When driving down south (on the corner of 112th street and 87th avenue) you will come across Children’s Resources Fund (CRF), a beautiful state-of-the-art Educational Center on two and a half acres that offers endless hope and possibilities. Walk inside the building and you can find a highly regarded Inclusion Program that provides top quality educational and therapeutic services to both special needs and typically developing children. Children’s Resources Center is a non-profit organization whose purpose is to help all children develop to their fullest potential. It was originally founded by an extraordinary group of women. These women worked tirelessly to raise funds in order to build the Educational Center where Children’s Resources is currently housed. Since becoming a direct early service provider, the school now offers a wide array of services that cannot be found anywhere else in the community. Some services include, speech, occupational, behavior and physical therapies, brand new sensory rooms that assist children with sensory integration disorders, ADHD, Autism, and other developmental delays, tutoring, and ongoing assessments to formulate Individualized Education Plans. Additional services include before and aftercare, cooking, dancing, and piano lessons. Furthermore, the Inclusion Program maintains a 5:1 student/teacher ratio and more specialized programs maintain a 2:1 ratio.
Research states that all children can and do benefit from this type of program. Typically developing children can gain empathy and role modeling skills while improving their academic performances due to a low teacher/student ratio and highly trained teachers and staff. Many of CRF’s children have gone on to enter gifted and magnet programs in both “A” level public schools and well renowned private schools. On the other hand, a child with special needs will benefit from being exposed to typical role models and a creative curriculum that focuses on improving their weaknesses and highlighting their strengths. Additionally, the children are offered an array of therapies within their school day. All the children make enormous strides and improvement in the early development.
All the classrooms are staffed by highly qualified, trained teachers with at least a Bachelor level degree in Early Childhood Education or Special Education and two Assistants with at least an Associate Degree in Early Childhood Education or a National Certification.
