For 72 years, The Meyer Center has provided comprehensive special education and intensive therapy for children with disabilities in Greenville. The center serves students from infancy through age 8, a critical window during which early intervention can have life-long impact on a child’s development.
Now this expertise that has helped children with disabilities reach their fullest potential is creating a unique opportunity for typically developing students to learn alongside them in a new 4K Inclusion Program.
Since August 10, typically developing four-year-olds and Meyer Center students with disabilities have spent their days learning, playing, eating, exploring, and growing together. The result is a classroom in which differences are simply part of the community, benefitting every child, said Meta Hendricks, executive director.
“We’re offering Greenville families access to a truly unique kindergarten preparation experience, grounded in decades of proven best practice and led by one of the most skilled early childhood education teams in the Upstate,” Hendricks said.
The tuition-based program operates Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. Three seats remain for the 2026-27 school year.
Children with disabilities benefit from seeing classmates model language, social interaction, play, problem-solving and independence.
“This sets them up for success as they move into general education programs after they leave the Meyer Center, and gives evidence of their ability to learn alongside typically developing peers,” Hendricks said.
Their classmates develop empathy, patience, flexibility and an early understanding that people learn and communicate in different ways.
Both groups gain something that cannot easily be replicated: the opportunity to form genuine friendships and learn from children whose experiences may be different from their own.
Justin Lambert appreciates the program’s benefits from both sides. His son, Theo, 2, who has Down Syndrome, is enrolled in the Meyer Center’s preschool program. When the school added the 4K inclusion class, Lambert and his wife, Caroline, were eager to enroll their daughter, Reese. Daily logistics are easier with two of their three children at the same school, and their daughter’s experience has exceeded expectations.
“She comes home more excited than from any other school she’s attended,” Lambert said.
The family looks forward to the benefits of inclusion for Theo, as well as for his sister.
“They’re creating an environment where kids with and without disabilities learn together and everyone belongs,” Lambert said. “I want that to be the norm for him.”
Community support makes the new initiative and all of the Meyer Center’s programming possible. A $200,000 grant from Pacolet Milliken, LLC funded the conversion of existing space to create the new classroom, along with year-one staffing, curriculum and start-up materials. Community Foundation of Greenville has supported the Meyer Center since 1998 with grants totaling more than $335,000.
To learn more, visit meyercenter.org/admissions-2.
