Cotting School is a private, non-profit school for children with special needs located in

Lexington, Massachusetts Lexington is a suburban town in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, located 10 miles (16 km) from Downtown Boston. The population was 34,454 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The area was originally inhabited by ...

, United States. It was founded in 1893 as the nation's first school for children with disabilities. Cotting's preschool, lower, middle, and upper schools offer academic instruction focusing on a variety of skills and content areas, vocational assessment, and training.

History

Cotting School was founded in 1893 and was America's first day school for children with physical disabilities. From its founding until its merger with the Krebs School in 1986, Cotting School was located at 241 St. Botolph Street in

Boston Boston is the capital and most populous city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Massachusetts in the United States. The city serves as the cultural and Financial centre, financial center of New England, a region of the Northeas ...

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. The school was founded by Drs. Edward H. Bradford and Augustus Thorndike, both orthopedic surgeons at

Children's Hospital Boston Boston Children's Hospital (formerly known as Children's Hospital Boston until 2013) is the main pediatric training and research hospital of Harvard Medical School, Harvard University. It is a nationally ranked, freestanding acute care children ...

and was originally called The Industrial School for Crippled and Deformed Children. The school was also known as the Industrial School for Crippled Children and Cotting School for Handicapped Children. Cotting School, A Pictorial History () was written by David Manzo and Elizabeth Campbell Peters and published by Arcadia Publishing (April 2, 2008).

Services

The school offers the following services:

special education Special education (also known as special-needs education, aided education, alternative provision, exceptional student education, special ed., SDC, and SPED) is the practice of educating students in a way that accommodates their individual di ...

assistive technology Assistive technology (AT) is a term for assistive, adaptive, and rehabilitative devices for Disability, people with disabilities and the elderly. Disabled people often have difficulty performing activities of daily living (ADLs) independently, ...

art Art is a diverse range of cultural activity centered around ''works'' utilizing creative or imaginative talents, which are expected to evoke a worthwhile experience, generally through an expression of emotional power, conceptual ideas, tec ...

music Music is the arrangement of sound to create some combination of Musical form, form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise Musical expression, expressive content. Music is generally agreed to be a cultural universal that is present in all hum ...

, library/media, dental,

vision Vision, Visions, or The Vision may refer to: Perception Optical perception * Visual perception, the sense of sight * Visual system, the physical mechanism of eyesight * Computer vision, a field dealing with how computers can be made to gain und ...

nursing Nursing is a health care profession that "integrates the art and science of caring and focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and human functioning; prevention of illness and injury; facilitation of healing; and alle ...

occupational therapy Occupational therapy (OT), also known as ergotherapy, is a healthcare profession. Ergotherapy is derived from the Greek wiktionary:ergon, ergon which is allied to work, to act and to be active. Occupational therapy is based on the assumption t ...

physical therapy Physical therapy (PT), also known as physiotherapy, is a healthcare profession, as well as the care provided by physical therapists who promote, maintain, or restore health through patient education, physical intervention, disease preventio ...

speech therapy Speech is the use of the human voice as a medium for language. Spoken language combines vowel and consonant sounds to form units of meaning like words, which belong to a language's lexicon. There are many different intentional speech acts, suc ...

industrial arts Industrial arts is an educational program that features the fabrication of objects in wood or metal using a variety of hand, power, or machine tools. Industrial Arts are commonly referred to as Technology Education. It may include small engine ...

, tutorial services, pre-vocational and vocational training. Cotting School is accredited by the New England Association of Schools and Colleges (NEASC) and has full approval status from the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Affiliations

*AccesSportAmerica *Association of Independent Schools of New England *Best Buddies of Massachusetts *

Boston College Boston College (BC) is a private university, private Catholic Jesuits, Jesuit research university in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1863 by the Society of Jesus, a Catholic Religious order (Catholic), religious order, t ...

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. BU was founded in 1839 by a group of Boston Methodism, Methodists with its original campus in Newbury (town), Vermont, Newbur ...

's Sargent College of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences *

*Children's League of Massachusetts *

Emerson College Emerson College is a private college in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It also maintains campuses in Los Angeles and Well, Limburg, Netherlands (Kasteel Well). Founded in 1880 by Charles Wesley Emerson as a "school of Public Speaking, o ...

Clinical Training Program *International Association of Special Education *Massachusetts Association of 766-Approved Private Schools *Massachusetts Council of Human Service Providers *Massachusetts

Special Olympics Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities, providing year-round training and activities to 5 million participants and Unified Sports partners in 172 countries. Special Ol ...

*New England Handicapped Sports Association (NEHSA) *

New England College of Optometry The New England College of Optometry is a private optometry college in Boston, Massachusetts. It enrolls over 500 students and is one of the oldest continually operating college of optometry in the United States. History It was originally es ...

Northeastern University Northeastern University (NU or NEU) is a private university, private research university with its main campus in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by the Boston Young Men's Christian Association in 1898 as an all-male instit ...

's Bouve College of Health Sciences *

Perkins School for the Blind Perkins School for the Blind, in Watertown, Massachusetts, was founded in 1829 and is the oldest school for the blind in the United States. It has also been known as the Perkins Institution for the Blind. Perkins manufactures its own Perkins B ...

* Regis College *

Salem State College Salem State University (Salem State or SSU) is a public university in Salem, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1854, it is the oldest and largest institute of higher education on the North Shore (Massachusetts), North Shore and is p ...

Tufts University Tufts University is a private research university in Medford and Somerville, Massachusetts, United States, with additional facilities in Boston and Grafton, as well as Talloires, France. Tufts also has several Doctor of Physical Therapy p ...

School of Dental Medicine *

Wheelock College Wheelock College was a private college in Boston, Massachusetts, United States. The college was founded in 1888 as the Miss Wheelock's Kindergarten Training School and was merged into Boston University as part of the university's Boston Univer ...

Resources

Cotting School website

References

{{authority control Special schools in Massachusetts Educational institutions established in 1893 Buildings and structures in Lexington, Massachusetts Schools in Middlesex County, Massachusetts Private high schools in Massachusetts Private middle schools in Massachusetts Private elementary schools in Massachusetts 1893 establishments in Massachusetts