top: Marie Galanis, Amanda Lewis, Anna Lewis, Amanda Alvarez, Natasha Bravo, Dr. Michael Alessandri. bottom: Samantha Cox, Lang Hudepohl, Christine Cunningham (source: EEO)
Exceptional Education Outreach (EEO), a nonprofit special education and literacy organization, has announced its expansion across the Family Islands of The Bahamas through a formal partnership with regulatory bodies to embed inclusive special education directly into its public schools. For 25 years, EEO has worked across Eleuthera and Harbour Island to help students with learning differences receive the literacy guidance and instructional strategies they need to succeed in school.
The expansion, already underway, is a part of a three-year Family Island Partnership through 2028. With Harbour Island as the original site, the program is extending to other islands, including Exuma, Acklins, Cat Island, San Salvador, and Abaco. These additions are part of a broader movement to help students with complex needs access quality education in their home communities rather than relocating to larger islands such as Nassau or Freeport.
“This is the moment we have been building toward for 25 years,” says Lang Hudepohl, founder and Director of EEO and a special education teacher. “We’ve stayed focused and consistent to quality, refining our program, proving it works, and now we can take that model across the country so that inclusive education becomes an inherent part of the system. So this is pretty exciting for us.”
Under a Memorandum of Understanding with the Bahamas Ministry of Education, the nonprofit organization is now operated collectively by a growing team of teachers, school leaders, and district leaders as part of the collaborative expansion.
Hudepohl notes that EEO provides the infrastructure to empower teachers with specialized training in evidence-based strategies, offering technology equipment, classroom materials, and ongoing mentorship. Many students also struggle with physical obstacles that could impede learning and would otherwise go undiagnosed, so EEO teachers are equipped with hearing and vision screenings for their students. As per Hudepohl, EEO aims to address the gap on the island where special education resources and professional networks may not be ubiquitously accessible for children with learning differences.
Through monthly staff collaboration meetings and structured training, she notes how teachers on remote islands can gain access to a thriving teaching community. “It is very hard to be a special education teacher on a Family Island. We’re aiming to ease their challenges by creating a support system, a professional community, and giving teachers the tools and confidence to implement strategies that truly change student outcomes,” she explains.
Over the past two decades, EEO has aimed to validate the long-term value of its model, and the literary development of its students offers tangible proof of the effectiveness of its inclusive curriculum. Hudepohl highlights that students who once struggled to read well into secondary school have gone on to achieve lucrative careers.
Those outcomes, she notes, formed part of the discussions that led to the Ministry’s engagement. As she says, “When we met with the Minister of Education, we showed them what happens when students receive the right support early enough. That is what inclusive education makes possible.”
The nonprofit organization began in 2000 at a primary and secondary school in Harbour Island, armed with a group of board members who contributed to the program’s growth. Furthermore, initial funding from notable individuals helped establish the program, and, over time, Hudepohl highlights that support grew from hotels, second homeowners, and residents who recognized the transformative value of accessible education.
Today, after 25 years, as the expansion progresses, EEO continues to seek donor support to sustain training, materials, screenings, and program coordination. The organization’s low administrative overhead and classroom-centered approach help ensure contributions enhance student and teacher support. “For so many years, our fundraising was silent auctions and small community gatherings,” Hudepohl adds. “Now, as this work becomes national, we hope more people and organizations will want to be part of building the first truly inclusive special education framework across the Family Islands.”
Through this partnership, EEO is helping to solidify a national approach to inclusive learning with the aim that children with learning differences can thrive without leaving the communities they call home.
“This is a historic shift for education in The Bahamas,” Hudepohl says. “We want people to feel proud of what the country is doing and understand that the more this is supported, the stronger it becomes for every child who needs it.”
Media Contact
Name: Lang Hudepohl
Email: eeo@eeobahamas.org
Published by: Pathos Communications Ltd