A Difficult Start

Nikolas, whose adoption from foster care was official at age 3, has an infectious personality. “Everybody just loves him,” said Julie, a parishioner at St. Theresa Parish in Spring Hill.

But Nikolas has faced challenges.

“I had him in my custody from 2 months old,” Julie said.

By his first birthday, she knew he’d have special needs. 

“He was in all sorts of therapies from the age of 1,” she said. She learned he is neurodivergent.

At age 3, Julie said, he started attending a public school’s exceptional student education (ESE) program.

“He lasted about two months” in ESE, she said. “He lost all four of his front teeth in four separate incidents.”

Because he wasn’t safe there, Julie enrolled him at Notre Dame Catholic School in Spring Hill for the final few months of pre-K and part of a summer program. But “he needed much more support than what they could provide,” she said.

For kindergarten, she put Nikolas in a private special needs school, but she pulled him out after four months, when an incident there also threatened his safety.

That left him “no other options for schooling in Hernando County,” where the family lives, Julie said. Without other options, she homeschooled him for the rest of the year.

A Student’s Last Hope

Because she knew and trusted them, Julie reached out to Notre Dame staff members for help, and they referred her to a school they thought could help: Bishop Larkin Catholic School in Port Richey.

Bishop Larkin is part of the Morning Star Catholic School Consortium, a group of schools “accredited by the Florida Catholic Conference dedicated to meeting the needs of students with various education challenges,” according to Bishop Larkin’s website. 

If Bishop Larkin couldn’t help, she would switch to home-schooling permanently.

But the school’s Morning Star program gave Nikolas an opportunity “when no one else would,” Julie said.

All the teachers who would have contact with him had a meeting to strategize, which is “unheard of” elsewhere, she said.

“We have to constantly find new ways to reach kids,” said Stacy Cervone, Bishop Larkin’s principal. “But that’s what we’re here for.”

Breaking Down Barriers

Cervone’s staff ensures the school is the best fit for any child who enrolls.

“We take our admissions process very seriously,” she said.

Multiple families of struggling students desired a Catholic education for their kids, “and we weren’t able to meet their needs,” Cervone noticed.

She suggested the Morning Star schools in Pinellas Park and Tampa to some families, but both schools are far from Bishop Larkin.

“We didn’t want to have to turn them away,” she said. 

So, in the 2021/2022 school year, the school hired an ESE teacher who provided “in-class and small-group support for our students.”

But Cervone wanted “a classroom devoted to kids who were struggling.”

The school began its Morning Star program during the 2023/2024 school year.

The Morning Star Classroom

The Morning Star class is for children in first through third grades who have special needs, academically or socially.

These children study reading, writing, math, science, social studies, and religion, on top of special subjects outside the classroom, according to Denise Santos, who teaches the Morning Star class. 

In the 2024/2025 school year, the class had seven students, five full-time and two for reading, writing, and math, who were in general education classes for the rest of the day, Santos said.

The class stays small by design, so Santos and an instructional assistant can provide individualized support to each student in a unique environment.

“My classroom is designed to have a flexible learning environment,” Santos said.

There are couches, a rocking chair, and a tent.

“I have a table with wobble chairs so they can get some of their wiggles out,” she said.

There’s a faith-themed corner with religious art, and the kids have access to teddy bears and other plush toys they’re free to sit with if they’re having a difficult day.

“We pray a decade of the rosary every day,” Santos said. “It’s very calming for them.” 

The extra support the kids get makes an impact, too.

One of her students gained the confidence to play kickball with other kids at recess, which he would not have done a year earlier.

“Another one volunteers to read out loud,” and never used to do that, Santos said.

The program is about “fostering students’ academic and spiritual (and social) growth,” Cervone said,” meeting kids where they are to help them live out their fullest potential, becoming closer to God, living out their faith, and having academic success.”

Cervone wants the program to do that so well “that [the kids] don’t need the program anymore,” she said.

In the meantime, the students are getting something Julie once thought impossible for Nikolas: “The experience of a formal school setting.”

A Lasting Impact

According to Julie, the Morning Star program has given Nikolas “what society would say is a normal childhood. They’ve taught him how to live a sacramental life.”

When he first entered the program, Julie felt anxious.

She’d constantly anticipate calls from the school, calls that rarely came. But just in case, she would text the teachers to check on him.

They’d reassure her.

“He’s fine,” they would say. “We got him.”

They were right.

“It’s not just about teaching the kids,” Julie said. “It’s about making Mom and Dad feel comfortable leaving your child there.”

Bishop Larkin’s staff has done that, she said.

She isn’t waiting by the phone anymore. 

“I know they’re tending to his needs.”

This article highlights the impact of contributions made to the Diocese of  Saint Petersburg’s Catholic Ministry Appeal. 

In addition to Bishop Larkin’s Morning Star program, there are two Morning Star Schools in the Diocese of Saint Petersburg dedicated to serving students who have a variety of learning challenges and related difficulties.

To learn more about each program or school, visit their individual websites:

Morning Star Catholic School, Tampa: morningstartampa.org

Morning Star Catholic School, Pinellas Park: morningstarschool.org

Morning Star at Bishop Larkin: bishoplarkin.org