New school provides opportunities for students with special needs

With the loss of Grafton earlier this year, parents welcome another option

Wednesday, Nov. 1, 2006

A new school in Gaithersburg for the mentally disabled has received praise for helping to fill an educational gap created by the sudden closure of a Rockville special needs school in February.

The Marcia D. Smith School, privately operated by Community Support Services Inc., offers a program on life skills, vocational training and functional academics for students age 16 to 21 with severe autism and mental retardation.

When the Grafton School closed last February amid financial concerns and quality issues, it sent families and the Montgomery County Public Schools scrambling to find new educational outlets for its 42 students.

This forced some families to look beyond Montgomery County or even state lines to find the most appropriate programs, said Community Support Services Executive Director Susan Ingram.

The goal of the Smith School is to ensure local options are available for those with intensive and complex disabilities, and ‘‘it’s been a pretty well-supported effort,” Ingram said.

Debbie Van Brunt’s 16-year-old son attends the Smith School, and she said she’s ‘‘thrilled beyond belief” to have this program. She also said that with the autistic population steadily growing, the school is a step in the right direction by making more specialized training available.

‘‘We’re just very excited to have this opportunity. It’s going to be a great school,” Van Brunt said.

The Smith School, located on Comprint Court off Shady Grove Road, was officially dedicated Saturday during Community Support Services’ second annual fall festival. The school was named after Dr. Marcia Datlow Smith, a pioneer in behavioral science for children and adults with autism and who also offers psychological consultation for Community Support Services.

Currently six students are enrolled at the school, but company officials hope to meet the maximum capacity of 25 in about three years. Students are referred from MCPS, and are eligible only if they live in Montgomery County.

MCPS has a total special education population of 17,000, 603 of which attend 59 non-public schools, said MCPS spokesman Brian K. Edwards.