History

A Rich History of Caring

Founded in Covington in 1923, our center enjoys a long history of pioneering services to meet pressing community needs. Our many “firsts” in Northern Kentucky include:

• The first special education classes for children in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the only classes (the Opportunity School) for children with physical disabilities.
• The first facility in Northern Kentucky in the 1950s to offer audiology (hearing) services to children and adults.
• The first orthopedic services to patients in the Northern Kentucky community.
• The first to provide physical, occupational and speech therapy services to children and adults.
• The first adult day care center to offer daily care and nursing services to younger adults (18 and over), as well as those over 60.
• The first preschool program for children with special needs.

Guided through the years by active and committed volunteers, myriad services were initiated to fill very real needs in the community during any given time. For instance, the orthopedic clinics were opened because polio was rampant in the 1940s and 1950s. No clinics existed in Northern Kentucky to serve those stricken, so the Board of Managers at that time persuaded orthopedic physicians, along with registered nurses, to volunteer their time at clinics at the Covington Center. Hundreds of children benefited from these clinics, being fitted with braces, walkers or crutches and receiving important physical therapy to strengthen wasted muscles. Many people are able to walk today because of the medical care and therapy they received from our center as children. As time passed and the community became more populated, two things happened. First, the Salk polio vaccine virtually eradicated polio and, second, local physicians incorporated these services into their own practices, diminishing the need for Easter Seals to continue the clinics.

The same can be said for the Opportunity School. It was established because for many years, the public school systems were not required, nor were they equipped, to educate a child with a handicap – physical or mental, within a public school setting. Even into the 1960s, children with developmental disabilities could not be educated. Again, Easter Seals responded to the need and the Opportunity School was opened under the premise that no child should be denied an education, regardless of disability. Easter Seals was instrumental in getting important legislation passed that required every public school system in the country to “mainstream” or integrate children with special health care needs into regular classroom environments. While every school was required to comply with the new federal mandates, it was not until 1981 that the last child enrolled in the Opportunity School in Covington was placed in a public school setting.

Today the Center operates in Florence, Kentucky. It provides much needed speech and hearing services for children and adults. The award-winning summer therapy camp for children operates in July. The Adult Day Care Center and Respite Program provide individuals with disability an opportunity for medical and social services.