Empowering our students
Founded in 1974, Second Start began offering a tutorial and diagnostic clinic to children with severe disabilities, such as autism and Asperger symptoms, which is a mild autism.
Special needs education in grades 1-12 began in 1976 at Pine Hill School, to provide a multi-disciplinary, academic and therapeutic program to learning developmentally disabled and emotionally challenged children. Classes for adults were added in July 1988.
Growing in the early 90’s, Second Start began to branch out and provide services to at-risk children with special needs education through our Community Development Department.
Starting in 2002, Second Start founded Advent Academy a charter school dedicated to providing education to autistic and Asperger’s syndrome High School Students who are in a residential recovery program.
In 2003 Second Start launched the Newton Learning Center an educational program specifically tailored for the educational advancement of students with Asperger syndrome symptoms and students on the upper end of the autism spectrum, also referred to as high-functioning autism.
After much effective success at Pine Hill School, in 2007 Second Start founded Newton Learning Center Northern Nevada. Second Start created a remarkably effective program for students with autism and Asperger’s syndrome in the Reno and Northern Nevada area.
Honors received by Second Start’s Pine Hill School
School of Excellence by The National Association of Special Education Teachers (NASET), demonstrating a truly exceptional dedication, commitment and achievement one of the highest honors a private special education school can achieve through any professional association. The recognition is bestowed on private special education schools that meet rigorous professional criteria and have in the field of special education for their work in excellently educating children with Autism and Asperger’s syndrome.
Peter Batten from Australia’s “The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust” was bestowed upon Pine Hill School, a 35-year-old special education non-public private school received from Mr. Batten, a Churchill Fellow, which is tasked with finding the best Autistic programs in the World. After detailed and extensive research for which he received his fellowship, he scheduled an in-person visit to those schools and programs across the globe that he found to be most effective in helping moderate- to high-functioning Autistic Asperger’s syndrome children.