RELEASE: October 28, 2003

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Senator & Council President see acclaimed mobility program demonstrated

Senator Rice and Council President Bradley see acclaimed mobility program demonstrated DHS Regional School – Essex Campus hosts 20th Anniversary Open House

Local dignitaries joined the Department of Human Services (DHS) Regional School – Essex Campus as it hosted community service organizations at its 20th Anniversary Celebration on Friday, October 24, 2003. “We were thrilled to have Senator Ronald Rice (D-28) and Newark City Council President Donald Bradley not only
see our brightly decorated school full of fall baskets of flowers and colorful balloons,” said Ralph Romano, regional administrator Northeast/Central Region, DHS Office of Education, “but also join us in the school activities.” The Essex Campus is located at 395-97 North Fifth Street in Newark.

Principal Dale Greenfield and her staff demonstrated many of the activities in which the students are engaged during their school year and explained their critically acclaimed mobility program, referred to as M.O.V.E. (Mobility Opportunities Via Education) which enables these students, who are on the severe end of the disability spectrum, to gain more independence of movement.Speaker John F. Cole, a former state official who now works with the Hunterdon Developmental School, addressed the guests who included representatives from DHS, the state Department of Education, local agencies and businesses that serve these special needs children, parents, and county school districts.

The DHS Office of Education operates 18 Regional Schools throughout New Jersey, providing educational services for children with developmental disabilities, which include mental retardation, cerebral palsy, spina bifida, epilepsy and other neurological impairments, and who are placed by the Division of Developmental Disabilities in state facilities and out-of-state private residential centers. The educational instruction is integrated into the rest of the child's treatment program so that his or her total needs are met in a consistent and comprehensive
manner. Each of the 18 Regional Schools offers individualized, comprehensive year-round programs designed to meet the educational and psychological needs of students with moderate and severe cognitive impairments, multiple disabilities, autism, behavioral or emotional disturbances and other disabilities, who cannot be served in the public school system.

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