Elizabeth Goldsmith is the Founder and Executive Director of Thrive Center for Success, a Texas charter school for children with autism, that is located in Magnolia, Texas. She told us how the struggle to find the right educational fit for her autistic son led her to starting the first charter school in the State of Texas specifically for autistic children. In 2021, Thrive Center for Success was approved to open by the Texas Education Agency, with overwhelming support from the Texas State Board of Education. Thrive opened its doors serving 85 students, kindergarten through 5th grade, with plans to add a grade level each year up to 12th grade. Now serving kindergarten through 7th grade with 156 students enrolled for the 2024-2025 school year and over 300 students on the waitlist, Thrive is meeting an immense need for better options in her community. Before Thrive was started, parents of autistic children had three options, Private ABA (applied behavior analysis) clinics that have limited or no access to academics, public schools that often lack staff trained specifically to deal with autistic students, or private schools, that are very expensive. “Thrive combined the best of these three models to create a specialized model, rooted in research-based ABA principles, in a tuition-free public school that is accessible to all students and accountable for quality results.” Elizabeth showed us slides showing the need for this kind of school and the successes they have had with their students by academic measures at the beginning of the year and end of the year. She explained how they have three types of classrooms: (1) “Foundations” with the goal of developing foundational skills such as verbal development and attention skills; (2) “Transitions” with the goal of introducing academic learning while providing support and intervention; and (3) “Academics” with a goal of success at grade-level academics. With their first campus in Magnolia, Thrive has plans to expand to an additional campus in Houston and potentially expand to other parts of Texas, in hopes of providing this type of supportive learning environment for students around the state. For more information about Thrive, go to: www.thrivesuccess.org.