History and Fact Sheet - Archive

1998

NECC acquires property for its Professional Development Center. This additional space allows NECC to expand its program for professional staff development by providing additional classrooms for NECC training classes as well as the in-house graduate study programs. A staff computer-learning center is also planned for this space.

1996-2000

After extensive study, NECC senior management develops a strategic 5-year plan designed to lift the quality of the program to an even higher level. Reorganizing and reducing the caseload of senior clinical and educational administrators simplifies the structure of the program. Senior program managers are able to make rapid clinical and educational decisions for the students in their care. These changes result in improvements to the program quality, better documentation of student progress and enable the program to develop areas of applied research.

1996

NECC opens a unique residential complex for children with severely challenging behaviors providing 24-hour educational services for students who present the most complex needs. The Staff Intensive Residential Program accepts students with high rates of self-injurious and aggressive behavior from around the world.

1995

NECC develops its first Public School Outreach Program, introducing a model classroom in the Worcester Public Schools. This public/private partnership serves as the stepping stone to an ongoing collaboration between NECC and many public schools.

1994

NECC hosts The Summer Institute: Studies in Autism sponsored jointly by NECC and the Shriver Center University Affiliated Program as part of a U.S. Department of Education training grant. This week-long Institute was designed to provide teachers and other professionals with an overview of autism and best practice instructional strategies for educating children with autism. The success of the first year lead to the Institute becoming an annual event. Over 600 teachers, parents and public school administrators have attended The Summer Institute.

NECC enters into a strategic alliance with Simmons College to provide a Simmons Master's Degree Program in Intensive Special Needs to our teaching staff. Held completely at our Southborough campus, the Master's Degree Program creates a unique applied program in which academic instruction is closely yoked to the hands-on experience of teaching children with autism. A key feature to the program was designing a degree program that supports an Applied Behavior Analysis model of special education services. Since its inception the program has enabled over 600 teachers to earn a Master's of Severe Special Education.

1993

Dr. Gina Green is appointed as NECC's first Director of Research. At NECC Dr. Green provides direction for families in sorting through the myriad of "miracle cures" such as Facilitated Communication. Dr. Green and clinical colleagues at NECC help parents understand the need for scientifically-based treatment approaches to help their children with autism. Under her leadership, NECC strengthens its research program and begins to regularly publish its findings in national peer reviewed journals.

1991

NECC establishes a center-based Preschool program serving young children with autism and PDD. The program provides intensive behavioral instruction and opportunities for integration with typical peers leading to systematic transition into the public schools.

1990

The New England Center for Autism incorporates under a new name, The New England Center for Children (NECC), emphasizing its mission in providing educational services for children with autism, PDD and other autism spectrum disorders.

1989

The New England Center for Autism issues a $13 million tax exempt bond, helping to expand services and securing its financial future.

1987

Dr. Murray Sidman, Professor Emeritus, Northeastern University, joins NECA as Senior Research Associate. Dr. Sidman is known for his classic research book, Tactics of Scientific Research (1960/1988 Authors Cooperative, Inc.) as well as other texts and articles on behavior analysis. At NECA Dr Sidman established a research lab to continue his seminal work on stimulus equivalence; research was conducted in his lab on-site. Dr. Sidman also held weekly lab meetings with NECA and Shriver staff. His work at NECA led to many publications and spurred interest in classroom applications of his work.

1986-1990

The creative financial strategies developed by NECA allowed for construction of a spacious, specially designed school building. With fully modern facilities in place, NECA was able to begin to recruit world-class personnel. Over the next four years, NECA opens 11 group homes in the Metro West region, establishing a community based system for residential education for more than 110 children with autism, PDD and other disabilities.

1985

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts approved plans to merge the two ERI programs into one community-based school, The New England Center for Autism (NECA), with multiple group homes and one centrally located school building in the Metro West region of Massachusetts.

Clinicians Dr. Becky MacDonald and Susan Langer and program consultant Dr. Paul Touchette publish NECA's first professional research study, "A scatter plot for identifying stimulus control of problem behavior" in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis.

1980

At the request of the Massachusetts Department of Education, Efficacy Research Institute of Framingham is established when ERI assumes control of a failing school for boys with autism in Framingham Massachusetts. Although this emergency takeover was viewed as a huge risk, the students at the new school were soon thriving in an environment with well-trained staff and a highly structured behaviorally based educational program.

1975

Starting with six children from the adult ward of a state institution and a staff of eight teachers, ERI opens a residential school on the grounds of Taunton State Hospital. The school was considered "one of a kind" for its use of Applied Behavior Analysis. The program was an immediate success with students receiving appropriate educational services and learning important life skills for the first time in a school designed to meet their needs.

1974

NECC Founder and Chief Executive Officer & Founder Vincent Strully incorporates the Efficacy Research Institute (ERI), an organization devoted to providing educational services to children with autism and other disabilities.