About Us

The Winston L. Prouty Center for Child Development has been helping young children with a range of developmental and special needs since 1969.

Winston Prouty, a native of Newport, VT, served in the U.S. Senate from 1958 until his death in 1971. One of his particular concerns was education for children with special needs. In 1968, Senator Prouty co-sponsored the Handicapped Children’s Early Education Assistance Act. This was a landmark bill in that it was the first legislation in history approved by Congress exclusively for the education of all handicapped children without being attached to any other legislation. The intent of the act, Public Law 90-538, was to experiment with the process of educating young children with special needs and to develop models that could be replicated in other settings. In introducing the bill to the Senate, Prouty said, “I am convinced that of the several tools we have provided for the children in the past two years, none will have more promise for affecting their lives than this new program. For a parent who discovers in the first days or weeks of the new baby’s life that his child is handicapped, it is too much to ask that he wait until the child is 6 before he begins to get special education and training.” The co-sponsors of the bill in the Senate were Jacob Javits of New York, Wayne Morse of Oregon, and Ralph Yarborough of Texas. President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Handicapped Children’s Early Education Act into law on September 30, 1968.

Due to Senator Prouty’s efforts, the Brattleboro School District and Health Care & Rehabilitation Services of Southwestern Vermont received a federal grant to start the first preschool center in the country. Planning for “First Chance”, as it was called, began in early 1969. This was an appropriate name, for the project did indeed provide a first chance for children who previously would have hibernated at home during these critical early years when they could most benefit from specialized help: children with spina bifida, cerebral palsy, Down syndrome and autism, as well as children with speech, behavioral and other developomental delays. The new program provided these children with physical therapy, speech therapy, occupational therapy, and intensive specialized training so they could have an opportunity for success in a regular school setting.

When the program opened at St. Michael’s Episcopal Church in Brattleboro, six children were enrolled. A short time later, a satellite center opened in Townshend. “First Chance” grew rapidly and in September 1971, through the help of parents of a former student, the large Victorian house at 10 Oak Street in Brattleboro became its permanent headquarters. The Townshend center was closed and West River Valley children were transported daily on the “First Chance” bus. This change made it possible to serve a wider geographic area and also to open a center in Saxtons River.

In 1972, when it became apparent that government funding was drying up, the parents, staff, and board members decided to establish the center as a private, non-profit corporation. It was incorporated on July 26, 1972 and renamed the Winston L. Prouty Center for Child Development, Inc. after its initiator. The Saxtons River center was closed and a second Prouty Center bus provided transportation for children living in the Springfield-Bellows Falls area.

Assistance from the Thomas Thompson Trust has made it possible for the Prouty Center to own the building at 10 Oak Street without encumbrance. In 1975, an addition to the building was completed. An existing garage was remodeled into a physical therapy unit and the construction of a connecting wing between the garage and main building provided a large group activity room, observation area, and additional children’s bathroom facilities. The wing was a gift from Mrs. Ernest Boissevain of Brattleboro and Florence, Italy. Mrs. Boissevain, a friend of Helen Keller’s, has had a longtime interest in programs to help the handicapped.

In 1974, in order to provide services for children who are too young to attend the Center on a daily basis or for whom transportation to the Center cannot be arranged, the Prouty Center began its Home-Base program. A teacher visited the child' home once a week and developed educational and therapeutic activities to meet the needs of the individual child. Parents were taught the techniques of teaching their own child. When needed, the Center-based occupational, physical, and speech therapists are available for consultation.

During the first 15 years of operation, the Center not only provided direct therapy and educational services. Extended services included the Educational Testing & Remediation Program, which provided diagnostic evaluations and remediation therapy designed to develop lower-level physiological skills. The Center provided preschool screening throughout Southern Vermont as one of the requirements of the original "First Chance" grant. Over the years, the Center was a training center for people involved in the education and care of children with special needs. The Center was designated the training coordinator for Head Start in Vermont and provided training for public school teachers in Vermont, Massachusetts and Rhode Island who have children with developmental disabilities in their classrooms. The Center also provided an Internship program for college students who majored in Special Education. Over 100 students from 10 colleges participated in the program.

In June of 1983 the Children's Country Inn opened. The program focus was to provide a "time out" for parents with children with multiple disabilities. The Inn was designed for overnight respite care, however upon request of families, a daytime program was started in 1986. This program included children from the neighborhood. This was the point the Center began to provide integrated early childhood programs. The Country Inn expanded over the years and became a well-known childcare program.

The late 80s and early 90s were a time of great change in Special Education services. For years, parents with infants and toddlers with special needs advocated for the extension of the Free and Appropriate Education Act to include this youngest group. In 1986 PL:99-457 was passed, which nationally recognized and funded early intervention programs for infants and toddlers. Along with the passing of PL:99-1427 were changes in preschool and school-aged special education funding that required the child's local school district to be responsible for providing integrated services. The result of these legislative changes was the withdrawal of the Prouty Center's state block grant that redirected those funds back to the school districts. The effects on the Center were profound. The primary source of funding for the therapists and special educators was eliminated. It also meant that the school districts were required to accommodate the needs of children in their district. A few districts paid tuition for their children to remain at the Center, but the financial burden to the districts for this private service and the pressure to provide local services eventually eliminated the tuitioning of children.

In 1993, the Center was named the host agency for the Windham Family Infant Toddler Program. This statewide program is a result of the 1986 legislation. We received this program because the Center's long history of providing home-based services to infants and toddlers. However, throughout the early 90s the Center floundered to find other sources of funding and to continue the mission set by the original Board of Trustees. The Center needed to define their early childhood services with a new lens. In 1995, the Prouty Center focused on its strength, which was integrating children with special needs in early care and education.

The Family Infant Toddler Program and the Early Learning Center began to work more closely together to develop an integrated program. Over two years of research was done to develop a curriculum that fit the Center's mission. The curriculum was tailored to fit the children we serve and how we integrated children's programs within the Center. Community education about the Prouty Center and its mission was provided to pediatricians, physicians, service groups and other community leaders throughout Windham County. Our services were formalized through Letters of Agrrement with other early childhood service providers including EEE, CUPS, and EES. These agreements supported integration not only within our center but in other early childhood programs, both center- and home-based. We have achieved national accreditation through the National Association for the Education of Young Children (NAEYC), which requires high early childhood standards and increases our ability to receive state early childhood funding.

In 2004, we joined the National Inclusion Preschool Individualization Project with Vanderbilt University in Nashville, TN. This program provided extensive training with follow-up data collection for the university to improve famiy relations and enhanced integration of children with special needs. We worked with Windham Southeast Supervisory Union EEE teachers and speech and language therapists to implement the program over the past 18 months. The data collection is about to end, and the Center will be included in the national data provided for this federal research project.

The Winston Prouty Center serves a diverse range of children, with different economic, physical, developmental and cultural needs. We are an example of a federally funded pilot project that worked! Over the years, many dedicated people have helped the Center keep true to its initial mission and have made an impact in the services and programs provided to young children with special needs.