Who we help
We tutor Georgia students who learn differently. That includes children with:
- an IEP (individualized education program, the written plan a public school makes for a student’s special education services), now or from a previous school;
- a 504 plan (a school plan for accommodations under Section 504, a federal disability law);
- dyslexia, dyscalculia (a learning disability that affects number sense, calculation and math reasoning) or another learning difference;
- ADHD or trouble with executive function (the skills used to plan, start, organize and finish work);
- autism.
You don’t need a diagnosis or a school plan to talk with us. Tutoring also isn’t only for catching up. Whether your child needs to rebuild a skill, keep making progress or manage schoolwork more independently, we begin with their individual starting point, and we build on their strengths as well as the hard parts.
We teach students from kindergarten through high school, including students in private schools and homeschool programs. The Georgia Promise Scholarship, Georgia’s education savings account (ESA) program that news reports often call a voucher, starts at kindergarten. Special Ed Resource also works with children from age 3.5, but in Georgia preschool tutoring would be paid privately, as would tutoring for a student enrolled in a public school, since Promise students cannot be enrolled in one.
Subjects and skills
- Reading: sounding out words, reading smoothly, vocabulary and understanding what they read.
- Writing and spelling: spelling patterns and getting ideas onto the page in clear steps.
- Math: from number sense and math facts through fractions, word problems, algebra and geometry.
- Study skills: starting, planning, organizing and finishing assignments.
- Other school subjects, such as science and social studies.
How Georgia Promise sorts tutoring
Georgia Promise pays for tutoring by subject. The Odyssey Marketplace sorts tutoring into these categories: “AP Tutoring,” “English / Language Arts / Reading Tutoring,” “Social Studies Tutoring,” “Math Tutoring,” “Science Tutoring” and “Foreign Language Tutoring,” plus “Tutoring Aides.” That is the program’s category list, not a list of our offerings. The program’s Service Provider/Vendor Handbook says, “Only expenses for core subjects are eligible.” Study skills on their own are not one of those categories, so with Promise they are practiced inside subject tutoring; stand-alone study-skills help would be paid privately. In the consultation, we’ll tell you which of our current offerings fits your child.
Tutoring by need
Each of these pages explains what tutoring can address, how our teachers approach it and what it doesn’t include.
- Reading and dyslexia tutoring: decoding, fluency, spelling and comprehension, and what to ask about named reading methods.
- Math tutoring: number sense, facts, word problems and multi-step work, rebuilt from your child’s starting point.
- ADHD and executive function tutoring: the subject plus the steps around it, such as starting, planning and checking work.
- Autism tutoring: academic support shaped around how your child communicates, what they enjoy and what helps them settle into learning.
What a session looks like
Sessions are live and one-to-one over video, so your child works with the same teacher from home. All your child needs is a computer with a webcam and an internet connection. Younger children may need an adult nearby to get started.
There is no set curriculum that every child follows. The teacher works on the skills in your child’s plan, at your child’s pace, using visual aids, examples and short, clear steps. If your child needs to move around, the teacher can build in a break, and when attention fades the teacher can change the activity rather than push through.
Online tutoring doesn’t suit every child, and we won’t assume it does. In the consultation, tell us about your child’s experience with screens, conversation and moving between tasks, so we can talk honestly about whether this format fits.
How tutoring begins
- A free consultation. Tell us what you’re seeing and what you hope will change. We explain how our tutoring works and answer your questions. It doesn’t commit you to anything.
- A fuller conversation about your child. If you decide to go ahead, we learn about your child’s learning history, strengths, interests and what has helped.
- A teacher from our team. We choose a teacher whose experience fits your child’s needs and goals, and you talk with the teacher before lessons begin. If you plan to pay with Georgia Promise, we’ll tell you which teacher would lead those sessions (see How families pay).
- A starting plan. The first sessions show the teacher where your child is starting from. That work shapes a written starting plan that we review with you.
Our how it works page walks through each step, including how families pay.
How parents stay informed
Your experience as a parent helps guide the plan, so we keep you in the loop. You get a summary after each tutoring session, and your child’s teacher can provide a quarterly progress report if you ask for one. Use these updates to talk about what your child can now do on their own, what still needs support and whether the approach should change.
If the teacher isn’t the right fit, tell us. We’ll reassess with you and, for private-pay tutoring, offer another teacher from our team; for Promise-paid sessions, we’ll explain the options under the program’s certificate rule. The long-term aim of our tutoring is independence: a child who has the skills and strategies to do more of the work on their own.
IEPs, 504 plans and what tutoring is not
If your child has an IEP or a 504 plan, its goals and the accommodations that helped are useful to share. You can describe them in your own words. The teacher uses that information, along with your observations and the first sessions, to shape academic goals for tutoring. A tutoring plan is not an IEP, and it doesn’t replace school services; questions about the school’s plan belong with your school team.
If you are weighing the Georgia Promise Scholarship, read the law’s wording first. Promise is a general scholarship with no disability tier, and students using it cannot be enrolled in a public school, even part-time, except in an approved college and career academy. Georgia law (O.C.G.A. § 20-2B-22(e)) says a participating student’s “resident school system shall not be obligated to provide services to such student that would be required if such student were enrolled in such school system unless the student reenrolls in the resident school system.” Our guide to Georgia Promise and your child’s IEP explains the law, and our Georgia IEP help page covers the school process. For your child’s situation, ask your school district, a Georgia Parent Mentor or Parent to Parent of Georgia.
Our service is academic tutoring only. We don’t provide speech-language therapy, occupational therapy, ABA or other therapies, and we don’t diagnose or evaluate children.
How families pay
Special Ed Resource is an approved provider in the Georgia Promise Scholarship Odyssey Marketplace, with approved tutoring offerings there. We are not the Georgia Education Savings Authority (GESA), the Georgia Student Finance Commission, Odyssey or the State of Georgia. Families apply for Promise through the program’s own site, mygeorgiapromise.org, not ours. Our Georgia Promise provider page explains how we work with the Marketplace.
Promise funds are spent in the Odyssey Marketplace, where families direct their child’s funds to a provider. Promise does not reimburse families for tutoring they paid for themselves; the only reimbursement it allows is for eligible transportation. Odyssey’s advice to families is: “Do not pay any invoices out of pocket if you plan to use your Georgia Promise Scholarship funds for that purchase.” Families can also pay privately, from money other than the scholarship.
Promise rules add one condition for tutoring: it must be provided by an educator certified by the Georgia Professional Standards Commission, and Odyssey requires each Marketplace offering to name its tutor. If you plan to pay with Promise, we’ll tell you in the consultation which teacher would work with your child.
For the 2026-27 school year, Georgia Promise pays up to $6,500 per eligible student, in four quarterly payments of $1,625; GESA may withhold up to 5% for administration. Students approved in the August or November 2026 application window are funded for the second half of the school year only. Before spending each quarter, families confirm that their child is not in public school (the Quarterly Opt-In). Our guides to paying for tutoring with Georgia Promise and the Georgia Promise amount explain the details. We explain our current tutoring options in the free consultation.
Program status: In August 2026, families filed a lawsuit in DeKalb County Superior Court (Sands v. Green) challenging the rule that students must first attend public school, according to the families’ lawyers and news reports. As of October 2, 2026, we have found no report of a ruling, and the program is operating for the 2026-27 school year. Read about the court case.