What is Kesher?
Kesher L.D. is South Florida's Jewish Special Education Cooperative, developed to provide a program for children with special needs that is designed to address their unique learning, developmental and emotional concerns in a Jewish context. Kesher's goal is to ensure that every child in South Florida has access to a quality secular and Judaic education, tailored to each individual.

What Programs Will Kesher Provide?
Kesher plans to provide educational programs for children with identified learning difficulties, and children with developmental disabilities. The program for children with learning difficulties includes self-contained classrooms at the elementary level at one school site, as well as fully-staffed resource programs at participating schools. Future self-contained classrooms will open in other participating schools in the future for middle and high school students, as well as for students with development delays.

Who Kesher Serves
Kesher serves children who have experienced learning difficulties in a typical yeshiva, day school, or other school setting. These difficulties may be the result of specific learning disabilities, or other factors, such as poor motivation, attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity, etc. Each child must be screened by Kesher's admissions committee and parents must provide a current comprehensive psychoeducational evaluation, which Kesher can help facilitate.

While our initial focus will be to serve children with learning disabilities, Kesher's overall plans include eventually meeting the needs of other challenged students.

The concept of a Jewish Special Education program began when local day school leadership recognized that many children with special needs could not be served by present programs. A group of principals and concerned parents joined together to form Kesher L.D. in response to this need. Kesher is an independent organization, a cooperative venture among these schools, who will house Kesher's programs. Second and third grade self-contained classroom programs are slated to open first, housed at RASG Hebrew Academy and Maimonides Community Day School. Toras Emes Academy will be one of the pilot resource room sites, with further resource programs being developed in other schools.

Eligibility & Tuition
Based on the judgment of Kesher's selection committee, any child who meets Dade County's criteria for learning disabilities or who has documented learning problems is eligible for consideration. The cost of participating in Kesher depends on the specific programs in which a child is enrolled. Information is available upon request.

Volunteer and Professional Leadership
Kesher is governed by a Board of Directors composed of educators, parents and community leaders. The educational program is overseen by the Board of Education, made up of principals or participating Jewish day schools. Kesher is supervised by Alida Bunder, who holds a masters in special education from University of Miami. She is a graduate of the Schwartz Program at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, specializing in supervision. She is also Director of Early Childhood at the Hebrew Academy. Kesher's teachers are special education experts gifted at meeting the needs of Kesher's children in both secular and Judaic studies.

About Kesher
Kesher -- which means "connection" in Hebrew -- is a broad based organization of Jewish day school principals, educators, mental health professionals, parents, and concerned lay persons, who work to bring the Jewish community together to meet the needs of children with intellectual or emotional disadvantages. We at Kesher believe every Jewish child has a divine right to a Jewish education, regardless of individual learning, emotional or developmental difficulties. We are establishing a program in which all Jewish children can be welcome. Kesher's philosophy is that, together, we can make a difference.

Initial Kesher Sites: Maimonides Community Day School, RASG Hebrew Academy, Toras Emes Academy

Initial Kesher Affiliates: Hillel Community Day School, Louis Merwitzer Mesivta School, Maimonides Community Day School, RASG Hebrew Academy, Toras Emes Academy.

For more information, please contact Kesher L.D. 3109 Hallandale Beach Blvd. Suite 102,
Pembroke Park, FL 33009
Telephone: 954-964-5888 Fax: 954-964-1031