The ACES Honors Co-Founder Francie Austin’s Five Decades of Advancing Educational Access for Children with Complex Needs

PHOENIX & DENVER--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The Austin Centers for Exceptional Students (The ACES), which serves more than 1,200 students each year across eight campuses in Arizona and Colorado, today recognized co-founder Francie Austin’s more than five decades of advocacy that shaped its approach to educating children with complex emotional, behavioral, and developmental needs. Long before children with disabilities were guaranteed access to public education, Ms. Austin was fighting for students who were too often excluded or sent home, and that work became the foundation on which The ACES was built.

Throughout her career, Ms. Austin has helped advance a fundamental evolution in how educators understand children with emotional, behavioral, and developmental needs. Rather than defining students by their diagnoses, behaviors, or previous failures, she has consistently challenged schools to ask a more important question: What does this individual child need to learn, communicate, and succeed?

That philosophy ultimately led Ms. Austin and her husband, Gene, to establish The Austin Centers for Exceptional Students, known as The ACES. Today, the organization operates eight campuses across Arizona and Colorado, serving students whose complex needs could not be successfully addressed in traditional educational settings.

Austin’s influence, however, began long before The ACES opened its doors.

While studying speech and language pathology at the University of Colorado Boulder, Ms. Austin completed a clinical rotation working with deaf children in Denver Public Schools. The experience sparked what would become her lifelong commitment to children with special needs. As she continued working with students, she recognized that children’s needs rarely fit into a single, clearly defined category. A student might be deaf and emotionally disabled, deaf and learning disabled, or deaf and blind.

“I fell in love with kids who had difficulty learning, no matter what the cause was,” Ms. Austin said.

When Ms. Austin moved to Arizona in the late 1960s, the state had no legal obligation to educate children with disabilities. Families could simply be told to take their children home. Ms. Austin refused to accept that reality. She helped organize parents of children with disabilities and participated in efforts to persuade Arizona lawmakers to mandate special-education services. After an initial bill failed, the advocates returned with a more visible strategy, filling the front two rows at legislative hearings with capable, young children with special needs from the programs Ms. Austin operated. “It was impossible to vote against them,” she recalled. The legislation was passed, helping create educational access for children who had previously been excluded from public schools.

When the Austins founded The ACES, they created a model specifically for children who had often been removed from multiple classrooms, programs, or schools. Many arrived believing they could not learn, control their behavior, form friendships, or succeed in a school environment. Ms. Austin’s approach begins by refusing to accept that message.

Another defining element of Ms. Austin’s philosophy is identifying what she calls a child’s “hook,” the interest, talent, activity, or relationship that can motivate a student who no longer believes success is possible. For one child, it might be art and for another, public speaking, technology, or working with animals. Once a child is willing to work toward something personally meaningful, that motivation can be extended to academics, communication, social development, and more difficult behavioral goals.

The responsibility of the educator, Ms. Austin believes, is to discover what motivates each child and use it to inspire academic and behavioral progress.

The ACES also measures success by helping students move forward. Over 20% of its students transition back to public school districts each year after meeting individualized criteria developed with their sending schools. Progress is monitored continuously. When a student’s improvement plateaus, Ms. Austin’s model calls for revising the behavioral plan to ensure continuing progress.

The ACES’ Colorado campus brings Ms. Austin’s work full circle. She discovered her passion for special education while studying at the University of Colorado Boulder and began her teaching career at the Evans School within Denver Public Schools. Now entering its third year, the campus carries that philosophy forward for a new generation of students and families.

Ms. Austin’s legacy extends beyond the campuses she founded. Her work has reinforced an enduring principle in special education: children with complex needs are capable of progress when adults take the time to understand them, create the right environment, and refuse to give up.

About The ACES

Founded in 1995, The Austin Centers for Exceptional Students (The ACES) provides specialized educational services for students with autism spectrum disorder, emotional disabilities, and significant behavioral challenges. With campuses in Arizona and Colorado, The ACES partners with school districts to deliver individualized programs that help students achieve academic, behavioral, and social success while preparing them to return to their local schools. Each year, The ACES serves more than 1,200 students through partnerships with more than 100 school districts. The National Association of Special Education Teachers has recognized The ACES among its National Schools of Excellence for 10 consecutive years. To learn more about The ACES visit: https://austincenters.com/