NEW BRITAIN

Inside a room that was part kitchen, part classroom, Mason Weldon, 16, was working with his teacher, Cindy Smith, on a batch of chocolate chip cookies. On the other side of the room, a classmate, Carlon Dudley, 19, filed student time cards.

Weldon and Dudley are taking part in the life skills curriculum offered by the Connecticut Children's Medical Center School. The school is for students 5 to 21 years old with severe emotional, cognitive and behavioral problems and require intensive help.

Run by the Connecticut Children's Medical Center in Hartford, the school has had something of a transient existence and has wandered through the central Connecticut region since it was established in the 1940s. School officials hope that its new home, a former clothing warehouse on John Downey Avenue, will be a permanent one.

"It's much better," said Mason, taking time out from cooking duties. He's been a student at the school for the last seven years. "We've got more space. We've got a gym now."

Mason's comments reflected what a lot of people were saying at Tuesday's ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new facility, which has been in session since last month..

Its last location in Wethersfield was always considered a temporary one.

"It was too small, too old," said Barbara Brown, senior director of the school. Brown has been with the CCMC School for about 30 years. In that time, the school has been at four locations.

It's mission and scope has changed significantly since it was founded as an in-house school to continue the education of children staying in the hospital for long periods. Newington Children's Hospital moved to Hartford in 1996 and changed its name to Connecticut Children's Medical Center.

Around the 1970s and early 1980s, the school shifted its focus to educating children with mental disabilities and behavioral problems. Now, 20 to 25 percent of the children at the school are on the autism spectrum. It's not so much a student's diagnosis that qualifies for entry to the school, but whether his or her condition causes them behavioral problems. They're referred to the CCMC School by their local school district, which pays for the student's tuition.

Excerpt from:
Children's Medical Center School Has New — And It Hopes, Permanent — Home