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GILBERT, Ariz. — At the far end of a strip mall in Gilbert sits a unique school — and a special basketball program
PS Academy doesn’t look like a traditional campus, but it serves students who don’t always thrive in traditional classrooms.
Among them is 13-year-old Maci Decker, an eighth grader who weighs just 85 pounds — and stands out every time she steps onto the basketball court.
Decker, with smooth ball-handling skills, practices less than a mile away at the Ross Farnsworth-East Valley YMCA, where PS Academy’s girls and boys teams train together.
Despite being one of the smallest players on the floor, Decker is a starter on both teams.
“I call her little Caitlin Clark,” said coach Patrick Ruppel, referring to the WNBA star. “She gets beat up a little bit, but she goes in there.”
In her very first game, Decker scored 17 points and added nine assists — against boys.
Against the girls?
“Thirty-seven points,” Ruppel said.
But what truly connects Decker to her teammates isn’t basketball alone.
Nearly all of them, like her, are autistic.
PS Academy is a private school designed specifically for neurodivergent learners, including students with autism, ADHD, and anxiety.
The school serves about 195 students, and according to Director Kathy Britton, nearly all of them rely on Arizona’s Empowerment Scholarship Accounts, or ESAs.
ESAs use tax dollars to allow families to homeschool their children or send them to private schools. The program began in 2011 to support students with special needs. However, it has recently come under scrutiny by elected officials for questionable spending, as the program was expanded in 2022 to all Arizona students.
As debate continues around the $1 billion in annual ESA funding, Decker’s story highlights what supporters say is often lost in the conversation: the students themselves — and the opportunities the program can unlock.
Decker’s mom says the program has been life-changing.
“When they said you can use ESA funds to help pay, we cried,” Brenda Decker said. “Without ESA, this would not have happened for Maci. She would not be here. Having those ESA funds means I have a happy kid now.”
Today, nearly 18,000 Arizona students with special needs use ESAs — about 18% of all children in the program.
For Maci, PS Academy offers more than academics. It offers belonging.
“I like being on a team and winning together because it makes me feel included,” she said. “I like to have friends on the team.”
Britton calls Maci “a shining star.”
“She’s only in eighth grade,” Britton said. “She was such a natural that the coach asked if she would mind playing on both the girls’ team and the boys’ team. In the first game of the season, she was instrumental in both wins.”
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