INDIANAPOLIS — A different kind of class is taking place inside Indy's Enlace Academy.
The school usually serves kids from kindergarten to eighth grade, but Ally Hall is teaching the families of those students.
Emma Roman, whose granddaughter is a first grader, is taking a free English class. She said she doesn't know how to read or write in any language but wanted to learn. Little by little, she's doing just that.
"We are providing phonics instruction as well for our families the same way we instruct our students," Enlace's Carlota Holder said.
Holder launched the program at the school last year. She said the majority of the students enrolled in the school are Latino and many of their families didn't know English.
"If we want families to be able to help, we have to give them access to English, but we also have to give them access to literacy," Holder said.
When the program started last year, classes were only held on Saturday. Now, they've expanded to Thursday nights, meeting the needs of families in the school.
The expansion of the program gives Roman the chance to attend the classes with her granddaughter. She said learning English and literacy will create more job opportunities so she can support her family.
Students like Roman are what keep the program going and organizers motivated to do more.
"I hope that we can have a program that's not just evening, not just Saturdays, not just outside of the school day but maybe even during the school day," Holder said.