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For the past four decades, the Boston College Campus School has been a place of hope, of strength and of learning for hundreds of students with severe disabilities and their families.
This past weekend, Campus School families, employees and volunteers gathered to celebrate and discuss the role the school has played in so many lives. The anniversary brunch, held in the Murray Room, was part celebration, part reflection on the growth and changes that have occurred over the years, said Campus School Director Don Ricciato.
“The program continues to fulfill its mission of educating students with disabilities whose needs are unable to be met in public schools,” said Ricciato, “as well as contributing to the academic enrichment of the many undergraduate and graduate students involved with the Campus School.
“Over its 40 years, the Campus School has made contributions to the field of special education nationally and internationally, through the many educators who have had an experience with the program.”
The Campus School is a private, non-profit, publicly funded special education day school for students between the ages of three and 21 with multiple disabilities. Using a transdisciplinary approach, teachers and volunteers work to provide Campus School students educational, therapeutic and health care needs. Located in Campion Hall along with the Lynch School of Education, the school also has become one of the most sought-after volunteer opportunities on campus for BC students.
Campus School co-founder Philip DiMattia and Lynch School Interim Dean Maureen Kenny offered remarks at the anniversary brunch. Kenny praised the Campus School staff for providing “great care and skill to large numbers of students and their families” during the past 40 years.
“Today, the Campus School continues as a vibrant educational center on our campus,” said Kenny, “which not only serves disabled students and their families throughout the Boston area, but is also a site for research and teaching for Boston College faculty and a center that welcomes a large number of Boston College undergraduate and graduate students as volunteers.”
The Campus School website is at www.bc.edu/campusschool