FORT WORTH, Texas — A laboratory school in Fort Worth that primarily serves children with Down syndrome calls itself “a hidden gem,” although it doesn’t want to remain hidden.
The KinderFrogs School at Texas Christian University serves 35 students who are 18 months old to 6 years old. The early intervention program provides speech, occupational, physical and music therapies in-house during the students’ school day. A handful of typically developing students also attend and serve as models for their peers. TCU College of Education students receiving their master’s degrees in special education are also involved in the program, serving KinderFrogs students while building their skills they can take with them to school districts and other education programs once they graduate.
The program is the only one of its kind in the area, but with a limited number of slots for students, families who are unable to enroll must turn to the state’s Early Childhood Intervention services or opt for private therapies. Experts say the earlier the therapies are provided, the better, as 90% of the brain is developed by age 5. One in three infants and toddlers who receive these services don’t end up needing special education services when reaching school age, or they no longer presented a disability, according to the Center for the Developing Child at Harvard University.
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KinderFrogs, founded in 2000, is the only school of its kind in the area. After 25 years, Director and Jean W. Roach Chair of Laboratory Schools Damian Patton says there are plans to expand the program to serve more children in alignment with TCU’s Campus Master Plan, which proposes moving the school to a bigger location on campus. Physical space has been the main obstacle limiting the number of students who can be enrolled.
Additionally, it’s a program that’s costly and in high demand. It costs almost $21,000 a year, according to the school’s website, but for the past couple of years, donors have footed the bill for KinderFrogs families, Patton said. The waiting list for students is two years long.
“A lot of people say we’re the best hidden gem, which we don’t want to be,” Patton said. “We want to be a little more out (and) that people know about us. A lot of our parents are hitting our waiting list … actually in their second trimester of pregnancy, as soon as they find out that their baby is going to be born with Down syndrome.”
“It’s a unique program, while we feel that we are catching them early and providing those interventions where local school districts do not have the resources to do that,” he said. “We’re preparing them for that transition to go to a kindergarten, and the goal for us is for them to be fully included in a regular kindergarten classroom.”
On a recent Wednesday morning at the school, located across the street from the Dee J. Kelly Alumni & Visitors Center on Stadium Drive, a classroom of 4- and 5-year-olds sang “Baby Shark” and “You Are My Sunshine” while reciting the lyrics in American Sign Language.
In a separate room, 4-year-old Rhys was receiving individual speech therapy. His therapists, one of whom is a TCU master’s student in speech language pathology, prompted him to name a male figurine as either “Mama” or “Dada.” When he correctly identified him as “Dada,” one therapist pointed out how she liked his hair. Both of them then modeled to Rhys how to pat his hair while repeating the word “pat,” making sure to draw out the “a” sound: “Pat, pat, pat, pat, paaaat.”
Taylor English, a KinderFrogs parent of a 3-year-old named Isabelle, said her family was grateful to get a spot into the program after moving here from San Antonio. This school year is Isabelle’s second year at KinderFrogs, and seeing her progression has been rewarding, English said.
“It’s pretty awesome, and it’s just a testament to how important these types of schools are for these kids,” English said. “You just feel good about leaving them there and then coming and picking them up and knowing that they got what they needed that day.”
When asked what the alternative would have been for Isabelle if she was unable to enroll in KinderFrogs, English said the scenario would have been unimaginable. She often thinks about other children in the area who are unable to access the resources that this school provides.
“What does it look like for the rest of the kids in the city? It’s a problem in my opinion,” English said. “People don’t have the knowledge or understanding of what is needed, and the resources aren’t very easy to find.”
Looking ahead, the ideal scenario would be to show local school districts how they can replicate these services themselves, Patton said. But he acknowledges that funding is an ongoing obstacle. He also hopes to see graduate students who work at KinderFrogs go on to early childhood programs where they can transfer the skills they learn at the school to a new place.
Texas’ Early Childhood Intervention System
The state of Texas offers Early Childhood Intervention services, also known as ECI, to children with disabilities or developmental delays from birth to 3 years old. Families can pay for services through insurance, Medicaid or a cost-share model based on family size and income, but no family will be turned away who is unable to pay for services. These services are provided where the child is, which can be at home or at a child care center, for example.
“A child who has a developmental delay of at least 25% in one or more areas of development — social/emotional, adaptive and self-help, communication, motor or cognition — qualifies for ECI services. If the only delay is expressive language development, there must be a 33% delay to qualify initially,” according to the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.
Once a child turns 3 years old, they could qualify for services through their local school district. The Early Childhood Special Education program serves children ages 3-5 with disabilities, and those services can be provided in a pre-K classroom, at home or in a community setting such as a Head Start or private child care program.
My Health My Resources of Tarrant County is the local provider of ECI services and serves 12 counties total. There are 5,000 children enrolled in the program, according to Chief of Staff Catherine Carlton. Most referrals to the program come from the medical community or a pediatrician, but anyone could make a referral. For example, a mom could reach out over concerns of her child being unable to walk at a certain age.
“We coach the mom, dad, caregiver (or) grandma how to help develop those skills for the baby. Because we know babies’ brains are growing very fast, and the sooner we can get in — we say, ‘Early is best’ — the sooner we can get in and help provide some of those skills training, the better for the kiddo. And hopefully, kiddos come to ECI and get those skills built and go on their way,” Carlton said.
“There are some kiddos that may have delays, disabilities (or) diagnosis where then at 3 (years old when) ECI ends, we help transfer them to the school district, or we help transfer them to other services in the community,” she added.
A 2024 report from the Early Learning Alliance found that less than 25% of child care centers in Tarrant County accepted children with disabilities in 2023. A lack of funding and training for staff at centers are the root of the issue, according to providers. As a result, a parent is left to either work part-time or stay home full-time with their child.
Patton, the director and chair of TCU laboratory schools, underscored this point when asked about students with Down syndrome who are not accepted to the KinderFrogs program.
“For kids who are not accepted, what happens is a lot of those kids end up in home daycares because a lot of the daycares do not accept students who have Down syndrome, unfortunately. They end up mainly being at home with a family member or the parent that they’re staying with during that time. And then once they turn a certain age, then they go and start receiving some services from the (school district),” Patton said.
Bethany Edwards, co-author of the Early Learning Alliance report and director for research and evaluation at Center for Transforming Lives, said some child care programs are welcoming to ECI while some are not.
Edwards is also a mother of children with disabilities who were receiving ECI services while enrolled at a Lena Pope early learning center. Edwards called it “a dream situation” where there was a separate room designated for therapy and clinicians were also able to go into the classroom and be part of the child’s day. This wasn’t always the case when Edwards’ children attended other child care programs, she said.
“My kids went to multiple child care programs before they entered school, and we experienced some child care programs who absolutely did not allow therapists to come into the centers. And when that happens, many parents have to choose between staying at this child care facility that their child may be thriving at or receiving the services that their child needs,” Edwards said.
She noted that having a therapy room can be a luxury as programs can operate in a building with limited space, and creating additional space for therapy can be costly for centers with limited revenue. To solve the issue, more state funding is needed, Edwards said.
“We do have a lot of strong data around the change in trajectory from a child receiving services,” Edwards said. “The earlier an intervention starts, the better. It’s also a cost-saving measure for the state. If you think about the child receiving the services that they need to get on a developmentally appropriate level in ECI, then they potentially wouldn’t need to have those services in elementary school or moving on up in school.”
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