New York City Inclusive School Expands

NEW YORK — The Ideal School of Manhattan, which began in 2006 as an experiment in fully integrating special-needs students with typical learners, is expanding rapidly — thanks to a group of parents and educators with the goal of creating a new way of learning for students of all abilities.

Students recently moved from their original West 76th Street location to a six-floor building twice as large on West 91st Street at West End Avenue this fall. The Head of School, Angela Bergeson, said she thinks they'll "outgrow [the new] space more quickly than we thought" as it transitions from K-5 to K-8.

The vision for the school stemmed from the challenges a group of New York City moms withspecial-needs students faced while looking for kindergartens.