Mon Enfant Extra Ordinaire (MEEO)

Mon Enfant Extra Ordinaire (MEEO) is a French non-profit association recognised as being of general interest (reconnue d’intérêt général). It was founded in 2015 in Annecy by a mother of four neurodivergent children. Its primary purpose is to make equal opportunity in education a reality for young people with neurodevelopmental disorders. Our guiding principle is “a school for all, according to the needs of each”, and our purpose is “to enable every extraordinary young person to find their place.”

To achieve this, MEEO created and runs a Return-to-School Programme (Structure de Retour à l’École). It supports young people aged 10 to 20 who have partly or completely dropped out of school because of autism spectrum disorder, ADHD, learning and language disorders (dyslexia, etc.) or severe anxiety-related school refusal. Our model provides joined-up educational, social-educational and therapeutic support. It is designed as an intensive but temporary “bridge”: in small groups (maximum 12 students), with a teacher and an educator working in pairs and a schedule adapted to cognitive fatigue, each young person rebuilds self-esteem, psychosocial and academic skills, and a life plan. The aim is then to return to mainstream school, vocational training or employment. The programme has three age-based pathways: PASSERELLE (10–13), ENVOL (13–16) and AVENIR (16–20).

We welcome every young person regardless of family income: fees are based on income, and 86% of the families we support are single-parent households. In ten years, around 400 young people have returned to mainstream education or training after their time at MEEO, and our students have had a 100% pass rate in the national Diplôme National du Brevet since 2017.

MEEO’s mission also includes supporting families and carers, who are often exhausted and isolated, and raising public awareness of neurodiversity to help make schools more inclusive. After a decade of proven results, MEEO is now scaling up its model: a first site is planned inside a mainstream school in Annecy (Saint-Michel) for September 2027, as the first step towards a national network of inclusive schools.