A Charter School for Children With Reading Differences

The Gates School has been approved to open in the fall of 2021 under the authorization of the Charter Institute at Erskine. The school will serve students in 1st - 5th grades in the first year.  The first day of school is August 18th.

Many students will not have received an official diagnosis of dyslexia through a formal evaluation but evidence of a primary reading disability or a primary deficit in the area of reading will be able to be seen through other measures available. Please refer to the dyslexiacharter.org for more information on the application process and documentation

Systematic, direct, multisensory instruction such as the Orton-Gillingham (OG) approach has proven most successful for children with dyslexia. There is a broad body of research that has indicated the OG approach to be effective with dyslexic learners when used with fidelity over time. The Gates School will employ an OG immersion curriculum that emphasizes language skills in every subject, in each class, and throughout every grade. Gates School students will meet all State Education guidelines as defined by the South Carolina Department of Education. To evaluate student performance, a variety of formative and summative assessment measures will be given to each student to comply with state education guidelines and curriculum guidelines.

There is a link on the website dyslexiacharter.org to begin the application process, with applications open from October 1 to December 22, 2020 at 5 pm, unless extended by the Gates Planning Committee. Information is in the link with regard to any documentation that may be available to submit with the student’s application.

As we promised, our location will be central to the Charleston area and is near the 526/26 interchange. The Gates School has purchased the Strayer University building at 5010 Wetland Crossing Road, North Charleston.  Stearns, Conrad and Schmidt Consulting Engineers did not identify any recognized environmental conditions or asbestos at the Site.

A charter school is a free public school with the ability to be innovative and student-centered in the classroom while being held accountable for improving student achievement in compliance with State Education standards. Any student who is a South Carolina (SC) resident is eligible to attend, no matter what county they live in.