Community Services

Ben Samuels Children's Center

  • College for Education and Engaged Learning

The Ben Samuels Children’s Center is committed to examining and implementing the best practices of teaching and learning in a nurturing environment where all children learn, play and grow together.

Ben Samuels Children's Center
childrenscnt@montclair.edu
973-655-7177
80 Clove Rd, Little Falls, NJ 07424
Monday - Friday, 7:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.
children walking outside

Ben Samuels Children's Center

Services We Offer

The Ben Samuels Children’s Center provides inclusive child care and early education for children 12 weeks to 5 years old between the hours of 7:30 am and 6:00 pm.  We have two infant, four toddler and six preschool classrooms.  The facility includes two indoor gyms and wide hallways that are used for indoor gross motor play. The large park-like lawn that surrounds the building has four playground equipment areas and plenty of open space.

Three of our six preschool classrooms are part of Montclair’s Universal Pre-K program—known as "Mini-Mounties"—which provides free, full-day preschool from 8:30 am - 2:30 pm for 3- and 4-year-old Montclair residents only.  Wrap-around care available for an additional fee.

children center building
a teacher works with a student at a sensory station

Demonstration Program

Our Demonstration Program provides inclusive special education services to students placed at Ben Samuels through their school district.  We offer private pay Supported Preschool Therapeutic Programs based on evaluations and placement recommendations. 

Support staff including a speech-language pathologist, inclusion specialist, occupational and physical therapists and assistants provide therapeutic services to children/families who have individualized education plans (IEP) through their school district.  Among the staff is a music therapist who works with the classroom teaching teams to infuse arts into the classroom curriculum.

The presence of Montclair State University faculty and students further enhances the services provided.  Our forty-five plus professional staff members work closely with faculty members and actively participate in the pre-service development of Montclair State University students by offering guided observations, supervised clinical hours and mentoring.

If your child has received an evaluation and qualifies for therapeutic services, please let us know so that we can best assist you. Therapeutic services are in addition to our childcare.

children playing

The Jeffrey Dworkin Early Intervention Program

The Jeffrey Dworkin Early Intervention Program (JDEIP) is a comprehensive Essex County agency within the New Jersey Early Intervention System (NJEIS). JDEIP is under the auspices of the Center and aligns with the mission of NJEIS to enhance the capacity of families to meet the developmental and health-related needs of children from birth to age three who have delays or disabilities. Therapeutic Consultants support the families and their children in naturally occurring environments - family homes, childcare settings, community classes, etc. There are over 60 therapists and practitioners currently enrolled in the agency providing therapeutic services for approximately 115 children throughout Essex County. 

Quick Links

parents doing activities with child

Prospective Families

Although most of our enrollment is done over the summer, we do sometimes have openings during the year. A waitlist is maintained for all age groups. 

Waitlist Enrollment Form

Frequently Asked Questions

Our infant classrooms (8-9 children) and our toddler classrooms (11-13 children) utilize a co-caregiving model consisting of two full time early childhood educators and supplemented by part-time teaching assistants who are typically University students. 

Each group of 15-16 preschoolers has one full-time early childhood educator and part time teaching assistant. This is supplemented by part-time teaching assistants who are typically University students. 

The Center also employs and offers field placements for a large number of MSU students who work as student assistants, graduate assistants, student teachers, and volunteers to ensure quality care with excellent teacher/child ratios.

We love our families to be involved in our community! Family members are invited to join classroom activities and celebrations (holidays, guest reader opportunities, family nights, field trips, etc.) and centerwide events (summer celebration, back to school night, workshops, etc.). There is a Parent Action Committee as well as class parents and a Community Engagment Liaison who work together to keep families informed and involved in events throughout the school year. 

Challenging behaviors are viewed as communication. The staff works together with families to assess the contributing factors which may include but are not limited to medical factors, family stressors, sensory needs, as well as frustration regarding communication challenges. Families and staff members work together to problem solve and develop plans to make necessary accommodations to support each child’s needs. According to our research-based approach, Utilizing the Pyramid Model framework to support social and emotional competence and positive behavior includes the following best practices: 

  • Developmentally appropriate curriculum and environments
  • Social and emotional teaching strategies
  • And finally, when necessary, intensive individualized interventions (what is often thought of as discipline).

If a child’s behavior becomes inappropriate, unsafe or lacks self-control (even considering support provided by the other levels of the pyramid), we take specific steps to help the child cope and work together with families to create a behavior support plan to address the stress behaviors.  Open and ongoing communication between home and school is key.

teachers lead kids down hallway

Our Staff

Teacher builds blocks with preschool children

Milla Yakubov
Director
yakubovl@montclair.edu

Lisa Kontos
Associate Director
kontosl@montclair.edu

Theresa Andrade
Enrollment Coordinator 
andradet@montclair.edu

Erin Clark
Inclusion Specialist
clarke@montclair.edu