Braintree committee accepts application from private preschool serving children with intellectual disabilities

The Braintree School Committee voted unanimously to accept an application from the Youth Development Early Learning Center to operate a private preschool in Braintree that would serve children ages 3½ to 8 with intellectual disabilities, the committee said during its May 5 meeting at Colbert School.

The vote authorizes the district-level approval that the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (DESE) requested as part of the center’s licensure process, attendees said. The center plans to seek DESE licensure after the school committee records its approval.

Patrice Lamour, the program’s founder, told the committee the center will be a nonprofit preschool that “work[s] specifically with children with intellectual disabilities” and will seek DESE approval to start with up to 30 students. “Most of our referrals have come through developmental…