School of Autism Helps Provide Career Paths

Jack Wolf, 19, was diagnosed with severe autism when he was 2 years old. From that point forward, his parents Randy and Kim Wolf knew it was going to be an uphill battle. The family moved from city to city—school to school—to help Jack find good teachers that fit his needs, even making the commitment to travel two hours via bus to get to a reputable school.

Finally, enough was enough, so Randy and his wife Kim, alongside his brother Danny and father Dan, decided to take matters into their own hands.

The three founders of the Dan Wolf Automotive Group built a school in 2007 that catered to severely autistic children. That school came to be known as the Turning Pointe CN Day School, working under their Turning Pointe Autism Foundation.

The school started with one student and one teacher but has now grown to capacity, and even has a waitlist for people with special needs age 10-21.

“It quickly became apparent that two things were happening,” says Danny, dealer principal of Toyota of Naperville and board member of Turning Pointe. “One: The demand was a lot greater than what we had initially anticipated. The one-room school wasn’t going to work anymore. Two: The kids were getting older and we had to offer more than just middle school-level learning.”