Learning Differences

We invest in ideas that enhance teaching and learning for students with diagnosed and undiagnosed disabilities, including solutions focused on special education teacher recruitment, professional learning, instructional tools, and postsecondary readiness.

Table of Contents

2025 Investments

Impact Highlights

  • Ventures catalyzed our initial investment by 9.1x

  • 290,000 students reached and 43,000 educators reached by ventures

What We’re Learning

  • Despite uncertainty around Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) oversight, many states are moving toward needs-based and flexible funding models as identification rates increase. Our ventures continue to see strong customer retention, underscoring the essential role of solutions that advance equity and coherence in special education.

  • By connecting fragmented systems, aligning Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) with instruction, and bridging gaps between special and general educators, AI enables evidence-based, disability-specific support and expands access to consistent, high-quality services for historically underserved students.

  • Our professional learning ventures, led by special educators, are improving access to general education and academic outcomes for students with learning differences. Early evidence also shows positive impacts for general education students.

  • Inclusive-by-design approaches are essential to expand AI opportunities in K–12. As accessibility requirements increasingly shape procurement decisions, developers who build with Universal Design for Learning and accessibility standards from the start are better positioned to succeed.

04!

Venture Spotlights

Venture Spotlights

HELPING STUDENTS WITH LEARNING DIFFERENCES SEE WHAT COMES NEXT

For students with learning differences, planning for life after high school can be confusing and overwhelming, with too few adults trained to help them navigate what comes next. Uprooted Academy exists to change that reality.

Founded by licensed trauma therapist Tiffany Green, Uprooted Academy equips counselors, partners, and caregivers with the tools and community they need to provide students through postsecondary planning. Building on this foundation, the organization is now piloting tools and training to help students with IEPs and 504 plans. 

Through AI-powered planning tools and counselor trainings, Uprooted Academy is expanding educators’ understanding of college access, accommodations, and transition supports. Early pilots show clear gains: educator understanding of postsecondary options for students with disabilities increased, and more students completed college applications with targeted support.

Uprooted Academy is now building a statewide database of college accessibility services in California, making information about accommodations visible and usable for students and the adults who support them. By expanding who can serve as a postsecondary guide, the organization is helping more students with learning differences move forward with clarity and confidence.

MATH SUPPORT DESIGNED FOR ALL STUDENTS

For many students, math is where confidence begins to slip. Struggles with foundational concepts or anxiety about getting answers wrong can slow progress long before students reach advanced coursework. Grokkoli was founded to make sure that doesn’t happen.

Co-founder and CEO Eric MacKinnon draws on his own experience with undiagnosed learning differences to design math instruction that helps students feel capable and supported. Together with co-founder Rob Schlub, an experienced engineer, the team built Grokkoli as an AI-powered tutoring platform that supports diverse learners, including students with dyscalculia and cognitive impairments. The platform breaks learning into clear steps and generates just-in-time visual scaffolds and explanations at the question level. It also revisits key ideas over time and mixes related concepts to help students build understanding and retain what they’ve learned. 

In early pilots, students using Grokkoli made progress at two to four times the expected rate, including those with significant math challenges. Schools serving diverse, high-need communities are expanding use of the platform to better support students often overlooked by traditional tutoring.

Grokkoli’s work shows how thoughtful design can make math more accessible while maintaining high expectations for learning.