Child Study Center: Independence 101

When you walk into the apartment inside the Child Study Center (CSC) Upper School at Cook Children’s, it may look just like your first apartment. The small studio boasts a refrigerator, a stove, an oven, a bed, a table and chairs, a washer and a dryer – all the appliances and items one would expect in a typical living space.

But no one actually lives in this apartment. Instead, it’s a comprehensive learning resource for students, ages 11 to 21, in the CSC Upper School, the secondary program to Jane Justin School.

The upper school helps students with intellectual and development disabilities develop their independence, so they can become productive members in the community and achieve meaningful adult lives. This mock apartment is designed to give students a taste of what to expect when they’re living on their own.

Each year, members of Cook Children’s philanthropic society, Seventh Avenue, work closely with Cook Children’s leaders to determine how to make the largest difference in the system, and in 2019, they voted to support CSC Upper School’s mock apartment. The students are already benefiting from the group’s incredible generosity.

"High school students use the apartment daily to get ready for work, to prepare meals and snacks, and to practice important activities of daily living,” said Tracie Mann, Ph.D., LBA, headmaster of the Jane Justin School and CSC Upper School. “Our state-of-the-art, fully furnished mock apartment has had an immediate and positive impact on our upper school students. We are so grateful to the members of Seventh Avenue for their contribution to our program and for their dedication to Cook Children’s Promise."