A Henderson After-School Program for Kids With Special Needs Closes, Leaving Families Scrambling

by Ryan Rose

What Happened

FOX5 Vegas reported the closure on September 23, 2026, in a story by reporter Athena Jreij. Milestone Family Solutions ran an inclusive after-school program in Henderson for children with special needs. Inclusive here means something specific. The program took kids who are nonverbal, kids with autism, and kids with other diagnoses who need a staff member at their side and help in the bathroom. Frazier summed up the approach simply to FOX5: all diagnoses, verbal and nonverbal.

That kind of care costs more to run than a typical after-school room. One staff member might be assigned to one child for the whole afternoon. Staff need training that a general childcare worker may never get. Frazier said two things hit at once. Grant money that helped cover those costs went down, and the families paying for care were feeling squeezed by the economy too. She told FOX5 she believes the economy is what hurt the program most.

Parents felt the loss right away. One mother, Violetta Taing, told FOX5 that her child is nonverbal and autistic and needs one-on-one attention. She said a typical childcare center could not meet those needs. That is the heart of the problem. For many families, the choice is not between two programs. It is between a program built for their child and no program at all.

Frazier has not walked away. She is offering limited care out of her home for now. She is also raising money to buy a residential property where Milestone can reopen and grow its services. The fundraiser is run through a nonprofit called MFS Nevada on the Givebutter platform, under the name Community Creates Change. When we checked the page on September 30, 2026, it listed a $100,000 goal with $3,795 raised from seven supporters. The page also lists an in-person fundraising event on Sunday, November 8, at 11 a.m. at Emerald at Queensridge in Las Vegas.

Frazier brings deep experience to this work. According to the Milestone website, she has more than 35 years in early childhood and family support. She has worked as a preschool teacher, a childcare director, and a NICU parent liaison, and she spent years in early intervention in Illinois before running an early intervention company in Nevada. She is also a mother of three, one of whom was born a micro-preemie, and a grandmother of two, one of whom is medically fragile. Milestone described itself as a family enrichment and childcare center offering out-of-school care, respite social groups, and support resources for families of children with special needs.

A young child drawing with crayons and watercolors at a table, the kind of quiet afternoon activity an after-school program provides

Why It Matters to Las Vegas Residents

After-school care is not a luxury for most working families. School lets out in the middle of the afternoon. Most jobs do not. For a typical family, that gap gets filled by a school-based program, a rec center, a sitter, or a grandparent. For a family whose child needs one-on-one help, most of those options fall away. A teenage sitter may not be able to handle a child who cannot tell you what they need. A standard program with one staffer for a room full of kids may not be safe for a child who wanders or needs help with toileting.

The numbers from the Nevada Afterschool Network make this clear. Fewer than one in five programs in its 2024 survey said they can care for children with severe disabilities. Kendra Gipson with the Network told FOX5 that most programs do not have staff with the right training. Many also cannot provide a "shadow," a staff member who stays with one child the whole time. Those two things are exactly what families like the ones at Milestone need.

When care disappears, something else gives. Often it is a parent's job. One parent cuts hours, turns down a promotion, or leaves work entirely. That hits household income, and household income is what pays the rent or the mortgage. For families already stretched by higher costs, losing a paycheck or part of one can change where they are able to live. Stable care is one of the quiet things that keeps a family stable in its home.

There is also a neighborhood side to this. Henderson has spent years building a reputation as a family city. People move here for parks, schools, recreation centers, and a feeling of safety. Part of what makes a place work for families is the web of services around them: doctors, therapists, childcare, and programs like Milestone. When one strand of that web breaks, the families who rely on it notice first. Everyone else usually does not notice at all, which is why stories like this one are worth sharing.

Finally, this matters for kids. After-school time is when a lot of children practice social skills, play with peers, and get a break from a structured school day. For children with disabilities, a good program can be one of the few places where they are fully included with other kids. Losing that is not just a scheduling problem for parents. It is a real loss for the child.

Background and History

The gap in special needs after-school care is not new, and it is not unique to Henderson. The Nevada Afterschool Network is a statewide group based at the Nevada Institute for Children's Research and Policy at UNLV, with support from the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation. Its job is to connect programs, push for better policy, and raise quality across the state. As part of that work, it surveyed out-of-school-time programs in 2024. That survey asked programs how well they can serve children with disabilities, and the results are where the "fewer than 20 percent" figure comes from.

Money is a big part of the story. Gipson told FOX5 that the only federal funding stream set aside just for after-school programs is the 21st Century Community Learning Centers grant. She described it as limited and highly competitive. According to the Afterschool Alliance, Nevada received $11,130,581 through that program for fiscal year 2026. That money served 11,669 young people across 80 programs statewide. Spread across a state as large as Nevada, that does not go far, and it is not aimed only at kids with disabilities.

Small private programs like Milestone usually piece together their budgets from several places. Some families pay tuition. Some costs are covered by grants. Some families get help through state programs. When one of those pieces shrinks, the math stops working quickly, because the core cost, a trained adult for each child who needs one, does not shrink with it. That is why a program can be full of kids who need it and still not be able to stay open.

Local governments do offer some help. The City of Henderson runs an Adaptive Recreation and Inclusion Services program through its Parks and Recreation department. According to the city, it can support inclusion with adaptive equipment, changes to programs, extra staff training, and support staff. That is a real resource. But a rec program is not always the same as a daily after-school program that can handle intensive one-on-one needs every afternoon, all school year long.

What Happens Next

For now, Frazier is caring for a smaller number of children in her home. Her longer-term plan is to buy a residential property that can serve as Milestone's new home and let the program expand. Whether that happens depends mostly on fundraising. The Givebutter campaign set a goal of $100,000, and the in-person event on Sunday, November 8, is the next date on the calendar. If the campaign gains ground, families may have a place to return to. If it does not, the families who used Milestone will need to keep searching.

The bigger question is funding. As long as the main dedicated federal stream is small and competitive, programs that serve kids with the highest needs will stay fragile. Watch for news from the Nevada Afterschool Network, which tracks these programs and pushes for more support at the state level. Also watch the Nevada Legislature, which meets again in 2027 and is where any new state money for after-school care would have to come from.

Parents should also keep an eye on school-based options. The Clark County School District has been working on how it serves students with IEPs, and we covered its new inclusion goal in an earlier post linked at the top of this page. School-day changes do not solve the after-school gap on their own. Still, the more kids with disabilities are included during the school day, the more pressure there is to include them after the bell, too.

Ryan's Take

I help families buy and sell homes all over the valley, and Henderson is one of the places people ask about most when they have kids. The questions are usually about schools, parks, and commute times. What people do not always think to ask about, until they need it, is support for a child with special needs. For those families, a program like Milestone can matter as much as the school zone. It can decide whether both parents can keep working, and that can decide what kind of home a family can afford and where.

A child drawing a family picture with colored pencils in a notebook, showing mom, dad, and siblings

So when I hear that fewer than one in five programs can serve kids with severe disabilities, I think about the families I have worked with who are planning a move. If you are relocating to Henderson or anywhere in Clark County with a child who needs extra support, build that into your search from day one. Ask about therapy providers, respite care, and after-school options in the area before you fall in love with a house. And if you already live here, this is a good week to check on a neighbor who might be scrambling. A little help with pickup can go a long way while they figure out a plan.

What You Can Do

If your family used Milestone or is looking for similar care, start with the Nevada Afterschool Network's program map. It lets you search for out-of-school-time programs across the state. For programs the Network has verified, you can click to see their level of special needs accommodations. The map does not rate quality, so plan to call and visit before you sign up.

Next, reach out to Nevada PEP, which stands for Parents Encouraging Parents. It is Nevada's statewide parent training and information center for families of children with disabilities, and its services are free to Nevada families. PEP can help with referrals, one-on-one guidance, and advocacy. The Las Vegas line is 702-388-8899, and the statewide toll-free line is 800-216-5188. You can also ask the City of Henderson's Adaptive Recreation and Inclusion Services team what support is available in city recreation programs for your child.

When you call a program, ask direct questions. How many staff are in the room, and how many children? Can the program assign one adult to your child if needed? What training do staff have for autism, nonverbal communication, and behavior support? Can staff help with toileting, feeding, or medication? Who picks up the phone if something goes wrong, and how will they reach you? Ask to visit during program hours, not just on a tour. Watch how staff talk to the kids who need the most help. A good program will welcome these questions and answer them plainly.

It also helps to build a backup plan before you need one. Write down every person who could cover a pickup in a pinch: a grandparent, a trusted neighbor, a coworker with a flexible schedule. Talk with your employer about flexible hours or remote days during the search. Keep your child's key information, like diagnoses, routines, calming tools, and emergency contacts, on one page you can hand to any new caregiver. None of this replaces a real program, but it can buy your family time while you find the right fit.

If you want to help Milestone reopen, the Community Creates Change fundraiser for MFS Nevada is on Givebutter and linked in the sources below. You can donate, share it, or attend the November 8 event. Even sharing this story helps. Families in this situation often feel alone, and the first step to finding care is knowing where to look.

Have questions about how this affects your home or neighborhood? Reach out to Ryan Rose or text/call 702-747-5921 anytime. Ryan Rose | Real Broker, LLC | 702-747-5921 | ryan@rosehomeslv.com | rosehomeslv.com