Rayson never liked school. He was in the fourth grade, but he knew he was behind the other kids in his class. It was hard for him to concentrate, and his emotional and behavioral problems made angry outbursts common. Sometimes other children laughed at him; sometimes Rayson struck back. Once he stabbed a fellow student with a pencil.

Katie Messmer read all of Rayson's school records when he first came to us. There was also a list of diagnoses: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), oppositional defiant disorder, post traumatic stress and learning disabilities. When she evaluated Rayson, she wasn't surprised to find his reading and math skills at about kindergarten level. On the reading section of the test, Rayson recognized only one word.

Katie's conclusion: "We got him at just the right time."

The Barret School, which completed its first full year of operation in 2003-2004, was specifically designed to help children like Rayson -- children with emotional and behavioral problems, complicated by learning disabilities or developmental delays. There is one teacher to every five children, giving teachers and their aides time to work intensively with each child. Classrooms have observation windows, allowing counselors, parents and supervising teachers to see what's really going on in the classroom. Later, they collaborate to find the best approaches to help children learn.

Katie worked with Rayson every day on reading -- using reading strategies to help him learn the parts of words and phonetics. "With the constant reading in class, he got used to seeing words and started learning sight words," she says. "When kids learn to read, it's like things click for them. They get it. Reading clicked for Rayson a little later than for most children -- but he got it here."

Part of Rayson's learning process was reading to other people. Every day, he walked down to the school office to read to Anne Coggin, director of educational services. One day he got to read to Youth Villages Board Chairman Johnny Pitts. With every success, Rayson's confidence grew.

"He loves to read now," Katie says. "When we read in class, he gets antsy until it's his turn, and he always wants to read the longest part."

He'll be going home soon, and Katie knows his teacher there will see a different boy in her classroom -- Rayson is ready to learn.