AS EARLY AS A YEAR AGO, Community Living Dufferin (CLD) knew — or ought to have known — that it could not continue to operate Orangeville's Rolling Hills Children's Place at annual losses that had apparently reached about $70,000.

Had the parents of the children at Rolling Hills been made aware, it's possible they would have been able to devise a plan to cover all or most of the shortfall.

After all, even on the relatively short notice of closure that they were given, they did commit to covering about half that amount.

We would acknowledge that an agency dedicated to serving special needs people of all ages probably ought not to have been subsidizing daycare spaces for mentally unchallenged children of any age.

However, Children's Place was unusual in that it served both the mentally challenged and those without special needs. It was, indeed, a unique centre of integration, where young children could learn to live and work together, irrespective of mental capability.

As such, Children's Place was something that we think ought to have had enough financial support from some level of government for it to operate without CLD having to divert funds required to fulfill its mandate.

As we see it, and according to all the research we could find on the topic, that kind of integration is an important component of primary education. Children's Place could have served as a model of integration for persons with a wide range of mental or physical abilities.

Originally known as the Dufferin Association for the Mentally Retarded, CLD, as its current name implies, is devoted to the task of integrating special needs persons of all ages into the community, as opposed to taking an institutional approach. In what it does, it has served this community well for more than four decades.

Given the realities of the current difficulty to obtain government funding, we cannot fault the organization for its decision to discontinue subsidizing a centre geared largely to children without unusual needs. However, the short notice given parents and the community was unacceptable.

Now that the children have apparently all been enrolled elsewhere, it is no doubt too late to reverse the decision to close the facility.

However, the very success of Children's Place ought to confirm the need for such a facility in Dufferin.

It must strike some as ironic that for nearly half a century the county has offered such a place for some of its residents — but only if they can qualify as senior citizens.