Designed to address the broad needs of children, adolescents, and adults with learning challenges, attention disorders, and emotional difficulties, Morrissey-Compton Educational Center was founded in 1982 in Palo Alto, California by Patricia Morrissey, Ed.D. and Carolyn Compton, Ph.D. Government funding cutbacks were impacting school-based programs at that time, and Pat and Carolyn’s vision was to develop an organization that could provide tutoring, summer school, and diagnostic services for students with learning disabilities.
It is the mission of the Morrissey-Compton Educational Center to enable children and adults with learning disabilities and school-related difficulties to achieve their goals by providing the highest quality diagnostic and intervention services in a supportive environment.
Since 1999, MCEC has provided educational consultation through contracts with Santa Clara County Departments of Juvenile Probation and Child and Family Services to ensure that dependents and wards of the Juvenile Court are enrolled in and attending school and receiving an appropriate education plan. Through this program, called Youth Education Advocates, MCEC is able to help over 400 foster or adjudicated youth each year. MCEC also provides educational and other consultation services to Synapse School, an independent elementary and middle school in Menlo Park, and two of its clinicians serve on an interdisciplinary team providing developmental and behavioral health care for children in the Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics Clinic at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital.
