The mission of the Children's Defense Fund is to Leave No Child Behind and to ensure every child a Healthy Start, a Head Start, a Fair Start, a Safe Start, and a Moral Start in life and successful passage to adulthood with the help of caring families and communities.

CDF provides a strong, effective voice for all the children of America who cannot vote, lobby, or speak for themselves. We pay particular attention to the needs of poor and minority children and those with disabilities. CDF educates the nation about the needs of children and encourages preventative investments before they get sick, into trouble, drop out of school, or suffer family breakdown.

In 1992, the Children's Defense Fund established an office in New York City, a city where 30% of children live in poverty and children account for 43% of the homeless population. We are recognized as an authority in the endeavor to protect children and strengthen families.

A large network of programs serving children, adolescents, and adults and their families with developmental delays, multiple handicaps, autism spectrum disorders, emotional disturbance and more. Early intervention, special-needs preschool, special needs school for those who cannot be in public school, family respite program, counseling, group homes/residential programs for adolescents and adults in Brooklyn and Queens, head start, day care, in-service training in spec. ed. topics for teachers and supportive work programs for the MR/DD population are all services provided by The Birch School.

The Intrepid Fallen Heroes Fund is constructing a world-class state-of-the-art advanced training skills facility at Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio, Texas. The center will serve military personnel who have been catastrophically disabled in operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. The center will also serve military personnel and veterans severely injured in other operations and in the normal performance of their duties, combat and non-combat related.

The center will encompass a 60,000 square foot structure, providing ample space and facilities for the rehabilitation needs of the patients and their caregivers. It will be constructed on a site sufficient in size to meet the needs of the center’s patients and caregivers and will include $3.5 million in top of the line indoor and outdoor facilities.

Assistive Technology and Universal Design for Learning (UDL) resources in New York.

As soon as the student receives a letter of acceptance from the college, he/she should write or call the office of the coordinator of services for students with disabilities, identify him/herself, and describe the nature of the disability and the type of accommodations needed. Students should not wait until the semester begins, as the college needs advance notice to arrange for accommodations. Some students may require clarification of the terms "reasonable accommodations." Discussing the nature of accommodations with the coordinator for students with disabilities, at the onset, will ensure that services are coordinated.