Sandy Malouff News Today

Experts are hopeful a new state law will lead more facility schools to open. Meanwhile, school districts are creating their own programs, and creative and skilled educators are finding ways to meet students’ needs in traditional classrooms.

Part 2 in a 4-part series by COLab, Chalkbeat, Colorado Sun and KFF Health News focuses on hard hit rural Colorado. A new state law aims to keep the doors open at schools that accept students with intensive needs. One preteen in rural Colorado shows how the current system leaves some students bouncing between institutions far from home.

At first glance, nothing seems particularly unusual about the four-room school in this western Colorado city. Inside, six students are learning about radioactivity. The walls of their classroom are plastered

Experts are hopeful a new state law will lead more facility schools to open. Meanwhile, school districts are creating their own programs, and creative and skilled educators are finding ways to meet students’ needs in traditional classrooms.

Facility schools often serve as the last resort for students with intense behavioral or mental health needs. As their number dwindles, here’s how Colorado is filling the gap.

A new state law aims to keep the doors open at schools that accept students with intensive needs. One preteen in rural Colorado shows how the current system leaves some students bouncing between institutions far from home.

A single facility school serves all of Colorado’s Western Slope, while rural school districts struggle to hire skilled special education staff.

A new state law aims to keep the doors open at schools that accept students with intensive needs. One preteen in rural Colorado shows how the current system leaves some students bouncing between institutions far from home.