ABOUT ECC

Since 1969, The Elaine Clark Center has worked with children with Special Needs who have traditionally been under-served in Metro Atlanta. This has included children whom the school system labeled “unteachable,” because of conditions such as Spina Bifida, Down Syndrome and Cerebral Palsy, which require intensive, expert intervention for the students to eat, sit up, talk and walk.

At The Elaine Clark Center, however, we have successfully worked with such children by using assistive technology before it was popular, building a program around the needs of developmentally delayed children before age three, and by offering a comprehensive tuition assistance program to children with special needs whose families demonstrate financial hardships.

We have included typical children in a measured ratio since 1994. Not only do these children act as role models for the children with special needs – for what can be done at their age levels and as models to copy and, therefore, achieve things they haven’t before attempted – but typical children also learn valuable lessons about acceptance and sensitivity which aren’t readily available in their lives outside of our school.

The Elaine Clark Center is a non-profit organization, which has in the past received about 50% of its funding by a State grant, using part of pass-through money from the Federal Government. However, with recent cuts in government support to individuals with disabilities, as well as the economic downturn, we have been forced to search for new revenue streams and to redouble our fundraising efforts in order to maintain our usual high levels of service. For more information on our fundraising efforts, please visit our Fundraising section.