Charter School Opens for South Florida Students With Autism

HIALEAH, Fla. -- Susan Leon spent years trying to find the right school for her autistic son, Reno.
The public schools didn't have the right tools to teach children with autism, she said. And the specialized private schools were too costly.
So Leon, a paralegal from Kendall, convened a group of parents and experts to create the region's first charter school exclusively for autistic children.
The South Florida Autism Charter School in Hialeah opened in August with 81 students from Miami-Dade and Broward counties.
``These kids can learn so much,'' said Leon, now the school's director of development. ``You just have to know how to teach them.''