Helen Keller Services breaks ground on Islandia children's learning center

Suffolk families looking for specialized preschool special-education placements got a new option in Islandia as Helen Keller Services broke ground on a Children’s Learning Center at 11 Oval Drive. The new site is designed for 50 to 60 children who are blind, have low vision or have complex developmental needs, bringing a long-running Brooklyn model closer to parents who have faced long commutes and waitlists.

The groundbreaking took place Thursday, June 18, 2026, with Helen Keller Services calling the Islandia project its first expansion of the Children’s Learning Center model into Suffolk County. The organization said the center will include six classrooms and is intended to answer a practical need across Long Island, where families often struggle to find stable, specialized preschool placements near home.

The Islandia center is being modeled after Helen Keller Services’ Brooklyn Children’s Learning Center, which has operated for nearly 40 years. That program serves preschool children with low vision, multiple disabilities, autism or pervasive developmental delays, and the organization describes it as the only center in New York City specializing in those students. The Brooklyn model uses teachers, therapists, specialists, nurses and family-support staff in one multidisciplinary setting.

Susan Ruzenski, the organization’s chief executive, said the groundbreaking marked a long-awaited moment and underscored the goal of bringing educational preschool services closer to local families. Principal Avien Henry said the Long Island expansion followed years of research showing a shortage of early-childhood special-education placements in the region and the need to fill that gap.

The broader system helps explain why the project matters. In a December 5, 2024 audit, the state comptroller’s office said many local districts keep waitlists for preschool special education because there are not enough providers, and it urged state officials to develop a strategy to address the statewide shortage of preschool special-education service providers. New York Education Law Section 4410 governs those preschool special-education programs and services.

Helen Keller Services said the Islandia center is part of a wider Long Island expansion in 2026 that includes purpose-built facilities for specialized early-childhood education and therapeutic services. The organization, which says it has served people with vision loss for more than 130 years, already has a local footprint in Brooklyn, Nassau County in Hempstead and across Long Island. For Suffolk parents seeking a nearby, stable placement, the Islandia center turns a policy problem into a concrete new county resource.