Sacramento Dyslexia Schools ComparedREAD Academy vs. Loomis Gateway Academy vs. Lindamood‑Bell vs. Fusion Academy

Loomis Gateway Academy

Loomis Gateway Academy is a dyslexia-specific program in Loomis, in Placer County, for students in grades 1 through 8. It began as Read, Write and Spell, an Orton-Gillingham tutoring practice, became a full-time school in 2012, and took the Loomis Gateway Academy name in 2015. The stated goal is to close a student’s gap in two to three years and return the student to a traditional school.

Loomis Gateway Academy is the closest comparison to READ Academy. It is the most cost-effective of the four schools. The tradeoff starts with accreditation. Loomis is not accredited, which means no outside body holds the school to a standard, and that can narrow your child’s options later. Its specialized reading, writing, spelling, and math instruction runs four days a week. When comparing it to READ Academy, the difference is in the hours of specialized instruction. Loomis gives a student 4 reading sessions a week. READ Academy gives 8.

• Grades 1 through 8. No high school.
• Class size 4 to 5 per reading class, 8 to 10 in other subjects
• Faculty 15 people listed on the website, 10 with teaching titles. Credentials listed include Wilson Dyslexia Practitioner, Barton Certified Tutor, and accredited IEW instructor. 2025-26 state filing: 10 full-time and 2 part-time teachers.
• Curriculum Wilson, Barton, Making Math Real, Institute for Excellence in Writing
• Accreditation Currently not accredited by WASC or Cognia.
• Tuition $21,000 a year as quoted to prospective families; not on the website. Summer program $2,300.
• Enrollment 48 students, 2025-26 state filing
• Location 3268 Penryn Rd, Loomis, CA 95650, in a commercial office building

Loomis Gateway is currently not accredited by WASC or Cognia.

Its website describes the school as registered with the State of California. The school does not appear in the ACS WASC directory of schools. Registration is an annual filing that every California private school makes under Education Code Section 33190, and the state says plainly that being on its list is not an evaluation, an approval, or an endorsement. It is separate from accreditation, and it is not a substitute for it.

What parents highlight

Patient, flexible staff and gains in reading and self-esteem. One parent who moved her son in 2020 wishes she had done it sooner.

Lindamood-Bell Academy, Sacramento

Lindamood-Bell is a national learning center company with more than 46 locations. Its Sacramento center on Arden Way offers hourly instruction and a K-12 private school called Lindamood-Bell Academy. The Academy’s own FAQ describes it as operating virtually in all of the company’s US learning centers. Students attend in person at the center, online, or a mix. Federal data for 2023-24 lists the Sacramento Academy with 12 students in grades 2 through 10 and a one-to-one student-teacher ratio.

• Grades K through 12 advertised. 12 students, grades 2 through 10, per 2023-24 federal data.
• Model One-to-one, in person, online, or combination
• Staff No instructors named on the Sacramento page. Federal data for 2023-24 lists 15 instructors for 12 students.
• Accreditation Cognia. Not WASC.
• Course content Its own programs, including On Cloud Nine for math, plus curriculum from Edmentum and Everway. Diplomas follow California graduation requirements as a guide.
• Tuition Not on website. 2026-27 enrollment sheet: $83,430 a year for full day, plus a $190 fee and $2,000 deposit.
• Summer program Intensive summer instruction at its learning centers, four hours a day, five days a week.
• Location 1610 Arden Way, Suite 193, Sacramento, CA 95815

Lindamood-Bell Academy is one-to-one and, in its own words, operates virtually.

Its FAQ asks whether a one-to-one school will negatively impact a child’s social development. The answer: in-person students can interact with peers on campus, and all students interact with peers from around the US and UK. Federal data for 2023-24 lists 12 students at the Sacramento Academy.

Lindamood-Bell Academy full-day tuition is $83,430 a year.

From its 2026-27 Academy enrollment sheet: full day, six instructional hours, $83,430 a year, about $9,270 a month. Preparatory instruction may be recommended and is billed separately at the learning center’s hourly rate. A $2,000 deposit holds enrollment. No credit, refund, or make-up for absences, including illness. On withdrawal, no refund and no proration; the full tuition balance is due without exception.

What parents highlight

Friendly, kid-oriented staff, patient with a child’s test anxiety during evaluation. Children learning at their own pace.

Who teaches your child

Lindamood-Bell Academy provides instruction one-to-one through instructors it calls clinicians. The company says a bachelor’s degree is preferred, but applicants may also qualify with an associate degree, an early childhood certificate, or while completing a degree. Its job postings describe the clinician position as entry-level and include two weeks of paid training.

Fusion Academy Folsom

Fusion Academy Folsom is a private school at 420 Palladio Parkway in Folsom that advertises grades 4 through 12. Its 2025-26 state filing lists 16 students, all in grades 8 through 12. It opened in January 2023 as the 81st campus of Fusion Education Group, which runs more than 80 campuses nationally. Classes are one student with one teacher, or small groups of two to five, or self-directed digital sessions. Enrollment is rolling, and students can start at any point in the year.

Fusion is the only school on this page that was not built for dyslexia. Its own description is a school for students with learning, social, or emotional differences. It does teach reading, in two add-on remedial classes.

• Grades 4 through 12 advertised. 2025-26 students were in grades 8 through 12.
• Model One-to-one, small group of 2 to 5, or self-directed digital
• Enrollment 16 students, 2025-26 state filing
• Accreditation ACS WASC and Cognia
• Course content Its own catalog of 300-plus courses at Essential, College Prep, Honors, and AP levels. Holds a UC/CSU a-g course list.
• Tuition Per class, per term, 2026-27. One-to-one: $3,700 high school, $4,020 middle school. Small group: $2,900 high school, $3,480 middle school. Self-directed: $775 high school, $725 middle school.
• Fees $1,800 full-time registration, plus $250 for new full-time students
• Staff Campus team page lists a Head of School, a Director of Admissions, and a Director of Education. No teachers named. 2025-26 state filing: 7 full-time and 2 part-time teachers.
• Location 420 Palladio Parkway, Suite 1717, Folsom, CA 95630
• Tutoring $110 a session, or 10 and 20-session packages

A full one-to-one load at Fusion runs $44,400 to $60,300 a year.

Fusion does not publish an annual tuition figure. It publishes a price per class and states that full-time students typically take 12 to 15 classes across three terms, so the annual numbers below are that multiplication, not a Fusion quote. At the published 2026-27 rates, a standard one-to-one class is $3,700 in high school and $4,020 in middle school. Twelve to 15 of them comes to $44,400 to $55,500 in high school and $48,240 to $60,300 in middle school, before the $1,800 registration fee. A small group load at $2,900 and $3,480 per class works out to roughly $34,800 to $52,200. Ask Fusion to confirm a total for your child’s actual schedule.

One-to-one classes have no other students in them.

One-to-one is the product, and Fusion describes it plainly. A one-to-one class is one student and one teacher, with no other children in the room. Fusion also sells small group classes of two to five, so ask how many of your child’s classes would be small group. Fusion does not guarantee small groups. Beyond those, Fusion’s answer is the Homework Cafe, campus clubs, field trips, and prom, which tells you where it puts the peer time: outside the classroom.

Fusion's main reading class is built for the 15th to 40th percentile.

Fusion runs two reading interventions, based on a MAP test at enrollment. Reading Skills and Strategies is the flagship, built for the 15th to 40th percentile. Fusion says students below the 15th percentile “have also found success with this program, though it’s not specifically tailored for that group.” Each 50-minute class is 20 to 25 minutes with a teacher and 25 to 30 minutes of self-study on Lexia PowerUp software. The whole program is 30 hours. Its Orton-Gillingham program, Structured Literacy, is built for the 15th percentile and below and is a pilot at 30 of 80-plus campuses, so ask Folsom whether they have it.

What parents highlight

One Folsom reviewer with four decades in education calls the one-to-one instruction kind, supportive, and rigorous, with boundless opportunity for a student to succeed.

Nobody at Fusion Folsom is named as your child’s teacher

Fusion does not name a single teacher on its Folsom campus page. The team page lists three administrators. Teachers are hired per class and paid by the session, which the company’s own employee reviews describe as unpredictable hours and a hard way to make a living.

What Fusion does well

The accreditation is real and it covers both bases, WASC regionally and Cognia nationally. The Folsom campus holds a UC/CSU a-g course list, which means the University of California has reviewed and approved specific courses there. AP and honors levels are available. Scheduling is genuinely flexible, and a student can start in October or February without waiting for a term.

For a high schooler with dyslexia who already reads adequately and needs a smaller, calmer place to finish, that combination is worth a look. For a younger child in the bottom 15 percent of readers, the program built for them is a pilot that may not be in Folsom.

Basic remediation in two subjects, accommodation in the rest

Fusion’s catalog is 300-plus courses at Essential, College Prep, Honors, and AP levels. That is a general school catalog. Two remedial classes sit on top of it, one for reading and one for math, and they are built the same way: 50 minutes, twice a week, roughly half teacher and half software, 30 hours and you are finished. Reading runs on Lexia PowerUp. Math runs on ALEKS.

The math class has a floor. Fusion says it is for students in sixth grade or higher who have already reached a fourth grade level in math. A fourth or fifth grader is not eligible, and neither is a student working below fourth grade math. Fusion also says the course has no test or grading system, so a student passes or fails on time and effort, with 30 hours of self-study in ALEKS required to pass.

For every subject outside those two classes, what a student with dyslexia gets is a standard course with a teacher applying accommodations inside it. That is what Fusion’s own dyslexia page describes: audiobooks, color coding, alternative book reports, a laptop for essays. Useful things. Not the same as a curriculum designed for how the child processes language and numbers.

Two questions worth asking Folsom before you write a check. Do the remedial classes use up my child’s four to six course slots, and do they cost a full class at $3,700 or $4,020? Fusion prices by class type rather than by subject, so their price list does not answer this.