Kindergarten students play around with food at lunch Monday while enjoying a break from their lessons at Hope Academy. The Greenville school places autistic children in the same classroom with non-autistic students to help them learn appropriate behavior and reach their academic potential. (Ledger photo/SCOTT POWELL) Every morning Michael Sachs makes his coffee rounds, carefully taking orders and figuring out the exact type of drink a teacher will need to get his or her caffeine jolt before class.

The middle school student is working on the coffee business he started with his mother’s assistance to practice the social skills which have eluded him since childhood. Down the hall, another student patiently tunes his guitar before a private lesson with a music teacher.

This is a world where miracles happen for autistic students every day at Hope Academy in Greenville. Students with the spectrum disorder gain academic and social skills while learning next to mainstream students in the Greenville school.

Theo and Lisa Lane founded Hope Academy in 1997 with the school’s administrative director Susan Sachs, who is Michael’s mother. Both families were looking for a way to help their children reach their education potential while dealing with the challenges of autism.

“Our youngest son Colby was like many autistic children in the sense that there didn’t appear to be anything wrong until he was 13 months old,” said Theo Lane, who is the district manager for Duke Energy in Cherokee and other Upstate counties. “During this time he was doing all the things expected. He was playing with other children and saying ‘mama’ and ‘da da.’ Then he kind of faded away.”

Theo and Lisa Lane began searching for answers and discovered Colby had autism, a disorder which affects how people communicate and interact with others.

Colby, who is now 15, began receiving 30 hours of intensive Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy each week when he was two years old. This therapy focuses on language, behavioral, social and thinking skills.

Although their son made progress in therapy, the Lanes felt Colby and other autistic children would benefit more from being around nonautistic children their age. They joined a group of parents in starting a pre-school program in a facility provided by Advent United Methodist Church.

“The problem with autism is it can be a very solitary, isolating disorder,” Hope Academy founder Lisa Lane said. “We promote inclusion at Hope Academy. Kids with autism need to have an opportunity to interact with typical students and learn the social and communication skills which often don’t come naturally.”

Hope Academy has grown over the past decade to serve 80 students across the Upstate in blended classrooms in kindergarten through ninth grade. It is one of four programs for autistic children supported through the nonprofit Project Hope Foundation.

Over the past decade, the foundation has raised $1 million in private funds to provide opportunities to help autistic children. These programs include the Hope Academy school, a Hope Reach therapy clinic and a Hope Link program to provide families with information to deal with the challenges of autism.

“We don’t have any Cherokee County students in Hope Academy but we do serve them through our Hope Reach program,” Lisa Lane said. “Our newest program, Hope Alive, is an effort to expand the potential of other youth and young adults with autism who are not best served through the traditional model of grouping people with wideranging disabilities.”

The Hope Academy school supports the behavior therapy and intervention treatments which autistic children receive on a daily basis. Students with attention deficit and anxiety disorders coexist in the classroom with autistic students.

Small class sizes supported by a teacher, teacher assistant and a shadow aide provide positive reinforcement for autistic children learning with regular students in class.

“We get to see miracles every day,” Hope Academy founder Susan Sachs said. “We give our kids an opportunity to be classroom leaders. We understand every child has their own gifts. We celebrate these gifts, and focus on making a difference one child at a time.”