ON THE RECORD Taking The Tough Assignments Regional Education Group Grows Through Innovation and Employer Outreach
How does your client student base break down and what is the goal with Special Education students?
ACES is greater New Haven’s Regional Educational Service Center (RESC) serving twenty-five school districts in south central Connecticut. ACES operates magnet schools, such as New Haven’s Educational Center for the Arts on Audubon Street, provides special education for students, places students and adults with disabilities at workplaces, and provides professional development for teachers, among other services. In April of 2014, Dr. Thomas Danehy was appointed Executive Director.
Our magnet school population is 1570, special education is about 600. The goal of the districts, the state and our goal is to create the least restrictive environment [for special education students], the child [should] go to the classroom that is most appropriate for their needs. Our goal is to get them [student] to a level where they can go back into a regular classroom and be successful.
Danehy has extensive educational management experience, he was Superintendent of the Winchester Public Schools, Executive Director of Human Capital Development for the Stamford Public Schools, Principal of the Capital Region Education Council (CREC), Great Pathway Academy and Director of Human Resources for the East Hartford Public Schools. He was also an elementary school teacher.
Is being in a regular classroom always the best choice? There isn’t really a right or wrong answer. When you look at some of the student needs, and the severity of the challenges, sometimes they are better off in a special education school environment because we have specialists that can provide the support they need.
Dr. Danehy’s wealth of experience includes the position of Principal at Portland Middle School, Elementary School Principal at West Middle School and Assistant Principal at Weaver High School, Hartford Public Schools. His teaching experience encompasses grades 4–6 in both public and parochial school settings. Apparently a believer in higher ed as well, Danehy earned a Doctor of Educational Leadership from the University of Hartford, Sixth Year Certificate from Fordham University, Juris Doctor from the Quinnipiac University School of Law, a Master of Science in Reading from Southern Connecticut State University, and a Master of Arts in Communications and a Bachelor of Arts in Marketing from Fairfield University. Dr. Danehy is the son of two retired West Haven school teachers. OCTOBER 2015
What are the types of disabilities the students have? It could be medically fragile or intellectual or emotional disability. How many employees does ACES have, what areas are growing and where do the revenues originate?
What is the scale and core programming of ACES? ACES started in 1969 and we’ve evolved from a very small organization that now has revenues of about $87 million a year. We have lines of work that include [areas where] local [education] districts couldn’t or wouldn’t go into, either because of a lack of expertise or they didn’t have
the number of students to do things as they should be done. One part of our work is to create economies of scale. For example, one student with a very specialized need in one district and then there’s twelve in twelve other [districts]. They can work with us and we can provide the high level for those needs.
950 employees overall, students in our special-ed schools are paid for by the local district that is sending them to us. The magnet schools are a combination of funding, about sixty percent comes from the state and the other comes from the local school district. In the New Haven area, unlike the [Greater Hartford] “Scheff region,” [result of an integration lawsuit, Scheff Vs. O’Neill]; we’re underfunded relative to the “Scheff” region. In the Scheff Continued on page 6
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