Birch Family Services to open Riverdale early childhood center for special education

St. Gabriel’s once ran a Catholic school at the location, but it will now be home to nearly 40 preschoolers in need of special education.

File photo

Birch approaches everything we do from a lens of community well-being so that those we serve can have fulfilling lives, and our city can be a more inclusive and accepting place”

Birch Family Services

In the fall, Birch Family Services will open a new school where St. Gabriel’s used to be. 

Birch Family Services Riverdale Early Childhood Center will provide special education and therapeutic services for children with autism and developmental delays in preschool, from ages 3 to 5. 

The school can take in a total of 74 students, who will be divided into seven special education classes but the plan is to begin the year with 38 students with special needs across four classrooms, according to their needs. 

“Our goal is to serve each student in the least restrictive environment possible,” a Birch spokesperson said. 

Smaller classrooms containing six to eight students provide “structure-intensive support,” according to Birch, while larger classrooms of up to 12 students can work best for students with fewer needs. 

Inside classrooms, for students, attend class Monday through Friday and Birch educators design class time that best benefits early childhood learning. Class time will include time and space for group activities, literacy, dramatic play, tabletop activities among other edifying experiences. 

Birch officials said their goal, no matter a student’s age, is to foster independence through communication and building relationships. 

The school’s philosophy is established on each students Individualized Education Program, or IEP. IEPs, according to the state education department, are designed as the building blocks for the special education process of students with disabilities.

Birch helps to curate individualized educations for each student just as an IEP does. On top of individualized education for each student, they are also eligible to receive various other Birch services including speech therapy, occupational therapy, physical therapy, counseling and multi-disciplinary evaluations. 

While Birch Family Services will be new to the greater Riverdale area, they currently operate eight other schools throughout the city and have been educating students with disabilities since 1975. Many of the schools also offer services for older children and adults to flourish both intellectually and developmentally.

Birch has every intention of servicing the Riverdale population directly, both by hiring from within the community and keeping families involved with their student’s educations. The organization recently held a hiring fair at the school’s soon-to-be location, looking to employ qualified specialists from within the neighborhood they service.

“Birch approaches everything we do from a lens of community well-being so that those we serve can have fulfilling lives, and our city can be a more inclusive and accepting place,” a Birch spokesperson said. 

Birch officials said working with St. Gabriel’s church has been a positive and engaging experience thus far and they are excited to work on their goal of maintaining the school in Riverdale. Over time, Birch plans to increase the number of families and children they nurture, allowing them to respond to the need for early childhood special education services in the Bronx. 

According to a city comptroller report during the 2021 to 2022 school year, nearly 10,000 preschool aged students with disabilities did not receive their full mandated services and 13,800 IEP recommendations for services like speech therapy, physical therapy, occupational therapy and counseling went unfulfilled. 

Father Brian McCarthy, the pastor at St. Gabriel’s church, previously told The Press he believed Birch Family Services moving into the school space to be a win-win for the community and the parish, as putting something new in the space means it can now serve a different population.