Today, the percentage of the population who are considered “neurodivergent” is 15-20%, according to The Neurodiversity Alliance. Neurodivergence is when the brain processes information, learns, and behaves differently than what is considered typical. This non-medical term can include autism spectrum disorder (ASD), ADHD, dyslexia, dysgraphia, dyscalculia, stuttering, and more.

Awareness of neurodivergence has grown in recent years. There has been an especially significant rise in autism diagnoses over the past two decades alone, though research suggests this is driven in large part by an expanded definition of ASD and better screening to identify it.

Increased awareness also means more families are attuned to their children’s unique needs and are looking for options that meet them, which has led to more resources emerging in the education landscape to meet demand.

Fortunately, education choice policies like education savings accounts and tax-credit scholarships have increased families’ financial access to available resources. Utah offers both.

Below is a story about a Utah mother, Michelle M., who has navigated multiple and complex needs of her children with the help of the Utah Fits All Scholarship, the state’s education savings account. You can read her experience in her own words:

When my 9-year-old daughter was diagnosed with ADHD and autism level 1, I didn’t have a plan. What I had was a strong feeling that the school system that had already worn down her older brothers wasn’t going to be the right place for her either – and a scholarship that gave me room to find out what actually was.

We have been fortunate enough to receive the Utah Fits All Scholarship for all three years it’s been available to us. I honestly don’t know where my daughter would be without it. Not ‘she’d be a little behind.’ I mean I don’t know how she would be doing – as a person, mentally, emotionally – without the doors this scholarship opened for her.

Year One: Brain Balance

The first year, we put the majority of the scholarship toward Brain Balance. At the time, I thought of it as one option among several. I didn’t fully understand yet how much she needed it. It turned out to be a game changer – not just for her, but for how I was able to parent her. It gave both of us tools we didn’t have before, and it changed the trajectory of how our house functioned day to day. Without the scholarship, that program simply wasn’t something we could have afforded to try. With it, we found out how much it mattered.

Year Two: A Hybrid School and an Unexpected Diagnosis

Last year, the scholarship let us try a hybrid school. We loved it. It ended up not being the right fit going into this year, but I don’t think of that as a loss – it was the right choice for that season, and we only knew that because we had the freedom to try it in the first place.

That same year, the scholarship also covered a math tutor for her. What started as help with math became something much bigger: It’s how we learned she has dysgraphia. That diagnosis reframed so much of what we’d been struggling to understand about her, why writing was so hard, why some of her frustration and shutdown made total sense once we had the right name for it. We’re bringing that tutor back this year, because that relationship and that insight are worth holding onto.

Year 3: Ignite Learning

This year, we’re using the scholarship for the private school option through Ignite Learning. We’re just getting started, but I feel really good about it, the program, the support we’ll have, and the fact that we can still do school from home. That last part matters more than people might realize.

She is currently working through some health issues that could take her out of school frequently and unpredictably. I’ve been here before. Years ago, her brother had a similar issue, and I had to fight the school just to get him the accommodations he needed to not fall through the cracks while he was sick. I remember what that fight cost, the appointments, the meetings, the sense that the system needed convincing before it would bend for a kid who was already struggling. I am not doing that fight again this year. Ignite Learning and the flexibility this scholarship provides mean that if she needs to rest, or manage a flare, or see a doctor mid-morning, school bends around her life instead of the other way around.

Why This Matters to Us

I’ve watched both of her brothers go through public school. I know, without guessing, that she would be struggling even more than she already does if that were her only option. Her ADHD and autism 1 diagnosis means she needs things a traditional classroom isn’t built to give her – flexibility, low-pressure learning, room to move at her own pace, and a lot of grace on the hard days. This scholarship hasn’t just paid for programs. It’s given our family the ability to actually meet her where she is: Brain Balance when she needed neurological support, a hybrid school when she needed community and structure, a tutor who helped us understand her brain, and now a private school model that lets us keep school life and home life woven together instead of pulled apart.

Three years in, I feel so blessed, not just that the scholarship existed, but that it existed at the exact moments we needed each piece of it. I can’t tell you where she would be without it. I can tell you where she is now: known, supported, and finally being taught in a way that fits her.