Bold By Choice Podcast | S3 E6: Neurodiversity in Action | Overview
In partnership with the Diverse Charter Schools Coalition
Overview
What does it look like when inclusion is not a strategy, a program, or a compliance requirement, but the foundation of a school’s identity. In Season 3, Episode 6 of the Bold By Choice Podcast, we visit Tapestry Public Charter School, a middle and high school in Georgia that is redefining what it means to design for every learner.
Tapestry was founded by parents who wanted something better for their children. Not a separate pathway. Not a school where belonging had to be earned. A place where neurotypical and neurodivergent students could learn side by side, supported by collaborative teaching, individualized learning plans, and a culture that recognizes dignity as the starting point for growth.
Our guest, Dr. Matthew Tyson, has spent his career challenging the assumption that school must look the way it always has. He began as a special education teacher, drawn to the place where expectations are too often set lowest and potential is most frequently underestimated. He shares a defining moment from his early career, working with a student who was nonverbal and written off far too soon. Instead of accepting the limits others had imposed, Dr. Tyson explored what might unlock the student’s strengths. With patience, creativity, and belief, that student began performing advanced mathematics years beyond what anyone expected.
That story captures the heart of Tapestry’s design. When schools stop trying to force students into fixed systems and instead build systems around how students actually learn, possibility expands.
Inside Tapestry, inclusion is structural. Every core classroom is co-taught, meaning support is embedded into daily instruction rather than pulled out or siloed. Sensory rooms are available to any student who needs to reset, not only those with formal plans. Inclusion facilitators move through the building responding to needs as they arise. These supports are not reactive. They are intentional, predictable, and available to everyone.
The school’s small size is also by design. Serving just over 300 students across grades 6 through 12 allows educators to know students deeply and over time. Teachers often work with students for years, building relationships that make it possible to guide them through academic challenges, emotional growth, and the complexities of adolescence. This continuity plays a direct role in Tapestry’s 100 percent graduation rate. Students do not disappear. They are known, supported, and shepherded across the finish line.
Families often arrive at Tapestry after difficult educational experiences. Many come with fear, frustration, and exhaustion from fighting systems that never seemed to fit their child. Dr. Tyson describes the moment when that tension begins to lift. When parents realize the school wants what they want for their child, safety, growth, and opportunity, trust replaces conflict.
Tapestry has also built a culture where teachers stay. Low turnover is not accidental. The school protects planning time, pairs co-teachers intentionally, reduces unnecessary meetings, and treats educators as human beings with families and lives outside the building. When teachers feel valued and effective, students benefit from stability and expertise.
Student ownership is equally intentional. Students help shape clubs, courses, and school traditions. They provide feedback during hiring processes and help determine what learning experiences matter most to them. This is not symbolic voice. It is agency with real impact.
As Tapestry prepares to open a second campus, the story remains grounded in purpose rather than growth for its own sake. Expansion is framed as access, a response to families asking for a school that finally fits.
This episode is a reminder that the most brag-worthy schools are not built on control. They are built on belief, care, and design. At Tapestry, inclusion is not an initiative. It is the air students and adults breathe every day.
Listen to the Episode
🎧 Season 3, Episode 6 – “Neurodiversity in Action”
Featuring Dr. Matthew Tyson, Tapestry Public Charter School
