Vision

By 2035, PEER Academy will set the standard in Knoxville for educating students with autism and diverse learning styles, expanding to serve more than 200 students annually and ensuring that more families can access an educational environment where their child can truly thrive.

Mission

To partner with families and the community to empower, inspire, and challenge students with autism and diverse learning styles to reach their full potential in academic, social, and emotional development by creating an individualized, supportive educational environment.

Core Values

  • Prepare: We prepare our students to reach their fullest potential by utilizing a curriculum tailored to their individual needs. We will work closely with parents, family, therapists and the community to help each student reach their fullest potential.
  • Encourage: We encourage our students to embrace challenges, overcome barriers, and always strive to do their very best.
  • Empower: We empower our students by providing a safe, supportive environment where they can learn collaboratively, help one another, and grow together.
  • Respect: We respect each child’s unique abilities and interests, and we encourage our students to respect one another in order to form a strong community of learners.

Goals

PEER Academy provides a quality education, while maintaining a low student to teacher ratio, and accommodating each child with individualized programming.

Board of Directors

Lindsay Messinger
Zak Stansell
Chandra Margetis
Steven Margetis
Carrie Ezell
Michelle Watkins
Jennifer Ranson
Kathy Swallows
Bailey Turnbo

History

A message from our Founder:

When our son was diagnosed with Autism, our first thought was not “where will my child go to school?” At first, we were completely immersed in the ever-so-important early intervention stage, which included Speech therapy, Occupational therapy and Applied Behavioral Analysis. While our son did well in his therapies, he got older, and soon we were faced with finding a school that would meet his needs and help him reach his full potential. We longed for a school that would be a perfect fit-one that would nurture him and allow him to explore his environment while teaching him life skills and academics. Like many parents in our area, we felt agonized that there was a large hole in the services and educational opportunities available for special needs children in our area.
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We decided to take matters into our own hands and look into opening our own school – one where our son would not simply be placed in a special education classroom with a large student to teacher ratio and too few aides. We knew our son, like most kids, would learn best in a smaller, more intensive educational setting.

As we began to look around, we discovered a woman who had been down the same road a few years earlier and tried to start a school. With her, we have developed PEER Academy. PEER stands for Prepare, Encourage, Empower, Respect – all values a school should have for educating children. PEER Academy also acknowledges that our children will be among peers. They will not be the “special ed kids” in the class; they will be perfectly normal for being exactly who they are. Their parents will be our peers. We will be with friends and collaborate with those who understand our journey.

Founder, Deidra Messinger