Message from our Founder and CEO

Tiegerman, formerly SLCD, began in 1985, a small pre-school and elementary school program (36 students, to be exact), then it expanded to a middle school, which then expanded into a High school program, and then a program that helps adults with disabilities, Tiegerman Community Services. In 2019, we added a brand new Pre-Kindergarten through 12th grade or age 21 program, in Woodside and our newest preschool located in Far Rockaway which opened in July 2023.

I believe as our children become young adults, we need to focus not only on their future educational experiences but their jobs and careers. Thanks to this belief, the Calvin Klein Vocational Training program is expanding at the Tiegerman High School and at the retail store in Huntington to include additional internships for our students. The internships will include travel training and provide students with customer service training opportunities. In addition to our Life Skills and Vocational Training Programs at the high school, it is important to plan for adult programs and services to meet their needs after they graduate. We have been approved to provide not only day habilitation and prevocational programs but residential facilities that will become more important as our children strive to become independent adults. We are providing the structural supports that will allow our students to continue from infancy through their adulthood at Tiegerman. Our children’s future is bright because we are all committed to the same goal – their achievement.

Tiegerman Community Services (TCS) provides day habilitation services on Long Island and in Queens. We presently have six minivans transporting adults with developmental disabilities into integrated community sites to volunteer in different work settings. At the Richmond Hill facility, we will be opening a jobs training center, and it is our goal to open a jobs training site on Long Island.

Although the economic times pose great challenges financially for programmatic supports we must never allow ourselves to be deterred from achieving our ultimate goal. Just as we have said “language first” when our children were small, we must strive towards “independence at last” now that they are becoming adults.

Ellenmorris Tiegerman, Ph.D.
Founder and CEO