Best Special Needs Schools in Wasilla, Alaska (2026)

Mat-Su Day School offers non-traditional programs designed to meet the needs of special education students from elementary through high school. The main campus is an alternative transitional school that provides behavioral, social, and emotional learning in a therapeutic environment with an emphasis on academics. The goal is to prepare each student to reach their maximum potential and transition successfully back into their boundary school. Beyond the main campus, Mat-Su Day School administers the Project Life Program, a community-based transition program for young adults 18 and older who have a current IEP and have completed four years of high school. Project Life focuses on work maturity skills, community job training, public transportation, personal budgeting, self-advocacy, and independent living, with placements in community settings across the Mat-Su Valley. Project Search is also offered. The school additionally oversees an educational program inside the Summit Psychiatric Residential Treatment Center for boys ages 11 through 18, where students are not required to have an IEP. The district maintains a Memorandum of Agreement with North Star Palmer Residential Treatment Facility to provide free and appropriate public education, including academic and special education services, for students residing there.

Twindly Bridge Charter School is a K-12 program that provides support, resources, and opportunities for homeschooling families in the Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District. With the help of a certified teacher advisor, parents design and manage their student's education through an Individualized Learning Plan. Students may work entirely at home or come to the school building for supplemental instruction. On-site sessions include K-12 biology, chemistry, and physics science labs, along with music, art, pottery, robotics, archery, physical education, geography, foreign languages, business classes, and beginning construction trades. Families also have access to field trips, educational summer camps, parent and student workshops, a homeschool parent mentor program, and Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District schools, sports, and activities. Graduates earn a Matanuska-Susitna Borough School District high school diploma. Special education is family-supported and coordinated by a K-12 certified special education teacher and advisor. Services follow an IEP developed by the team through evaluation and data. Speech and language services are delivered by a district-contracted speech-language pathologist through teletherapy in the home, and allotment funds may be used to buy the equipment needed to access sessions. Other related services such as occupational therapy, physical therapy, adapted PE, and counseling are provided at the neighborhood school. Families with reading concerns work with their advisor on an Individual Reading Improvement Plan under the Alaska Reads Act, and Special Olympics participation is available.