Dr. James S. Vacca

Donations may be made in memory of Dr. James S. Vacca to: Parish Outreach Trocaire House 400 Main Street Huntington, NY 11743 385-3311 ext 216 http://www.stpatrickchurchhunt.org/trocaire.html March of Dimes New York Chapter http://www.marchofdimes.com/newyork/ Autism Speaks http://www.autismspeaks.org/ Educator, Professor, Advocate, Author Dr. James S. Vacca, of Huntington, NY and Ocean City, NJ, died December 7th at Mercy Medical Center in Rockville Centre. He was 67. Born in Schenectady, NY to Salvatore and Marion (Mates) Vacca, Dr. Vacca attended Mont Pleasant High School and graduated from SUNY Brockport; he earned his M.S. from SUNY Albany and his Ph.D. from Syracuse University. He also did additional studies at S.U.N.Y. Buffalo and Michigan State University. Dr. Jim Vacca most recently served as an Associate Professor of Special Education and Literacy at St. John’s University, Special Education/Literacy Consultant to the Westbury Middle School, Metropolitan Corporate Academy High School in Brooklyn, a Foster Youth Advocate for the Department of Social Services, and a consultant to the Liberty Partnership School in Washington DC, and the AWIXA Educational Program planning committee. Jim began his career in education as a teacher at the University of Buffalo where he taught Persuasive Communication. Jim also served as the University Debate Team Coach. He went on to teach sixth grade, elementary and secondary Reading, and Special Education in the Schenectady, City School District. While in the Schenectady City School District, Jim was the district’s Reading Diagnostician and he also wrote and directed the “Intensive Reading Instructional Team (IRIT). This federal replication grant was a model program for remedial reading for the elementary grades. Jim also implemented the “Engineered Classroom,” a model classroom behavioral program based on the behavioral theories of both B.F. Skinner and Frank Hewitt. Jim’s first administrative position was as Supervisor of Special Education at Albany, Schenectady, Schoharie BOCES. In 1976, Jim developed and implemented one of the first classroom programs for children with autism in Albany, New York. This model secondary program took six students from a developmental center and provided them with their first educational learning experience in a general education school environment. While in Albany, Jim began his graduate teaching career in Special Education and Literacy at Russell Sage College and SUNY Albany. For ten years Jim also taught reading for Skidmore College to college bound inmates at Great Meadow Correctional Facility in Comstock, New York. In addition, he taught the Upward Bound Summer Reading Program for college students entering Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI), Skidmore, Union, Russell Sage, and Siena colleges. Jim served as President of the New York State Reading Association and Editor of the Legislative Newsletter “NYSEA Speaks” for the New York State Council of Educational Associations. Jim moved to Long Island to assume the role of Principal of the Alternate Learning Center at Western Suffolk BOCES. While at Western Suffolk BOCES he developed and implemented the Positive Alternative for Student Success (PASS) Program at SUNY Farmingdale. This program saw high school students with emotional difficulties achieve their diplomas in non-traditional classes on a college campus. Following his tenure at BOCES Jim moved to the Commack School District as Director of Student Services. For more than a decade he was responsible for the school district reorganization plan, a variety of state and federal grant programs and all Pupil Personnel Services. Working with March of Dimes staff, he jointly created the position of Volunteer Coordinator for the district. This program brought in community members to serve as volunteers for a wide variety of school district programs. In addition to the Commack School District, Jim has also worked for the Uniondale, Sewanhaka, and Malverne School Districts. He served as a Director of Special Education, Guidance Director, Special Grant Programs/Reading Director, and Director of Pupil Personnel Services. Jim was also the Educational Director of the Lake Grove School, a Residential Treatment Center on Long Island. Dr. Vacca served as Chair of the Department of Special Education and Literacy in the School of Education at Long Island University and Director of the CASE Program, a Masters Degree program for graduate students specializing in teaching children with Autism Spectrum disorders until the summer of 2013. He also taught as an Adjunct Professor of Literacy at Adelphi University from 1985 to 1997. For the past ten years Jim has served as Educational Consultant and Foster Child Advocate for the Department of Social Services in Suffolk County. In 2010, Jim was a recipient of the Suffolk County Child Abuse and Neglect Violence Volunteer and Professional Award from the Suffolk County Advisory Board on Child Protection and the Suffolk County Executive’s Task Force to Prevent Family Violence. He was a member of the Editorial Advisory Board of the Eagle Reading Series for the Harcourt Brace Jovanovich (HBJ) publishing company. Jim has published sixteen articles dealing with: the education of foster children; children with autism; Scaffolding Learning techniques; and incarcerated children/adults in several education and social work academic journals, including the Journal of Adolescent and Adult Literacy, Journal of Correctional Education, and the Children and Youth Services Review. He has also recently presented at several national, state, and local workshops at conferences related to Special Education, Autism, Criminal Rehabilitation, Foster Children, Scaffolding and Literacy Education. Described by family members as “a true people person”, he loved spending time with his extended families and many close friends. He collected baseball memorabilia and had an encyclopedic memory for music trivia. Dr. Vacca is survived by his wife of 44 years, Mary (Sweeney); his daughters Claire Lamy (Ryan) of Annapolis, Elena Gerkens (Gregory) of Holbrook, and Dr. Maria Vacca (Brennan Matuza) of San Francisco; as well as three grandchildren, Madeline and Colin Lamy and Robert Gerkens; and two brothers, Richard Vacca and Raymond Vacca, and nieces and nephews. He is preceded in death by his parents, his brother Joseph, and his beloved cat Doobie.

Dr. James S. Vacca

September 20, 1946 - December 7, 2013