History Lesson

In the mid-1960’s, Sister Robert Therese of the Immaculate Heart of Mary Catholic Church in Atlanta began tutoring young children with developmental disabilities who, at that time, were unable to attend traditional schools. In appreciation for her efforts, the families of these children raised funds to open an independent school. Sister Robert Therese decided to devote herself full-time to the school, leaving the Catholic order to become the school’s first Executive Director, Dorothy Miller.

One of her students was Elaine Clark, a severely hearing impaired girl whom Sister Robert Therese had taught to read. In 1969, at the age of seven, Elaine died in an accident. The school was named in her memory, and her father, Frank Clark, became the Chair of the Board of Directors.

In 1975, the center found a permanent home in Chamblee, purchasing our current building and performing an extensive retrofit with a generous grant from The Variety Club of Atlanta, state monies, and individual contributions.

In 1991, the center revamped its mission and increased services to become an “early intervention” center for children with special needs, aged six weeks to three years – too young for state-sponsored early education. The new direction was chosen in part because research shows this age group is most likely to reap the greatest benefit from services.

Three years later, in 1994, The Elaine Clark Center began admitting typically developing children as well as those with special needs, in response to growing evidence of the benefits of an inclusive environment for children of all abilities.

In 1997, one student who had flourished in our center turned three years old, and, therefore, would need to move on to a new schooling situation the following year. The boy’s mother, however, was not ready to change the situation in which he’d made so much progress. She raised enough money to build an additional classroom at the Center and to expand our services to four and five year-olds. That is when The Elaine Clark Center became licensed as a full-service childcare center. Two years later, the center was accredited by the prestigious National Association for the Education of Young Children.

In 2001, we established our long-dreamed-of scholarship endowment with a grant from The Goizueta Foundation. All profits from the investment of this endowment are used to fund tuition assistance scholarships for families in financial need, to ensure that children receive necessary services regardless of their families’ ability to pay.

In 2003 the center launched an outreach program that is designed to integrate child development, social services and educational training to meet the needs of young children at risk for developmental delays. The program does this by offering developmental screenings, functional training encompassing care of children with special needs in the childcare center and case management for families with children who have special needs.

Today, we annually serve over 80 families from all over metro-Atlanta, with children affected by the spectrum of diagnoses, including Spina Bifida, Cerebral Palsy, Down Syndrome, autism, and many other rare conditions.