The Chicago Lighthouse Development Center offers the tools leading to independence.

In addition to being born blind or visually impaired, the students have additional disabilities, which may include:

• severe/profound cognitive impairments
• deaf-blindness
• traumatic brain injury
• cerebral palsy
• behavior problems
• seizure disorders
• speech and language disorders

The Development Center is a specialized therapeutic day school program, fully approved by the Illinois State Board of Education. The program emphasizes an educational and functional skills curriculum that fits each individual student’s age and needs.

Individual Educational Plans (IEP’s) are developed in collaboration with the local school district, staff and parents to accommodate the needs of each child. These needs are determined by formal assessment scales as well as through evaluations by certified special education teachers and licensed consultants in the areas of: speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, social work, nursing, psychology, orientation and mobility, vision and hearing.

Children, ages 3 to 21, are referred directly to the Development Center by the local school districts, which pay the school tuition once the placement is approved, at no cost to the students and their families.

The Development Center program runs twelve months a year, including the “extended school year” during the summer months. Small classes provide a very low staff to child ratio.

All of the students have access to the Chicago Lighthouse Low Vision Clinic.

For more information about the program, contact Mary Zabelski at (312) 666-1331, ex. 3675 or e-mail mary.zabelski@chicagolighthouse.org.