Home School Collaborative Model (HSCM) Research

This approach is based on a "family friendly" open school, parent and teacher early childhood assessment through family support services and The Five P's System. The HSCM creates a special education environment that nurtures the development of young children with disabilities and promotes the competence of their families.

The New York State Education Department designated the HSCM a New York State "Sharing Success Validated Program." Research has shown that when children with developmental disabilities enter VCLC at age two or three, they improve their rates of learning after only 15 months in the program. The HSCM produced a statistically significant increase in these children's rates of learning in the areas of language, social competence, cognition and self help skills. While the children showed gains in the area of motor development, they were not statistically significant.

In other words, these young children with disabilities, including autism or pervasive developmental disorders, are learning at a faster rate and beginning to catch up to their typically developing peers. The New York State Education Department uses the validation process to find child development programs throughout the state that are worthy of adaptation by other schools and agencies.