Children's Center Early Intervention history

These principles were implemented through the establishment of four Child-Parent Education Centers in May 1967.

In the fall of 1970, a parent cooperative - the University Children's Center - began on West Campus and served approximately 60 families.

The doors to the new building opened on December 2, 1978.

In 1981, programs providing therapeutic and educational services to children from birth to three years of age were introduced at the organization.

In 1986, Congress established the program of early intervention for infants and toddlers with disabilities in recognition of “an urgent and substantial need” to:

In 1990, in response to decreasing numbers of school-aged children due to successful efforts to mainstream children with special needs into public school programs, the organization started exclusively serving children from birth to age five.

The program grew quickly and a full-time coordinator was hired to manage the program in 1991.

In 1994, the Children’s Center formed a collaborative with the Southern Kennebec Child Development Corporation (SKCDC) to create the First Friends program.

In 1996, a mobile unit was added to the location for additional office space as an interim measure while the organization explored the possibility of expansion.

In 2000, the Targeted Case Management program was created to assist parents as they work through the range of emotions and maze of services they experience as parents of a child with special needs.

In 2001, the Children’s Center opened an office for the Targeted Case Management program in the Federated Church in the town of Skowhegan, allowing the program to serve both Kennebec and Somerset Counties.

As a result of their hard work and the generous support of the community, in May of 2003 the Children’s Center officially cut the ribbon on the newly renovated and expanded building.

But it’s also startling to see how virtually unchanged the findings of Congress are in the most current authorization of IDEA—passed in 2004 as Public Law 108-446.

In 2005, a grant from the United Way of Mid-Maine provided the Children’s Center with the opportunity to begin offering educational workshops for parents and caregivers of children with special needs in Kennebec and Somerset Counties.

The Parent Education program expanded with a grant from the Maine Children’s Trust in 2007 to include more intensive training for parents of children with autism and/or severely challenging behaviors through collaboration with Maine General Health.

With an expansion project completed in 2010, adding over 400 square feet of program space, the Center increased its licensed capacity from 60 to 75 children.

Regulations in 2011 | The field was quite excited in September of 2011 when new implementing regulations for the Part C program were published by the Office of Special Education Programs, United States Department of Education.

The program was substantially revised in 2012 by Arthur Reynolds at the University of Minnesota as a comprehensive school reform model to serve children in a broad variety of geographic and economic contexts.

In 2013, the Children’s Center welcomed a new Executive Director, Jeffrey Johnson, LCSW, MBA. That same year, the organization began offering new and expanded programs for mental health services and community-based rehabilitative support services.

In 2015, the organization continues to grow and develop through the purchase of property adjacent to the current building in Augusta to increase capacity for services at the Children’s Center.

The agency began the year with the opening of a new site in Farmington in 2017 offering Day Treatment and Targeted Case Management Services to Franklin County.

Also taking off in 2020 was our most recent, and largest capital campaign yet, raising funding to expand the flagship site in Augusta, and provide services for 100+ more children and their families in need.