Rio Grande Educational Collaborative

Albuquerque Academy is a large independent school on Wyoming Boulevard NE serving grades 6 through 12, with roughly 1,185 students. It is a mainstream college preparatory school rather than a special needs school. Support runs through a defined, named structure rather than a general promise of care. That structure is the Peterson Learning Support Program. Students with specific learning disabilities can and do succeed there, and the program exists so those students can take full advantage of the school's course offerings rather than being routed away from them. Academic accommodations are available to students who meet diagnosed criteria for specific learning disabilities and ADHD, and strategies are individualized rather than applied from a standard list. The program's services are concrete. It provides test-taking strategies and arranges in-school test accommodations, makes referrals for educational and neuropsychological diagnostic evaluations, and runs consultations with counselors, the school nurse and others involved with a student. That referral pathway matters: a family who suspects a learning disability but has no diagnosis is not simply told to go find one alone. Admission is selective and the curriculum is demanding, so the relevant question for a family is whether their child can meet that curriculum with accommodations in place.

Albuquerque Bilingual Academy is a tuition-free public dual-language charter school in Albuquerque. The campus was previously known as La Promesa Early Learning Center. New students enter through a lottery rather than an application, and classroom instruction is in two languages. As a New Mexico public charter school, Albuquerque Bilingual Academy provides special education to eligible students and follows IEP and 504 processes. Families looking for this campus should use the Albuquerque Bilingual Academy name when they ask about current grades, services, and enrollment.

The Albuquerque Sign Language Academy is a tuition-free public charter school teaching in American Sign Language and English across kindergarten through 12th grade. It currently serves about 100 students. Roughly 95% have a link to the deaf community, either by being deaf or hard of hearing themselves or through a deaf parent, sibling or other relative, and 65% receive special education programming. Every student gets direct instruction in ASL, hearing and deaf alike. That is the point of the model. When everyone in the building shares a language, deaf students are not communicating through an intermediary, and the school becomes a place where deaf, hard of hearing and hearing children, staff and families work things out together. Teaching leans on project-based work where students apply what they have learned. Admission has no eligibility bar. A student does not need hearing loss, and does not need hearing loss as a primary disability, to attend. Places are allocated by lottery and are limited. Students with multiple disabilities who use ASL as their main expressive or receptive language are supported with individualized programming and therapeutic services. The school is authorized by New Mexico's Public Education Commission and is held to the same teacher certification and educational standards as any other public school in the state. It is worth being clear on one point families often assume: the ASL Academy is not affiliated with Albuquerque Public Schools or with the New Mexico School for the Deaf. It was founded by educators and by parents who wanted an option that did not mean sending their children away.