Program for Special Needs Students

The Foundation inaugurated a pilot program for special needs students in 2020 after one year of planning. Special needs students are most often entirely ignored in rural Guatemala. Busy teachers have no training or resources with which to support them, and these students often spend years in the same grade without measurable improvement. The pilot program employs psychologists, a social worker and a master teacher to evaluate students, create instructional materials geared to their needs, offer workshops for classroom teachers and to work directly with students and their families to improve learning and address psychological issues. The experimental program also funds lenses, prosthetics and other aids. The Brian and Joelle Kelly Foundation in Red Bank New Jersey provides the Derr Foundation with almost half of the funding for the program. In 2024 the program worked directly with 117 students and their families and in 2025 increased that number to 130. The program is assisted by 4 psychology students from the area Jesuit university and has partnered with the Guatemalan Department of Education to provide a modest student crafts making project, the earnings from which go directly to the families of participating students.