Updated as of Nov. 12 at 9:43 a.m. to include information published in the Nov. 12 edition of The Pendulum.
Updated as of Nov. 11 at 3:42 p.m. to include video.
Updated as of Nov. 6 at 7:19 p.m. to include information about enrollment in Roberts Academy.
Updated as of Nov. 6 at 5:38 p.m. to include one-on-one interviews from speakers at the announcement and more information regarding the location of the Roberts Academy.
Updated as of Nov. 6 at 3:34 p.m. to include information about the Roberts Academy facility set to open in fall 2028.
Updated as of Nov. 6 at 3:21 p.m. to include speakers’ remarks at the announcement on Nov. 6.
Elon University President Connie Book announced that Elon will welcome the Roberts Academy at Elon University to campus in fall 2026.
The Roberts Academy at Elon University will be a private school for children with dyslexia. It will be the first private school in North Carolina located on a university campus and dedicated to serving students with dyslexia.
“The reality is there’s no school like this in North Carolina,” Book said in an interview with Elon News Network.
Book announced the plans for Roberts Academy to the Elon community Nov. 6.
According to Book, the academy will be temporarily located at Trollinger House, which currently houses the I-House Living-Learning Community. The temporary location will enroll children in third and fourth grade.
Trollinger House Residence Hall on Nov. 6. The Trollinger House will be used as the location for the Roberts Academy in fall 2026.
The opening of a new 30,000 square foot building on East Haggard Avenue is planned for fall 2028, expanding enrollment to include students in first through sixth grade.
Students will attend the school for two to three years before returning to the schools they attended before the academy.
According to a press release shared with Elon News Network, between 150 and 200 students will be enrolled each year once the academy is fully opened, with no more than a dozen children per classroom.
Book said at a fireside chat event Nov. 6 that Elon University is not paying for any of the academy’s expenses.
“If you’re talking about cash, we’re not doing cash,” Book said in an interview with Elon News Network. “We’re definitely giving leadership time and the faculty time to help partner to get this set up. So, from a strategic effort, the university is participating in that.”
Hal and Marjorie Roberts donated to Elon University to establish the Roberts Academy at Elon University. The Roberts are from Lakeland, Florida, and have established a network of Roberts Academy programs across the country.
The Roberts said they approached Elon with the plans for the academy in July of this year.
“The development office at Elon accepted our dream and shared it with others, and have very rapidly moved forward with enthusiasm to support what we want to do,” Hal said in an interview with Elon News Network.
Vanderbilt University, Mercer University and Florida Southern College are a part of the Roberts Academy network, focusing on the education of children with dyslexia and related conditions. The Roberts Academy at Florida Southern College in Lakeland, Florida, was the first to open in the network in 2010.
Marjorie told Elon News Network that her and her husband’s grandniece went to Elon and they heard about the university’s ranking in undergraduate teaching. She also said they intentionally chose private universities.
“You need a private school. Working with state universities, it’s too difficult to go through too many loops,” Marjorie said in an interview with Elon News Network. “And also you need a school that has a school of education, because we want to train teachers.”
In addition to the Roberts Academy at Elon University, the gift from the Roberts will establish the Roberts Center for Dyslexia and Engaged Learning within Elon’s Dr. Jo Watts Williams School of Education.
“The gift is really a full wholesale intervention on dyslexia into perpetuity for the state of North Carolina,” Book said in an interview with Elon News Network.
The Roberts Academy will teach using the Orton-Gillingham method, which Hal called the gold standard for teaching kids with dyslexia. According to the Institute for Multi-Sensory Education, the Orton-Gillingham method is a highly structured approach that breaks reading and spelling down into smaller skills involving letters and sounds and then builds on these skills over time.
Hal said their grandchildren who have dyslexia learned at a school that used the Orton-Gillingham method.
“They benefited so much from that experience, and they were there two or three years, and it ignited their enthusiasm, their abilities and our inspiration,” Hal said in an interview with Elon News Network. “So we decided we just had to share the information.”
Senior Vice President for Advancement and External Affairs at Elon Jim Piatt said the announcement is like no other.
“It’s a day that reminds us of the unique privileges of our Elon University community, united and shared mission and vision to serve the betterment of our students, our campus, our community, our county, our state and beyond,” Piatt said.
The announcement not only attracted the Elon community but also staff and board members from the Alamance-Burlington School System, such as Superintendent Aaron Fleming and Chair of the Board of Education Sandy Ellington-Graves.
North Carolina Superintendent of Public Instruction Mo Green also attended the event but declined Elon News Network’s request for an interview.
In her announcement Nov. 6, Book said it was an extraordinary moment for Elon University and the larger community.
“Today is a day where transformational, philanthropic belief meets profound human need, and where our engaged learning model extends its reach in ways that will impact countless lives,” Book said in her speech.
Book explained that Elon was selected to open Roberts Academy because of the university’s high impact, engaged learning.
“Elon prepares students to be active participants, to connect knowledge with action, to see learning as a partnership,” Book said. “That is exactly what children with dyslexia need. Not just intervention but engagement. Not just accommodation, but empowerment. Not just support, but belief.”
In her remarks, Book said Roberts Academy will be more than just a building.
“It is a promise, a promise to children with dyslexia that their learning differences are not limitations, but different pathways to success, a promise to families that they’re not alone, a promise to our teacher candidates today that we will prepare them to reach every learner,” Book said.
Marjorie spoke on behalf of her and her husband, beginning her address with tears. She explained that parents of children who have dyslexia have cried because they don’t know what to do to help them succeed in the classroom.
“‘My child is smart, but she can’t read. On school days, she must be pulled out of the car screaming, crying. She has stomach aches,’” Marjorie said to the audience, telling them of stories she would hear from parents of children with dyslexia.
She said after testing and acceptance into the academy, the solution for those problems was there; the children were no longer in pain. The parents returned in tears — but this time, happy tears.
“One child said, ‘I did not have to hide mom, everyone is like me,’” Marjorie said in her speech.
Dean of the Dr. Jo Watts Williams School of Education Ann Bullock said the academy will provide Elon University education majors with the ability to apply what they learn in the classroom to the real world.
“This is going to provide a living laboratory for them on really honing in on their reading skills and really reading knowledge to become even better educators than what we prepare now,” Bullock said in an interview with Elon News Network.
Bullock also said that Roberts Academy will offer student-teaching placements for Elon education majors in the future. She said the School of Education curriculum requires coursework for elementary and middle grades education majors to focus on teaching children with learning differences.
“They are also learning specific special education pedagogy and methods to work as the primary teacher of children with learning differences,” Bullock said.
Starting in early 2026, applications for enrollment will be accepted. According to the Roberts Academy at Elon, information about tuition, financial aid and scholarship opportunities will be shared closer to its opening in fall 2026.
Elon University will be holding an information session about dyslexia and Robert’s Academy for interested parents and community members at 6 p.m. on Dec. 10 at Johnston Hall.
Fiona McAllister contributed to this story.