“Some went from not reading to first-grade reading levels within nine months of being here,” said Amanda Attreau, executive director of Real Life Colorado, the nonprofit that runs The Learning Zone. Part 4: How Colorado is filling gaps as last-resort schools dwindle. Part 3: Colorado is now pouring more money into facility schools, but are they helping? Part 2: Students in rural Colorado are left without options as specialized schools close. Part 1: The schools that take Colorado’s ‘most vulnerable’ students are disappearing. The state is now scrambling to shore up what are known as facility schools, which enroll thousands of students a year with intense mental and behavioral health needs. “Last Resort” is a Colorado News Collaborative-led four-part investigation by Chalkbeat Colorado, The Colorado Sun and KFF Health News into the collapsing system of schools that serve some of Colorado’s most vulnerable students. It’s been a game changer for students who are often left behind in public schools. The Learning Zone teaches students who have rare genetic disorders and other disabilities to use devices that allow them to communicate by pushing buttons that convey words or phrases. The new law eliminates that first hurdle. Until now, specialized private programs had to become licensed day treatment facilities through the state Department of Human Services before the Colorado Department of Education could approve them as facility schools. It’s also a case study in how an irrelevant layer of bureaucracy can slow down that process - something the new law aims to fix. It’s in the process of becoming a facility school. The Learning Zone is a small specialized school in Littleton for nonverbal students. New rules make it easier to form facility schools However, there are also models, here and elsewhere, that point toward a better way to serve what can be a forgotten population. In a state that has long underfunded both education and behavioral health, there are gaps everywhere and no shortage of work to be done. The leader of one regional consortium said the state should be funneling money to them instead. But the new legislation does little to support these “missing middle” programs. Meanwhile, public school districts have been starting programs of their own. But some of the likeliest candidates to become facility schools - small private programs that already serve students with disabilities - have said they’re not interested. Lawmakers hope to see 12 new schools open in the next three years. “But the legislation is trying to take that into account.” “It’s a huge, complex system, and it’d be naive to think one piece of legislation is going to fix everything,” said Paul Foster, the executive director of exceptional student services for the Colorado Department of Education.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |