- Dale Borman Fink is an independent scholar and consultant specializing in the inclusion of children with disabilities in Head Start, child care, school age care, recreation, and youth programs.
- His commitment to children with disabilities originated with the birth of his sister Laurel, who has Down Syndrome and with whom he has shared the podium on several occasions.
- He graduated in 1972 with a Bachelor’s degree from Harvard University.
- He spent 12 years on the front lines of child care, working at center-based preschool and school-age programs in the Boston area.
- From 1984 to 1991, he was a researcher, trainer, and writer with the School-Age Child Care Project of the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women. That project is now known as the National Institute on Out-of-School Time.
- A national study he conducted in 1986 to 1988 resulted in the only book published to date on inclusion in before- and after-school child care programs, School-Age Children With Special Needs: What Do They Do When School Is Out?
- The World Institute on Disabilities in 1991 awarded him their first grant in the area of child care, enabling him to visit and write about models of inclusive preschool and school-age child care developed in Canada. You can find an article which resulted from this on the publication list.
- In 1992, he entered a Ph.D. program in special education at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He completed his degree in 1997.
- In 1992, he carried out a statewide study of policy and practice toward children with disabilities for the Illinois Child Care Resource & Referral System and the Illinois Developmental Disabilities Planning Council. The report, Toward New Strategies for Inclusion, was the result.
- From 1993-96, he was project coordinator for FACTS/LRE, a federal outreach grant from the Office of Special Education Programs. The focus of the technical assistance activities were on transitions of young children with special needs from early intervention to preschool. The Project Director was Dr. Susan Fowler.
- From 1994-1996, he was one of the principal consultants for “Leadership Training to Promote Child Care for All Children,” a project supported by the Illinois Developmental Disabilities Planning Council.
- He served on the national board of directors of the Camp Fire Boys and Girls from 1993 through 1996.
- He was co-director for Year 1 of the Map to Inclusive Child Care Project, a technical assistance initiative of the Child Care Bureau (United States Department of Health and Human Services) from 1997 to 1998.
- Making a Place for Kids with Disabilities, published in the spring of 2000, examined the participation of school-agers with special needs in community-based recreation, sports, and youth programs. If you go to the publication list, you will find a link to the publisher’s web site where you can read more about this book and order it if you want.
Click here to see a publication list with links to places where you can order some of Dale’s publications.