UCP of Central Florida

For more than 55 years, UCP has been the experts for children with special needs. By providing the best support, education and therapy, we offer hope to everyone touched by a disability. We began our journey helping children with cerebral palsy. Over the years and as needs changed, we began helping children with a variety of disabilities and developmental delays, including Down syndrome, autism, spina bifida, cerebral palsy, speech and hearing delays.

Over the last ten years, our vision has carried us further. We have opened our doors to children without disabilities and embraced an education model called Inclusion. Our children, families and team members have experienced the positive outcomes that are a result of having children with and without disabilities learn and develop in the same classroom, where differences are embraced. Our vision is not only based on research that supports children with and without disabilities achieve the same or better academic outcomes when part of an inclusive classroom, but a desire from families and educators to have children of all abilities co-exist in a school environment together.

As we look forward, our efforts are based on the belief that every child should have the right to participate in a broad range of activities and contexts as full members of families, communities, and society. Our hope is to collaberatively organize and support all schools and teachings so that each child receives a learning experience that fits their unique and individual needs. Our goal, which is already beginning at UCP, is for “inclusion” to be something that isn’t even noteworthy because it happens all the time anyway.