Francis Tabone, PhD , is head of The Cooke Center for Learning and Development. Cooke Center Schools serve children and young adults from kindergarten to the age of twenty-one with special needs. He has worked to develop programs and models of special education in the multiple schools that Cooke Center runs. Tabone has been both a teacher and administrator for the Department of Education in New York, NY, helping to develop innovative programming for special needs students. His work as a teacher, psychologist, and administrator has spanned nearly thirty years. Currently, Tabone serves as an adjunct professor of special education in several New York colleges and universities. He lives in New York City with his wife and daughter.