history • key contacts • model of care

HISTORY
The Kolburne School, Inc. traces its roots back to 1904, when pioneering educator May Jean Robins established a school in New York State for students with psychiatric, educational, and social challenges. In 1912, she was joined by Luma L. Kolburne (subsequently, a Columbia University-educated psychologist), who similarly believed that special needs students were entitled to the finest treatment services available. Luma’s contribution in the field of special education was later thoroughly documented in Effective Education for the Mentally Retarded (1965).

In 1947, Luma and his wife Stella (May Jean’s niece, who was an industrial arts teacher) and their daughter Jeane (and later, her husband Sydney L. Weinstein) founded The Kolburne School in Norwalk, Connecticut. In an era of entrenched racial prejudice, Kolburne admitted students, regardless of their race or religion, and employed a racially diverse professional staff. Kolburne’s safe, structured, and caring environment provided an ideal alternative to past failures.

By the 1960's, ever-increasing student enrollment and the need for a more comprehensive physical plant led Kolburne to relocate. A state-of-the-art treatment center was built in Berkshire County, Massachusetts, on eight hundred acres of meadows, forests, and streams. Parents, funding sources, and regulatory agencies were equally supportive of Kolburne’s move and the later acquisition of community-based group homes designed to further promote positive student growth.

Like May Jean Robins’s school which opened its doors one hundred years ago, Kolburne remains dedicated to helping challenged students best develop the skills and character necessary to achieve their highest potential and to rejoin their communities with success.