I am working on touring some of the local private and public school programs in our area in hopes of having better options to offer to neurodivergent clients who may need an alternative setting to their current one.
One of the first schools that I toured was Fusion Academy in Columbia, Maryland. This school serves middle and high school students. It has rolling admission.
The school program is in an office building right off Little Patuxent Parkway by Wincopin Circle, and it is set up like an office space. It’s right next to the Columbia Mall and it’s convenient if you want easy access by walking, bus, or bicycle.
Each teacher has their own office that allows them to meet with one or two students at a time. There are also rooms dedicated to classes like music, yoga, science lab.
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There are some central areas where the kids can meet and work on their homework together to talk or to have lunch. There’s a refrigerator for students to put their lunch as well as a microwave for kids to warm up their food. Older students whose parents allow them to leave campus at lunch time are able to go out and go get lunch. This is a really convenient area for it because the lake in Columbia, Whole Foods, and the Columbia Mall food court are all within easy walking distance.
Fusion Academy has students meet with their teachers one-on-one, which allows for a very, very specific curriculum to be made for that student. So if a student loves a particular niche or topic, the teacher could theoretically revolve teaching around that. This is great for students that are neurodivergent.
They’re willing to make some accommodations for students as needed. For example, they have a dissection lab and while you can do traditional disection, they also offer synthetic options, or they allow students to do an online version of dissection.
Students get to choose from a wide variety of classes because they’re one-on-one. For example, if you wanted to take a language such as Japanese or ASL, you could be paired with a teacher that offers that. However, some of the more niche classes (i.e. Japanese) would be offered virtually with a teacher from one of their other campus’ if they don’t have a teacher on site who can teach the class. So for example, if there is a teacher in Boston that offers Japanese classes, you could be on virtually with that teacher and learn Japanese with them.
I do think that the actual supplies and options are limited in terms of physical supplies for the school. Just to give you an example, I went to a public school growing up and we had relatively decent supplies for our science lab, but I think our science lab in my public high school probably was better equipped than Fusion Academy can possibly be with limited space and a smaller school setting.
The school has four terms. They have three terms that run from mid August through June and then they also have a summer session. Most students take the summer session off. The benefit to utilizing the summer session is that you could graduate early if you wanted to. You can take as many classes as you want, but you pay by the class and not by the semester at this school. This is different from traditional private schools where you pay for the year at a set rate. So if you take five classes at term and you’re taking three terms then you’re taking 15 classes so you have to pay 15 times the rate per class. So you have to keep that in mind when thinking about pricing.
School Credits & Terms
- 4 classes per term, but you need to take two terms of the class for the full credit. Most students take 5-6 classes per term.
- Must take 3 terms due to Maryland state law, as well as attend classes on Fridays
- You can do a mix of virtual/in person classes. I.e.. You can take classes 3x a week in-person and 2x a week virtual.
- Flexibility: You can change to virtual on a day if something comes up, i.e. Flat tire, snow, etc.
- Terms are:
- August through November
- November through February
- February through June
- Summer, optional
- School follows HCPSS breaks.
- Options:
- Typical classes are 25 sessions
- Accelerated classes are completed in 20 sessions
- Extended classes are completed in 30 sessions
- Honors/AP classes are 30 sessions
- It takes 230 credits to graduate from high school (23 credits)
- Classes are 50 minutes long with 10 minutes left for a passing period. Students move from room to room.
Class Information
- Small group classes offered for non core classes (i.e. Art class “crafting graphic novels”, languages, etc. Many more virtual group classes.)
- Offer 11 different languages
- English is a 2-term class for them. So by the end of February, you could have your English credit completed for the year.
School Setup
- Homework cafe
- Offices for each teacher for 1:1 learning
- Lunch: 12:30-1:30 pm
- Yoga studio.
- Recording arts studio with keyboard and drum set.
- Club room with ping pong table, board games etc. for brain breaks.
- Green School certified so they do a yearly project.
- (2) 3d printers
- Science lab , do things like dissection (including synthetic or online if needed), crime lab, etc.
- Art spaces- traditional and digital
- Library
Students
- 2024: 98 full time students last year
- More high schoolers than middle schoolers
To Note
- They have different requirements than HCPSS so you want to keep that in mind if plan to transition back to public school (I.e. They require one term of government, but HCPSS requires 2.)
- They can do tutoring program if the child is in public school, or students can do credit recovery with them during the summer. But HCPSS will not take their credits or allow dual enrollment. Sometimes they offer dual enrollment with private schools. They also do dual enrollment with Howard County Community College.
Thoughts
This model offers fewer classroom distractions and more 1:1 contact with an instructor. This could be beneficial for students who need positive reinforcement and encouragement from a caring adult, particularly for those with ADHD or Autism who might be distracted by larger classroom settings. If I recall, the price was more reasonable than many local private schools. I like that it offers more freedom for responsible teens, allowing approved students to go off site for lunch. This is a great way to scaffold to increased responsibility and prepare them for a college setting.
I particularly like that classes can be held virtually if needed. If you are sick, you don’t need to fall behind, or if you’re having a bad day and can’t tolerate going out, you can still take the class virtually.
I like that there’s still time for socialization with other students, but that this is done in smaller settings than traditional schools allow.
For super social kids, a larger school setting might be better though. I also imagine that small school settings may mean that while students may be closer knit, they may also struggle with the relationship ‘stuff’ that closer relationships entail- it’s not like a large high school where, if you fight with Friend #1, you can ignore it and go spend time with Friend #9. That said, there are some social benefits to NEEDING to work out differences, particularly if adult support is available (I can’t speak to this).
For many neurodivergent students, particularly those who fall into the 2E category, I find that they tend to underperform because they tend to fade into the background in traditional school settings with lots of students. They perform just well enough to hide in plain sight- you have students who really could be performing at a higher level getting Cs in classes because they don’t have the executive functioning support they need or because they can’t handle the level of distractions. I anticipate that a school like this would be an opportunity to get those supports and function at the student’s actual level… not the level they got lumped into.
This 1:1 type learning is one reason homeschooling is beneficial… it’s nice to be able to skip quickly through fractions and spend more time on multiplication tables if your student has higher needs in that area. But for some parents and students, it’s not the right fit. This seems like a great alternative.
Now… I’m super late to writing this. I visited in July 2025 and it’s now May 2026… so please understand some details may have changed and I wrote this all based on my notes. I can’t promise this is a good or bad school for your child… this is such an individualized thing. But I’m hoping this information will help you consider the options.
