Elon NC: New school for dyslexic students

Feb 28, 2026, My Fox 8: New school for dyslexic students partners with Elon University | FOX8 WGHP

ELON, N.C. (WGHP) — A new school focused on helping students with dyslexia learn long-term reading skills is opening in the Piedmont Triad and partnering with Elon University.

“I’m showing up. I’m doing the work. I’m not reading like everybody else,” said Lisa LeBlanc, a Greensboro mom, talking about her young son.

She still remembers how tough it was for him more than a decade later.

“He would turn around and simply say, ‘I don’t think I’ve got what it takes to get through the school day,'” LeBlanc said. “As early as Kindergarten, I started to notice differences in the learning style between my youngest and oldest.”

It led LeBlanc to get her son tested for learning disabilities, and she learned he had dyslexia. . . .

 “Nationwide and certainly statewide, we have a shortage of teachers and special education teachers specifically, and for students that have dyslexia, the instructional methodology that could best meet those needs may be hard to do in traditional school environments,” said Alicia Tate, the acting director for the Roberts Academy at Elon University.

That’s why Elon University will be home to the state’s first Roberts Academy. It’s a school designed specifically for kids with dyslexia and partially funded by donors Hal and Marjorie Roberts. The two are grandparents of three children who have dyslexia. They went to a specialized school, and seeing the positive benefits, the Roberts decided they wanted to help other children.

This will be the fourth school in the U.S. to focus on the Orton-Gillingham method. . . .

Students would ideally stay at the school for two or three years and then return to their original school. . . .