A major rehabilitation center for children and young adults with disabilities on Nemirovich-Danchenko Street in Novosibirsk will suspend operations from late October. Officials say the closure is due to repairs and modernization of the building, which are expected to last until the second half of 2026.
Deputy regional labor and social development minister Vladimir Mashanov said the Comprehensive Center for the Social Adaptation of People with Disabilities would be refitted to work with children with different types of impairments, not only intellectual disabilities. More than 20 million rubles will be spent on the reconstruction, he said. The changes are also linked to new federal requirements for grouping people with disabilities by diagnosis and developing individual programs for each group.
More than 150 people currently attend the center, including children, teenagers, and adults over 18. It operated as a day-care rehabilitation facility and offered long-term programs lasting about six months, with speech therapists, special education teachers, psychologists, adaptive physical education specialists, and other staff.
“More than 150 families do not know how to live now,” Svetlana, the mother of one attendee, told Novaya-Europe. She said the temporary options proposed by the authorities cannot replace the former program in either duration or accessibility.
During the renovation, officials say children will be reassigned to the Olesya, Nadezhda, and Zarya regional centers. But only 20 additional places are planned at Olesya. Parents say that is far from enough: some facilities already have year-long waiting lists, others accept only younger children, and some offer courses lasting just 21 days. Families also say there are virtually no alternatives for adults over 18.
Parents also fear the center may not reopen in its previous format. They say they have not been given exact completion dates, existing rehabilitation contracts have been extended only until December 2025, and enrollment in new programs has been suspended. A petition calling for the center to be preserved has already gathered more than 1,400 signatures.