Serving the Brooklyn Community for Two Decades

Beginning with Children Foundation (BwCF) was founded in 1990 by Joe and Carol Reich to establish a high quality school for low-income children in Williamsburg, Brooklyn and to advocate for educational reform in public education. BwCF started the Beginning with Children School in 1992 as an alternative public school within the New York City Department of Education (DOE) . The school was housed in Pfizer's original Brooklyn corporate headquarters and was the first of its kind to use a lottery system to admit students.

BwCF embraced the charter school movement as a way to inject greater transparency and accountability in public education. After the Charter Law passed in 1998, BwCF worked with local parents in Fort Greene, Brooklyn to launch Community Partnership Charter School (CPCS) in 2000. In September 2001, Beginning with Children School converted to Beginning with Children Charter School (BwCCS), becoming the first K-8 conversion public charter school in New York State. As the school expanded to serve middle school grades, it became the first charter to co-locate part of its program in a NYC DOE building.

Our founding principal at BwCCS, Sonia Ortiz Gulardo, established the BwCF Alumni Program in 2003 to provide ongoing academic, social and personal support to our graduates during their high school years. The program exposes students to educational and professional opportunities and helps prepare them for college and their careers. The College Transition Institute was recently launched to support graduates as they transition to college.