The Cisco Systems Foundation has awarded The New England Center for Children in Southborough, Massachusetts a $15,000.00 grant to fund the development of a curriculum database tool for educating students with autism and related disabilities. The curriculum database will provide a central location for all teaching protocols used at NECC. This will allow teachers and administrators easy access to standardized programs, which can be individualized to meet the specific needs of their students. The ultimate goal of this project is to post the curriculum database on the Internet to share with educators around the world.

A U.S. Department of Education National Award Winner, The New England Center for Children (NECC) is a residential and day school serving individuals diagnosed with autism and related disabilities. NECC is a non-profit, publicly funded school serving 229 students who come to us from throughout the United States and several foreign countries. Since its founding in 1975, The New England Center for Children has emerged as an international leader on three closely-related fronts: the effective education of children with autism, applied educational research, and teacher training.

Cisco Systems, Inc. is the worldwide leader in networking for the Internet. Cisco hardware, software, and service offerings are used to create Internet solutions that allow individuals, companies, and countries to increase productivity, improve customer satisfaction and strengthen competitive advantage. The Cisco name has become synonymous with the Internet, as well as with the productivity improvements that Internet business solutions provide. Cisco’s vision is to change the way people work, live, play and learn.

This is the first grant that The New England Center for Children has received from the Cisco Systems Foundation.

For more information about The New England Center for Children, visit www.necc.org, or call 508-481-1015.

For more information about Cisco Systems, visit www.cisco.com.