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Kennedy Child Care Study Center
formerly Mount Sinai Dispensary

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The Kennedy Child Study Center (KCSC) was established in 1958 by the Archdiocese of New York with the assistance of a grant from the Kennedy family in memory of Joseph P. Kennedy Jr.  The Kennedy interest in retardation stemmed from the fact that their daughter, Rosemary, was mentally retarded.  Originally housed in the Catholic Charities building on East 22nd Street, Kennedy Child Study Center moved to a newly renovated building on East 67th Street, In 1987, the Kennedy Child Study Center leased and renovated a second site in the West Farms community of The Bronx .

Kennedy Child Study Center was established to provide comprehensive diagnostic evaluations and counseling services for slowly developing young children and their families.  It was also designed to provide specialized Day Programs, which would allow, not only developmental training and special education, but would include strong clinical back-up.  Children would be given an opportunity to adjust and become more comfortable at Kennedy Child Study Center, and then assessment and treatment services would be administered by people with whom the children had become more familiar.  That kind of orientation allowed staff to observe the children in a natural environment and to use information gained through these observations to help teachers and parents work with the young, slowly developing  child.

In its early days children attending Kennedy Child Study Center programs were approximately seven to nine years of age and much higher functioning than those who attend its programs today.  Many of the children were mildly retarded or were autistic, emotionally disturbed, or suffered adjustment problems.  As the community at large became more aware and accepting of  mentally retarded children, and the public schools became more responsible for their education, , Kennedy Child Study Center began to serve more moderately to profoundly retarded children as well as to focus on children as young as infancy and as old as thirteen years.  Currently, all of the children enrolled in Kennedy Child Study Center Special Education Programs are below age five.  

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