Nonprofit Seeks to Launch Local School for Disabled Kids
An educational non-profit based in the Financial District, which serves developmentally disabled children, is proposing to create a new preschool on Maiden Lane.
Founded in 1949, AHRC (the initials refer to the group’s core values: Advocacy, Humanity, Reimagination, and Change) works to enable neurodiverse children and adults lead full and equitable lives. With more than 5,000 employees serving 15,000 clients through the five boroughs, AHRC operates five specialized preschools, two elementary schools, and a middle/high school, along with college programs, job training, daycare, in-home services, and residential facilities. The organization has been headquartered at 83 Maiden Lane for more than 20 years, and now hopes to add an on-site education facility for young children to its suite of offices.
“We envision nine classrooms for three- to five-year-olds, with a high ratio of teachers to students,” Christina Muccioli, AHRC’s vice president for educational services, explained at the March 8 meeting of the Youth & Education Committee of Community Board 1 (CB1). “We’d like to serve 72 children, and add an after-school program, with a health and wellness component.” She noted that AHRC teacher are specially trained to educate young learners with a broad range of delays and disabilities, including those with autism spectrum disorder.
Ms. Muccioli continued, “the earlier you intervene with the child with a disability, the outcome increases 100-fold, so that when they go into the elementary school and the high school, the need for special education services decreases, if they still need any at all.”
She noted that while Lower Manhattan has a profusion of highly regarded public and private schools, it does not have a single facility that specializes in serving children with disabilities.
“I’m seeking your guidance,” Ms. Muccioli told the members of CB1’s Youth & Education Committee, because, “while the Department of Education is incorporating children with disabilities into its three-K and four-K programs, many of these kids are bussed out of their communities. And I’m a believer that children should be going to school in their communities. We want this to be a community school. We want to serve children who live in the neighborhood.”
“We envision a large portion of the attendees getting there by stroller,” added Bradford Gonzalez-Sussman, an attorney and government relations specialist who represents AHRC.
AHRC was founded in 1949 when the mother of a disabled child was having difficulty arranging playdates for her toddler and placed a classified advertisement in the New York Post, which drew of avalanche of responses from similarly situated families. This ad hoc group soon organized itself into public-service organization, and grew to become New York’s largest provider of services for the developmentally disabled. To this day, the group remains governed by parents and families of the clients it serves. “Our bylaws state that a majority of the board must be parents or siblings or related to a person with a disability,” Ms. Muccioli notes.
Her commitment to this mission is personal as well as professional. “I am a parent of a young gentleman who has a disability. When my son had to go on a bus to another school because of this, I wanted him to go to school with the kids that he played with, in front of his house, in the back yard. And this is what I want for 83 Maiden Lane. I want to open a school that is needed and desired.”
“We have 22 preschools in Community Board 1,” committee chair Tricia Joyce responded, “but I don’t think any of them specialize in children with disabilities. Because we don’t have such a program, I have to imagine that it is needed.”
Committee member Wendy Chapman asked if parents would pay to send their children to this preschool.
Ms. Muccioli answered, “it’s funded through the State Department of Education. The children are recognized as having a disability. They are evaluated by a special education committee of the City’s Department of Education. The parents pay nothing.”
“I am also thinking of opening a parent-funded, private-pay classroom,” she continued. “Because sometimes, families who have concerns with their toddler or their preschooler don’t want their child labeled. They realize that the child may be at risk or immature, and they gravitate to a preschool like ours, because they know that I have certified teachers. They know that if we see something, we are able to provide services for that child.”
Ms. Muccioli projected that the new AHRC preschool would open in January or June of 2024.