This Private School Had Students Scrub Floors and Attack a Fellow Classmate. The State Still Funds It.

Reporting Highlights Private School Abuse: At an Arkansas school, a boy was hit by the school’s founder and attacked by classmates in a group session the founder led, prompting a complaint and her arrest. State Money Still Flows: Despite a jail term for the school’s founder, The Delta Institute for the Developing Brain continues to operate and Arkansas still sends it public funds. Unregulated and Growing: By design, private schools get little oversight in Arkansas even as new opportunities to receive state money have spurred a boom in openings since 2023. These highlights were written by the reporters and editors who worked on this story. At her private school just beyond the city limits of Jonesboro, Arkansas, Mary “Tracy” Morrison demanded the attention of the 19 students seated on the f