LIMA – The Great Day Academy, which trains children with autism and severe developmental disabilities, and the Marimor School have joined forces for the Great Day of the Marimor School.
The school is the result of months of negotiations between the Allen County Developmental Disability Commission and the Allen County Education Service Center (ESC) and is responsible for the wonderful daily finances and education at 2550 Ada’s Marimor. Because of the shared use, it remains a separate organization. Street.
Discussions began in March when the ESC was looking for a new location for the Autism Unit, formerly known as the Great Day Academy on Slavtown Road.
The academy didn’t have a cafeteria on site after the lunch room was converted into a classroom to cope with rising enrollments. The students went to the parking lot for lunch and break. This was a challenge for students with mobility problems.
Marimor School admission, on the other hand, is about the most intense medical and behavioral needs, as most children with developmental disabilities now attend home school districts or other academies tailored to their specific needs. It has decreased to 12 students.
“Most children should go to public school,” said Teresa Schnipke, director of the Allen County Developmental Disability Commission. “Most children have to be with their siblings.”
The agency has been offering a joint preschool program since 2009.
The Big Day of Marimor, which is open to kindergarten children up to the age of 22, is carried out in a similar manner. The Developmental Disability Commission bears the ancillary costs such as facilities, maintenance, behavioral support and case management, and the ESC is responsible. Educational services. School districts that send children to Marimor’s Great Day do not pay during the pilot year.
Students who have previously attended ad hoc autism schools have access to larger classrooms with accessible bathrooms and locker rooms. They don’t have to walk across the parking lot for lunch or physical education classes. Soon there will be an extensive playground right outside the classroom door.
The merger was expected to save the Developmental Disability Commission around $ 1 million annually as the agency cut six educational and managerial positions. Some of them retired or were hired by the ESC to continue their education on Great Day. The $ 5.4 million levy received from the Developmental Disability Commission will instead cover other costs such as set-up costs and operational needs.
The Marimor School was founded by parents of children with developmental disabilities who had few educational opportunities when taxpayers approved the first tax to fund the school in 1977.
However, the Developmental Disability Commission has shifted its resources to support adult day care services at Marimor Industries and other Medicaid leave programs offered by individual group homes, employers, and organizations that support people with disabilities. to do. We also hire early intervention specialists to treat infants with developmental delays.
“The Medicaid exemption did not exist in 1977,” said Schnipke. What used to support schools for 100 children now helps adults in shared apartments when their parents get older, said Schnipke.
Teachers prepared the classroom on Wednesday for Great Day in Marimor, a new partnership between the Allen County Developmental Disability Commission and the Allen County Education Service Center.
DD Board, Education Service Center integrates schools for children with developmental disabilities
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