Our History

October 12^th, Garland Association of Retarded Children opens its doors as a home-based day care center and after-school and summer program for children with special needs. The Reverend Michael Haynes, father of a child with disabilities, offered this group the use of the Sunday School building of the St. Paul United Methodist Church.

Marilynne Serie became the Executive Director on January 19th.

The program at the center moved from part-time to full-time services

The center was named “Best of Texas” by the Corporate Child Development Fund in Austin.

The Mayor of the City of Garland, Bob Smith, offered the Achievement Center space at Granger Recreation Center where the center held classes for nine years. Due to the very different disabilities of the students and the fact that not all the students were children, the Executive Director, Marilynne Serie, changed the name of the center to The Achievement Center of Texas.

The ACT student enrollment doubles.

Achievement Center of Texas moved into its new location (our home until mid 2022) at 2950 North Shiloh Road in Garland on February 3^rd.

The Therapy Room was transformed into another classroom to accommodate our growing population, and the Sensory Motor Training Lab was designed and built in its place.

Milo, a two-foot tall robot that assists people with Autism, made the center his home.

The center altered its name another time, dropping the “The” in its title and becoming simply Achievement Center of Texas (ACT).

Executive Director Marilynne Serie passed the baton over to Andrew Mlcak, who now serves as Executive Director. ACT celebrated its 40^th anniversary on October 12^th.

In May, 2022 devastated by the after effects of the COVID pandemic, we sold the Shiloh facility and began a search for a new home.

We reopened at our new home in August 2023 to returning and new students.