Prospective Families

Welcome to the Ben Samuels Children's Center! 

two students play in the sandbox

Our center provides a warm, nurturing environment where children are encouraged to learn, grow, and thrive through meaningful relationships and engaging experiences. 

This page is designed to help prospective families learn more about our program. We look forward to connecting with your family.

 

Our Center

The Ben Samuels Children's Center welcomes children from 12 weeks to 5 years of age in an inclusive early childhood setting. Open Monday through Friday from 7:30 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., our center features two infant classrooms, four toddler classrooms, and six preschool classrooms designed to support each stage of development. 

Children enjoy a variety of indoor and outdoor spaces, including two indoor gyms, spacious hallways for gross motor activities, and a large, park-like outdoor area with four playgrounds and ample room for active play and exploration.

Teacher with young students

Schedule & Fees

2026-27 Calendar

Ben Samuels Children's Center Community Fees

There is a discount for Montclair State University faculty, staff, and students. To find out more about this discount, please call Theresa Andrade at 973-655-4386.

 

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 a 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 Engagement 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.

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