UNC CDL: The Center: Mission & History

Much of the work focusing on people with developmental disabilities is aimed at societal change-removing barriers, promoting inclusion, and defining least restrictive environments. The Clinical Center for the Study of Development and Learning at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill adds to this current model an innovative, research-based perspective: a focus on how people with developmental disabilities learn, and how they can learn better.

From that conceptual base, the CDL provides clinical services, training and technical assistance, research, and educational programs for professionals.

The Clinical Center for the Study of Development and Learning (CDL) at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has provided 40 years of innovative, high-quality clinical, research, training, and technical assistance activities supporting children and adults with developmental disabilities in North Carolina. As the State's University Center for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities, Education, Research, and Service (UCEDD), the CDL continues to push the scope of services currently offered in the field of developmental disabilities to include a unique focus on how people with developmental disabilities learn and how they can be helped to learn better.

The national network of UCEDDs, formerly called University Affiliated Programs (UAPs), was originally the brainchild of President John F. Kennedy, whose sister, Rosemary, was developmentally disabled. In 1962, President Kennedy appointed several prominent researchers and clinicians to the President's Panel on Mental Retardation. This committee was charged with developing a nationwide network of university-based facilities to train professionals in the field of developmental disabilities and to improve the quality of care provided to individuals with mental retardation.

That same year, the Panel reported the need for interdisciplinary training of professionals and paraprofessionals working with individuals with mental retardation, a set standard of care and establishment of best practice in providing services and supports for individuals with mental retardation and their families, advancement of the scientific understanding of this condition, and coordination of efforts between universities and state and local agencies to survey and respond to personnel needs in the field. This report spurred the 88th US Congress to pass Public Law 88-164 (a.k.a. the Mental Retardation Facilities and Construction Act), which initiated a series of Federal grants for construction of public or nonprofit clinical, University-Associated Facilities (UAFs) that would both provide services and aid in training established and future professionals to work with individuals with mental retardation.

In the early 1970s, 19 UAFs opened their doors nationally. North Carolina's UAF, a former Developmental Evaluation Clinic established in 1962, was renamed the Division of Disorders of Development and Learning (DDDL) in 1972 and placed under the leadership of Harrie Chamberlin, M.D., a pediatrician, member of the President's Panel on Mental Retardation, and signatory of the pivotal 1963 legislation that led to the creation of the UAF network.

Dr. Chamberlin retired from the directorship of the DDDL in 1984 and was succeeded by pediatrician Melvin D. Levine, M.D. Dr. Levine, recruited from the Harvard School of Medicine and the Division of Ambulatory Pediatrics at the Children's Hospital in Boston, restructured and ultimately renamed the North Carolina UAP The Clinical Center for the Study of Development and Learning (CDL). Currently, the CDL employs faculty and staff representing the disciplines of audiology, speech-language pathology, education, nursing, nutrition, occupational therapy, pediatrics, physical therapy, psychiatry, psychology, and social work.

PL 106-402, a.k.a. the Developmental Disabilities Assistance and Bill of Rights Act or DD Act, instigated the substitution of the title "University Centers for Excellence in Developmental Disabilities (UCEDDs)" for "University Affiliated Programs", and served to establish and fund the UCEDDs, Developmental Disabilities Councils (DDCs), Protection and Advocacy Systems, and Projects of National Significance. Reauthorized in 2000 by President Bill Clinton, the DD Act reaffirmed the importance of bringing about positive system change, capacity-building among local and state service and support delivery, promotion of self-determination for individuals with developmental disabilities, and emphasis on outcome measures and accountability requirements based on UCEDD performance.

The DD Act's reauthorization marked an increase in funding for the network for the first time in almost 15 years, which also included expansion and development of new programs for the UCEDDs, along with an increased demand for:

The UCEDD network receives its core funding from the US Administration on Developmental Disabilities (ADD). Currently there are at least one UCEDD in every state and US territory for a total of 61 UCEDDs across the US.

In summary, three main paradigm shifts have shaped the UAP/UCEDD network's mission and activities since the Kennedy Administration:

As the Clinical Center for the Study of Development and Learning begins its fifth decade as North Carolina's UCEDD, we welcome opportunities to partner with other agencies across the State to continue to provide people with developmental disabilities, their families, and the professionals that assist them with innovative interdisciplinary training and exemplary services, technical assistance, and dissemination activities.