Taking a giant leap of faith to start a school she couldn’t even find a model for was a scary proposition for Jennifer Jones, but Apparo Academy has exceeded her expectations and is on the cusp of expanding to help even more children.
Opened in 2019 on Skinner Mill Road, the school, which serves children with special needs plus typically developing children, added its first kindergarten class in August.
With the purchase of five acres across the street, Apparo looks to serve more children through an elementary school and freestanding therapy center.
“When we started, I looked at programs in Franklin, Tennessee; Greenville, South Carolina and Columbia. We were looking at programs to pull from them; now a lot of those programs are coming to us,” she said
Jones began her career as a speech pathologist and had a thriving practice, but she also had five special needs children of her own and she knew firsthand the frustrations of dealing with insurance companies that wanted to dictate what therapy and how much a child could receive.
Early intervention makes a huge difference in a child’s life, she said.
“The earlier we can get these children, the more gains they will make. The ones you see progress the most are the ones who are getting therapy as early as possible,” she said.
Apparo is open for infants to kindergarten, and it’s the only center of its kind in Georgia. Jones thinks it could be the only one like it in the country. Apparo is a Christian child-learning center that combines therapy as well as education for young children. The school serves infants to kindergarten. It also offers separate outpatient therapy services.
Children receive a mix of occupational, physical and speech therapy depending on their needs. Teachers work with children who have various diagnoses.
There’s a max of 11 students in each room; six of those children will have a special need. Of those six, only two can be diagnosed with autism and only two can be non-ambulatory, said Jones The other children are developing typically.
Apparo is in the middle of a capital campaign in an effort to build a 11,000 square foot therapy center and an elementary school with six to eight classrooms.
“We have a $15 million capital campaign. The therapy building is $6.6 million with the land site work and building, and the elementary school is $8.4 million,” she said. “This is our vision. We’ll serve as many children as we can.”
Apparo started with only 32 students in 2019. Now it serves 118 children in the school and 275 through its outpatient therapy program.
“Our goal would be once we build both to double our capacity,” she said.
Children come from 13 Georgia and South Carolina counties to access services.
When trying to determine the best way to help children, Jones said they created an advisory committee of educators from Columbia, Richmond and Aiken counties and ask them for input.
“They said ‘please start an elementary school. We want more for our children,’” she said.
Jones hopes to break ground soon on the site.
Charmain Z. Brackett, the publisher of Augusta Good News and Inspiring: Women of Augusta, has covered Augusta’s news for more than 35 years. She’s won multiple Georgia Press Association awards, is the recipient of the 2018 Greater Augusta Arts Council’s media award and was named best local writer by readers of Augusta Magazine in 2024 and 2025. Reach her at charmain@augustagoodnews.com. Sign up for the newsletter here
