 | History
History
Bal Swan Children’s Center was founded in 1963 by five Broomfield families who had children with disabilities. At that time, an appropriate program was not available for their children in their own community. The Center was originally called the Broomfield Foundation for Retarded Children. In 1965, the school was selected as a pilot project by the Colorado Department of Education to study the effectiveness of programs for disabled children within their own community.
Aware of the Center from it’s beginning, Bal Swan, one of Broomfield’s founding fathers, a community leader and highly regarded Denver philanthropist, gave the Center its present building, furnishings and land in 1972. At that time, the name was changed to the Bal Swan Children's Center in honor of Mr. Swan’s generosity.
Shortly after moving into the new facility, the Center expanded its mission to include typical preschoolers when the brothers of two disabled students at the Center began to act out in a destructive manner at home. Their parents did not know how to deal with this additional challenge and shared their concern with the Center’s teacher, Marlene Politzer. The boys were invited to attend classes with the disabled children. The boys provided a new opportunity for the disabled children to learn and now felt like they were a part of their siblings’ life. The disabled students now had mentors after whom they could model developmentally appropriate activities and skills. The Center became the first preschool in Colorado with a fully inclusive preschool program.
With this new innovation, Bal Swan continued to pioneer unique inclusive preschool services and partnerships. Bal Swan partnered with the North Metro Community Center Board, Imagine!, the Adams County School District and the Boulder Valley School District to create programs at the school to serve the Broomfield community. These unique educational programs were provided free of charge to qualifying families and continue today. Each year we adjust our programs to make them better than the year before, always searching for excellence. These programs include our inclusive toddler and preschool programs, the Colorado Preschool Program (CPP) and at-home therapy services for children with special needs under the age of three.
In 2004, Bal Swan completed a 15 year capital improvement by adding a 10,000 square foot building to the existing building. The building was sent from heaven because it enabled Bal Swan to almost double the number of children it serves. Since Broomfield was growing so quickly it took only three years to max out the new capacity. This was due to the new innovative programs that were created to fill the new building. Bal Swan Children’s Center did not just continue offering status quo programming in the new building, but created new full-day programs and school-age programs that brought in markets that the former programming neglected, again pioneering programs that the community needed.
Today Bal Swan Children’s Center continues to set the standard for early childhood education. We are proud of our innovative programs, inclusive environment, high quality staff, superior curriculum and the exceptional children that we have the privilege of working with each day. We are fortunate to enjoy the highest levels of support from our community and from our families.
We believe that our value proposition is in providing a loving and supportive environment where every child thrives and builds on their strengths and successes each day! |
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