History & Accreditations
In 1997, educators, clinicians and parents founded The Joy School in Houston to meet the needs of students with learning differences. Its founders include Patti Melcher, parents of a special-needs child; Dr. Jerome Rosner, an optometrist whose 40 years of research involved children with learning differences; and Shara Bumgarner, at the time an elementary public school teacher and now Head of School.
When the doors opened in 1997, The Joy School had just four students. Today it educates approximately +/- 150 children from kindergarten through eighth grade and serves families from approximately 40 zip codes throughout the Greater Houston area. In 2011, we proudly became the first and only school for children with learning differences in the Greater Houston area to receive accreditation by the Independent Schools Association of the Southwest (ISAS). Since our inception, we witnessed the success of many TJS students with learning differences, most of whom mainstreamed to traditional school environments.