The Chitra Lane School for the Special Child is a day school that was founded in 1967 with just two students, in a small room down Lauries Road in Colombo 3. Today, we are located within much larger premises down Chitra Lane, Colombo 5 and have a student body of 170 children and young adults with special needs from ages five to twenty one years. Children with Down's syndrome, Autism, Cerebral Palsy and a whole host of other medical complications attend the school and are provided with a comprehensive special education programme that includes sensory and cognitive skills development, creative arts, sports, and vocational training. Our students are from diverse ethnic and socio-economic backgrounds with the majority from low-income families residing in and around Colombo. The special education programmes are conducted in Sinhala or Tamil depending on the child's mother tongue.