Support for Students Who Learn Differently

Whether a child requires extra help in a particular subject or seeks an alternative to traditional schooling, Samara Learning Center is there to guide and support them every step of the way.

Samara Learning Center is an educational nonprofit in Bend dedicated to ensuring that each student’s unique learning needs are met. With a mission to foster academic and social-emotional growth, this center was founded by special education teacher, administrator and researcher Heather Chatem after experiencing educational inequality for those who were neurodivergent.

“I have learning disabilities myself,” Chatem said. “I was diagnosed with hyperactivity at one year old… When I began my career in education and started getting into classrooms, I kept wishing I could help every kid,” she recalled. “We specialize in providing education for the neurodivergent.”

At Samara Learning Center, administrators and educators acknowledge and appreciate that every child learns differently. To address this, the center offers a wide array of academic support services including day school, after school care, group tutoring and varying enrichment programs. “We are an official education alternative,” said Chatem. “We focus on what can be called diagnostic teaching.”

With small-group instruction, teachers and tutors create an interactive learning environment, fostering collaboration and peer support. “We’re much smaller, with a six-to-one student-to-teacher ratio,” she said. “Our school is very unique… we have a lot of one-on-one tutoring. But for the school itself, that six-to-one ratio is based on lots of research. Having this set ratio helps individualize the approach, guidance and tutoring for each student to find their success,” Chatem continued.

Championing an education that goes beyond textbooks, Samara Learning Center provides skill sessions and learning groups engineered to help students develop in social-emotional situations.

“We work on executive functions… we’re focused more on teaching the kids skills and qualities like perseverance and problem solving, we’re trying to help them find their own individual pathway to success,” Chatem said. Understanding emotional well-being plays a crucial role in a student’s overall success in the eyes of the Samara team.

Samara Learning Center has recently worked with local supporters such as Central Oregon Health Council and St. Charles Health System, demonstrating an active passion for improving the overall community as well as educating neurodivergent students. “Collaboration and being a part of the community is a big part of what we do. We refer families and parents to neuropsychologists, speech language pathologists and much more,” said Chatem.

In addition to academic and social support, Samara Learning Center offers strategies and skills to help students develop mechanisms for learning challenges. “We want more people to be able to understand that those who are neurodivergent have a lot to offer the community — there’s a big focus and stigma on the negatives but there’s a lot of positives to being neurodivergent as well,” Chatem asserts.

Samara’s team believes in empowering students, allowing them to take control of their education and equips them with the tools needed for long-term success. “It’s important for kids to explore what they like to do,” said Chatem.

Inside the classroom, students’ individual desks sit playfully in rows. The overhead fluorescents light students’ finger-paintings and history projects, tacked on the walls with glee. Students work on math problems, spelling tests and produce original artwork over cut-out magazine pages. It truly is a diverse learning program that nurtures an academic, creative and social-emotional development that also fosters essential qualities paving the way for lifelong success. These critical attributes encompass proactive behavior, unwavering determination, self-awareness, self-advocacy and effective problem-solving skills.

This article appears in Source Weekly November 9, 2023.