A Child Is Waiting is a 1963 American drama film directed by John Cassavetes, produced by Stanley Kramer, and written by Abby Mann based on his 1957 Studio One teleplay of the same name. It stars Burt Lancaster and Judy Garland as, respectively, the director of a state institution for intellectually disabled and emotionally disturbed children, and a new teacher who challenges his methods.

Plot

In New Jersey, Jean Hansen, a thirty-something woman who has been struggling to find direction and purpose in her life, applies for a job at Crawthorne State Training School, an institution for intellectually disabled and emotionally disturbed children. Her friend Mattie, who is already a teacher at Crawthorne, gives her a good recommendation, so the director of the school, Dr. Matthew Clark, hires Jean to teach music, as she once studied to be a concert pianist at Juilliard. Jean thinks both that Dr. Clark's training methods are more strict than they need to be and that, for Reuben Widdicombe, a twelve-year-old student, they are ineffective.