Gj sentinel graduates12/9/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() LISTEN: In this audio clip, Hope for Son, is, a powerful conversation featuring the parents of 12-year Riley George after they dropped him off at a Colorado Springs facility school far from their Del Norte home in the San Luis Valley. But the sparse population and vast distances of the Western Slope and eastern plains mean serving these vulnerable students will likely remain a challenge. Jared Polis signed a bill into law this spring that provides funds to prop up facility schools and strengthen services for students with severe needs in rural districts. But in rural Colorado, when the local school district can’t meet a student’s needs, the lack of spots in facility schools can mean students end up at home learning online, languishing in mental health facilities, or attending a residential school far from home.ĭemocratic Gov. “We really want to get those kids in and seen and getting their education towards their graduation as well as some really great therapeutic services.”ĭisability rights and mental health advocates say facility schools are overused and can become dumping grounds for students with disabilities. “It breaks our heart to have a waitlist,” said Hollie VanRoosendaal, director of community programs at Hilltop Community Resources, the organization that runs the Hilltop Day Treatment school. 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. The other 29 facility schools are in the more heavily populated Front Range corridor. And this school, with 12 students, is the last of its kind on the Western Slope, the vast territory west of the Continental Divide home to 10% of the state’s population. Hilltop is a facility school, Colorado’s term for specialized institutions that serve students with severe behavioral, mental health, or special education needs when their public schools can’t. ![]()
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