in Fayette County for middle school. It’s been generally good, with a few “bumps,” she said. But she hopes he can attend Tapestry because she thinks it will be a better fit for him.

“I feel like Tapestry is designed specifically for neurodivergent students,” she said. “Their staff and their teachers already have some of that training that a lot of the districts around the state don’t have walking in the door.”

Ophelia Nnorom hopes her son will also be able to attend Tapestry. He was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder in elementary school. When he started middle school this past year, she worried he would have trouble keeping up in a big classroom and sent him to a private school in another county. She has toured Tapestry in DeKalb and liked what she saw.

“One thing that I observed is that it’s such a calm … school,” she said. “I’m not saying other schools are not calm, but … I wasn’t expecting it to be so calm and a nice, welcoming, inclusive environment.”

Her son took to the grand piano in the music room, she said. They were also able to see how the school could meet his needs.

“At one point, he was getting a bit overwhelmed, and … we went into two of these sensory room type things, and when he came out from there, he was smiling, and everybody was like, ‘Oh my, you needed that.’”

Now that the Clayton County school board has approved the proposal, Tyson is working within a short timeline. He plans to open the school in the fall of 2026, and he and other school officials are still deciding between three possible locations.

“We are looking at the most dense population centers just to make transportation as easy as possible … and we’re confident that we’ll be able to put together in time,” he said.