The center provides a range of early intervention programs for children of all ages with a learning or physical disability, including those who are visually or hearing-impaired, or are functioning at half their chronological age. It also offers Michigan's School Readiness program for 4-year-olds who have at least two of 25 risk factors, such as low birth weight, chronic illness or parents who have not completed high school. Next term, Bussey will begin a program for autistic children.

"I think if you can deal with kids that have a special need, it just helps you deal with all kids," said Rosenthal.

Nearly all Bussey teachers have a credential in special education, though they may not necessarily teach children with disabilities. All 18 teachers are certified in early childhood education. And, in a field, in which it has been said, that child care providers on the average change jobs every two to five years, Bussey has experienced almost no teacher turnover; its newest teacher started a decade ago.

Sharing resources and training, however, was not always the norm at Bussey. In 1973, when Rosenthal started working in Southfield as a Head Start psychologist for the district's Child Development Center, before it was renamed the Bussey Center, she realized that there were programs for parents and their young children but they were scattered all over the area. Two years later, she was hired as the center's principal and charged with the task of mobilizing resources.

Soon after Rosenthal's hire, the center was assigned a sizable facility to consolidate the programs into one building. The district donated an elementary school that was closed when enrollment declined, which provided the perfect structure for young children.

When additional funds became available, Southfield's early childhood center extended its reach to more children as well as their parents. A program called the "Preschool Readiness Education Program" was adopted to provide parents with information on helping their children learn. The center also experimented with several training methods, including using a one-way mirror that allowed parents to come in and observe their children. Today, Bussey offers an adult education program, which helps parents get their General Equivalency Diplomas (GEDs) and includes a parent education component to help parents with child development.

Other funding sources, including grants from the U.S. Department of Education, allowed Bussey to bolster its outreach efforts by funding family field trips, providing ESL classes and significantly underscoring the importance of parents reading to their children. Rosenthal said the grants helped to sow "family literacy seeds all over the center."

Enlisting the support of families and local partners in the effort to equip young children with the skills they need to put them on the road to school success has coincidentally helped to knit the community together, Rosenthal said.

"Early childhood education is really a community builder. And I think that's what makes Bussey special. It's always inventing and it's always building communities."

For more information about the Bussey Center for Early Childhood Education, visit http://www.southfield.k12.mi.us/itc/bussey.htm or call 248-746-7350.