My Nonprofit Reviews

I was connected with the RITES program following my 4th grade daughter's (very late identification) as a student with SLD/Dyslexia, while obsessively trying to find a comprehensive summer program that would meet our family's needs. At the time, my daughter was nearly 2 years behind grade level Reading/Decoding and full of shame and self-doubt. Unfortunately, our public-school district did not offer a structured literacy program for the summer break and did not have any staff who were certified to provide high level, diagnostically & data informed intervention for Dyslexia/SLD/Literacy Delays. I was very concerned about the unavoidable regression as well as her diminishing self-confidence and interest in reading. I had researched many other summer literacy intervention programs, some costing nearly 12K for the same programming with parallel success, designed for Language Based Learning Disabilities and was struggling to find a program which was: (1) still enrolling (2) diverse (3) highly skilled in offering Multi-sensory Orton Gillingham Structured Literacy Programs (4) offering pre & post assessments (5) Flexible, offering both half day and "camp" programming (in partnership with the Hamilton School at Wheeler) as I am a busy single working mother of three children. The RITES Code Breakers Summer Program was a tremendous blessing!

My daughter was naturally apprehensive; however, the staff were understanding, patient, compassionate and welcoming. They helped her learn how to navigate the transition and validated her feelings of anxiety. She immediately connected with the classroom support professional who was warm & kindhearted, tailoring her approach to meet my daughter where she was. She prompted & redirected her in a way that felt encouraging, rather than critical and helped her put her best self forward. It was clear from the beginning that the RITES program was committed to developing secure, responsive relationships with their students. The teacher made her feel special - She even made a song about “being hopeful” after noticing a slogan on my daughter’s favorite sweatshirt that read “High Hopes!”

During the first week of the program I needed to reach out to discuss observations about my daughter's perception being very negative and impacting her ability to invest in the academic day. I was worried that because she felt she “wasn’t good enough,” that she believed that other people had the same opinion of her. I knew this wasn’t the case, but it still needed to be resolved. The program director listened intently with an authentic interest in problem solving and providing my child what she needed in order to be able to succeed, even if that meant modifying their delivery. I was astonished with their flexibility and ability to adapt! Not only did they listen to my experience, but they implemented the suggested interventions immediately (as well as contributing their own!) and when my daughter came home that afternoon she remarked that she "read two pages out-loud to the whole class and had the BEST day ever!"

As a Licensed Clinical Social Worker, who spent years working with/within Special Education I have never experience such dedicated, skilled and highly competent educators then the staff at the RITES Code Breaker’s Program.

RITES pre and post assessment process was comprehensive and through. They even prepared a summary of their observations for me to bring to my child's PPT team. They were able to identify patterns in 1 hour of assessment that the public school had not noticed after 4 years of educating my child.

During the program, my daughter was able to improve her board comprehension and fluency. She began volunteering to read out-loud without prompting! She drastically improved her OG phonemic awareness skills. Her words per minute rate for common and uncommon text improved. With regards to her writing; her spelling, punctuation and use of proper capitalization improved. Academics aside, my child entered Middle School with a sense-of-self, pride in her abilities and confidence that I was worried had vanished. She was actually looking forward to working with her Literacy Team and no longer feels “different” needing to receive additional instruction or participating in a small group. I am so thankful for RITES. I could not be more satisfied with the experience my family had this summer with the RITES Code Breaker’s Program at Hamilton School and would gladly welcome the opportunity to speak with any guardians who are considering using this valuable program. Next summer, BOTH of my twins will attend, and we are already looking forward to it!