Jacob, Ms. Bell's son was diagnosed with Autism at the age of three as non/verbal, Level 1. First, she says, she was very concerned, but she was determined to gain knowledge about Autism to better her parenting skills. As Ms. Bell enrolled Jacob into many different schools, Jacob's level continued to increase higher and higher even with the lack of support from his teachers. She started to notice there was a need in the public-school settings for training teachers on how to support special needs children. Ms. Bell feels special needs teachers should help their students by finding each student’s unique strengths and traits and share the wealth of knowledge with other teachers, which will allow these unique children to master their gifts.

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This led Ms. Bell to being introduced to the Lindsey Nichole Scholarship. Ms. Bell thought of putting Jacob into a private school, where she thought he would be able to progress more due to the small staff and classroom size. However, Jacob and Ms. Bell hit another roadblock due to Jacob being listed as non/verbal on an IEP, although Jacob could read chapter books and enjoyed learning. This finally led to Jacob’s Bridge to Learning, Inc. being birthed.