EASTER SEALS DEVELOPS NEW DAY-CARE CONCEPT

Sounds of construction greet Chuck Martin as he walks through the Easter Seals Early Childhood Center.

As regional executive director of Easter Seals, Martin has become accustomed to the noise and the construction dust.

But he is looking to August when the remodeling work should be completed and Easter Seals integrates about a dozen handicapped children into the regular classrooms at the day-care center on Broadway.

As part of that move, Easter Seals will close its facility at 316 S. Plaza Way on July 31. That facility provides on-site and home-based services to 55 mentally and physically handicapped children up to age 6.

The new center will be one of only about 45 such integrated Easter Seals day-care operations across the country, Martin said. It also will handle home-based services for special-needs children.

About 30 of the children now served by the Plaza Way facility are from the Jackson area.

The Jackson School District had been contracting with Easter Seals to serve those children. But the school district plans to serve those children at its new South Elementary School, which opens in August.

An inclusive child-care environment benefits all children, Martin said. It helps prevent children without disabilities from developing stereotypes about handicapped persons.

"We are really all more alike than different," said Martin.

"Children with disabilities learn and grow as they model the behavior and actions of typically developing children in their class," he said.

Easter Seals bought the Early Childhood Center, a day-care operation at 1912 Broadway, in January.

Easter Seals has continued to operate the traditional center, which serves about 140 children a week from 6 weeks to 8 years of age. On a daily basis, the center serves about 75 to 80 children.

Construction began in March to completely remodel the center at a cost of about $150,000. The building was constructed as a doctor's office in the 1950s. It had numerous little rooms and inconsistent lighting.

"We knocked nearly every wall out of here," said Martin. Construction workers are installing everything from new tile floors to new lighting. Handicapped accessible bathrooms are being installed.

"We are just trying to open it up much more," Martin said of the building's interior.

Easter Seals also plans to improve the playground, both for accessibility to handicapped children and for safety reasons. The pea gravel will be replaced with a shredded-tire material.

A separate playground will be provided for infants and toddlers. Those children already are housed in a separate building on the property.

Martin said the whole process of integrating special-needs children into traditional day-care classrooms takes time.

The operation should be in full swing within three years. The goal is to serve a mix of children, with 25 percent having special needs.

Martin said the concept hasn't met with approval from everyone. Some parents have taken their children out of the day care over concern about the plan.

But he said many parents have embraced the idea.

Cheryl Beahan is the new director of the center. She said an individual educational plan will be drawn up for each special-needs child.

Beginning this fall each classroom will have two teachers. Two early childhood special-education teachers also will be on staff.

Beahan said team teaching allows for more one-on-one instruction in the classroom.

Easter Seals is seeking to have the center accredited by the National Association for Education of Young Children. Only 5 percent of day-care facilities nationwide have that accreditation, she said.

The day-care center currently has a staff of about 25. The staff will grow to about 35 when Easter Seals closes its other facility.

The state office of Easter Seals is helping to finance the project. Easter Seals hopes to raise about $315,000 over the next year and a half to pay off its debt, which includes the cost of buying the day-care center.