Hebrew Academy For Special Children (HASC) is a Jewish

Jews

The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...

 non-profit

Non-profit organization

Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...

 agency in New York City

New York City

New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

, United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

, providing a wide range of supportive services to children with special needs

Special needs

In the USA, special needs is a term used in clinical diagnostic and functional development to describe individuals who require assistance for disabilities that may be medical, mental, or psychological. For instance, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the International...

. The organization is best known for its summer camps and its annual A Time for Music benefit concert.

History

The HASC (Hebrew Academy For Special Children) Programs were established in 1963 by Rabbi Max and Blanche Kahn to provide educational and clinical services to individuals from infancy through adulthood who exhibit developmental delays. HASC is currently directed by Samuel Kahn.

Services

HASC's services are geared toward infants and children with speech, learning, or motor limitations and also children who have behavioral difficulties. There are currently 6 locations in the New York region serving over 1,000 children. In addition HASC provides activities for young adults. These programs include summer camps and assisted living apartments throughout the New York city area.

A school is located in Woodmere, New York

Woodmere, New York

Woodmere is a hamlet in Nassau County, New York, United States. The population was 17,121 at the 2010 census.Woodmere is one of the Long Island communities known as the Five Towns, which is usually said to comprise the villages of Lawrence and Cedarhurst, the hamlets of Woodmere and Inwood, and...

 with a student body of approcimately 890 students.

The annual summer camp serves over 300 mentally and physically handicapped students.

Programs are divided by approximate age ranges:

• Early Intervention (0-3)
• Preschool (3-5)
• School Age (5-21)
• Summer Camp (all ages)

A Time for Music

HASC is well known for its annual A Time for Music benefit concert. These concerts have been held for the last 2 decades in venues such as Lincoln Center, Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall

Carnegie Hall is a concert venue in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, United States, located at 881 Seventh Avenue, occupying the east stretch of Seventh Avenue between West 56th Street and West 57th Street, two blocks south of Central Park....

 and Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden

Madison Square Garden, often abbreviated as MSG and known colloquially as The Garden, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in the New York City borough of Manhattan and located at 8th Avenue, between 31st and 33rd Streets, situated on top of Pennsylvania Station.Opened on February 11, 1968, it is the...

. The concert is viewed as a major event within the New York Jewish community. In the past it has attracted contemporary Jewish stars like Mordechai Ben David

Mordechai ben David

Mordechai Werdyger , professionally known as Mordechai Ben David or MBD for short, is an American Hasidic Jewish singer and songwriter popular in the Orthodox Jewish community. He has been referred to as the 'King of Jewish music'. He has produced many popular Jewish albums over the past 40 years...

, Avraham Fried

Avraham Fried

Avraham Shabshi Hakohen Friedman better known by his stage name, Avraham Fried, is a popular musical entertainer in the Orthodox Jewish community.-Career:...

, Yaakov Shwekey

Yaakov Shwekey

Yaakov Shwekey is an Orthodox Jewish American recording artist, and musical entertainer. Through his father, he is of Egyptian and Syrian Sephardic heritage, although his mother is Ashkenazic.-Biography:...

 and Matisyahu

Matisyahu

Matthew Paul Miller , better known by his Hebrew name and stage name Matisyahu, is an American Hasidic Jewish reggae and alternative rock musician....

.

Nurses at HASC

HASC also provides experience for new nurses just out of nursing school. For 7 weeks in the summer newly qualified nurses are part of a team looking after 300 campers with special needs. A challenging part of their job experience for the new nurses is devising clever ways to encourage the campers to take their medications.

In the news

The school found itself in the news in 1998 when it named a building after Senator Alfonse D'Amato and the senator used derogatory terms about some of his political opponents in his acceptance speech.

The agency received a $430,000 federal grant in 2001 to establish a national service center for the disabled.

Bernard Kahn, former CEO of HASC, was forced to resign in 2004 after an internal audit found he had used agency funds for personal expenses.

In mid-2011, Bernard Kahn was reinstated by the board of HASC as the newly created "director of strategic planning", according to an agreement under the auspices of the Rabbinical Council of America. This decision caused an uproar amongst staff members and donors alike.