Chalkbeat

Colorado may tighten the rules for specialized facility schools serving students with intense needs

2026-06-15T22:37:16+00:00

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The state board that oversees publicly funded Colorado schools for students with intense needs is considering tightening the rules for how such schools are approved and regulated.

The proposed changes come as one such school faces state sanctions and a potential loss of funding after complaints about how it physically restrains students, among other concerns.

A Chalkbeat investigation found that the school, the Austin Centers for Exceptional Students in Westminster, had been sued at least five times in Arizona over staff allegedly breaking students’ arms and wrists before opening its first school in Colorado in 2024.

In Colorado, schools for students with severe behavioral, mental health, or special education needs are called facility schools. They serve as placements of last resort for children whom the public schools can’t or won’t serve. Facility schools are funded in two ways: directly by the state and by school districts that pay tuition to send students there.

As the number of facility schools dwindled over the years and more students were stuck on waiting lists, state lawmakers in 2023 boosted funding and created a new, less clinical category called a “specialized day school” in the hopes that more schools would open. It worked. In the past three years, 11 new facility schools have been approved by the Colorado Facility Schools Board of Education, and more are seeking to open.

But issues with the Austin Centers for Exceptional Students, one of the first specialized day schools the board approved, raise questions about whether the process lacked adequate safeguards.

The current requirements are “pretty minimal,” Colorado Senior Assistant Attorney General Jason Langberg said at a Thursday meeting of the Facility Schools Board.

For instance, the rules “do not include provisions for out-of-state investigations,” a spokesperson for the Colorado Department of Education told Chalkbeat, meaning that Colorado might remain in the dark about lawsuits involving an out-of-state school that is seeking to open here.

There is also no expiration date on facility school approval, the spokesperson said. And Langberg said the board has “almost no discretion” about whether to let a school open under the current rules. If a potential school meets basic requirements, the board must approve it, he said.

Among the changes the board is considering are:

Requiring potential facility schools to disclose in their applications any legal settlements, and any pending or finalized lawsuits, civil rights complaints, state complaints, or licensure proceedings within the previous five years.
Allowing the board to use its discretion to approve, conditionally approve, or deny any facility school application based on a variety of factors, including the applicant’s history.
Explicitly requiring facility schools to follow state rules on the restraint and seclusion of students and submit data to the state each year on their use of those practices.
Increasing the frequency and specificity with which facility schools are monitored by the state from “periodically” to at least once every two years.
Creating a process for parents, advocates, attorneys, and school districts to file complaints alleging violations of the state facility school rules.

Changing state rules is not a fast process. If the process goes to plan, the new rules would go into effect in July 2027, an education department spokesperson said.

One board member asked Langberg on Thursday what happens in the meantime if a facility school is violating state rules. The Colorado Department of Education is currently conducting “a broader review” of the Austin Centers for Exceptional Students after additional concerns about its restraint practices, staffing sufficiency, and more surfaced while the school was under a state corrective action plan this past school year.

Langberg said he’d prepare a memo and share it with the board.

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Colorado needed more specialized schools. Now this one is facing scrutiny for restraining students.

2026-06-05T18:10:21+00:00

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Mark Brostrom’s 11-year-old son was struggling in public school when his school district suggested what seemed like a better fit: a new specialized school near the family’s home.

Brostrom remembers thinking that the Austin Centers for Exceptional Students in Westminster could offer the flexibility that his son, who has autism, needed to thrive. A bright boy who scores well on tests, his son also sometimes responded to stress by destroying property or harming himself, his father said.

But Brostrom quickly became disillusioned with The ACES, as the school calls itself.

His son, whom Chalkbeat is not naming to protect his privacy, experienced multiple restraints, including one that the 11-year-old called “the crucifixion,” Brostrom said. The boy described being pinned to the floor on his back with staff members holding his arms and legs, a situation that his father said only made the boy struggle harder.

“It was so obvious that they did not have his safety in mind,” said Brostrom, who pulled his son out of the school after the boy came home with scratches and bruises. “Their intention was to get him to stop behaviors through fear and coercion.”

The ACES is what Colorado calls a facility school, a placement of last resort for students with intense behavioral, mental health, or special education needs whom public schools can’t or won’t serve. As the number of facility schools dwindled, state lawmakers in 2023 created a new, less clinical category called a “specialized day school” — opening the door for providers like The ACES.

Now, less than two years after opening, the school faces state sanctions and a potential loss of funding after complaints about how it physically restrains students, suggesting the state’s changes meant to grow the number of facility schools lacked adequate safeguards.

Colorado education officials put The ACES under a rare corrective action plan, and two of the state’s largest districts say they pulled all or some of their students out of the school this spring. Facility schools are funded directly by the state but districts also pay tuition to send children there.

“They have this way of doing things that is not something we’re going to accept in Colorado,” said Meryl Duguay, an advocate for students with disabilities who sounded the alarm with state education officials after visiting The ACES this spring.

To report this story, Chalkbeat spoke with four parents who either removed their children from The ACES or decided not to send them after going on a tour, as well as a former teacher who said she left because she disagreed with how The ACES treats students and staff.

Chalkbeat also interviewed advocates and attorneys in Colorado and Arizona, where The ACES was founded more than 30 years ago, and reviewed state documents and local police reports obtained via public records requests, as well as documentation provided by parents.

Meryl Duguay is an advocate for students with disabilities. After visiting the Austin Centers for Exceptional Students, she expressed concerns to the Colorado Department of Education.

Officials with The ACES, including President Garen Austin, declined to be interviewed. The school provided written statements in response to Chalkbeat questions.

The school said many students are referred there because “they exhibit severe behavioral challenges” and may require “physical management interventions to prevent injury to themselves or others,” especially when they first arrive. Minor bruising may unintentionally occur when a student is restrained, The ACES said, and students are examined by a nurse afterward. The evaluation is documented and parents are notified of “any identified concerns.”

“While we cannot comment on individual student cases for privacy reasons, this school year we have occasionally found minor bruises and no significant injuries,” The ACES said.

The ACES said it responded “promptly and proactively” to the state corrective action plan by expanding training, strengthening policies and procedures, increasing supervision, and enhancing documentation and internal reviews.

“The ACES is committed to continuous improvement and to providing safe, high-quality educational services for students with significant and specialized needs,” the school said. “Our focus remains on helping students build the behavioral, emotional, and academic skills necessary to successfully return to their referring school district.”

The ACES was sued in Arizona over broken arms

The ACES, which has five locations in Arizona, was one of the first of the new category of facility schools approved by the Colorado Department of Education. An Arizona Department of Education spokesperson said The ACES is in good standing there.

But court records show that The ACES has been sued at least five times in Arizona, dating back to 2002. Four cases involve allegations that staff members broke students’ arms during restraints. Another alleges that staff members broke a student’s wrist.

All five Arizona lawsuits were either dismissed, settled, or forced to go through arbitration, court records show. The ACES has parents sign an agreement that says any dispute arising out of behavioral intervention must be “decided by binding arbitration only, not a judge or jury,” according to the lawsuits and advocates in Arizona.

The ACES required Colorado parents to sign the same agreement, copies provided to Chalkbeat by parents and advocates show.

The U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights is also investigating a complaint out of Arizona alleging that The ACES uses restraint too much and inappropriately, causing injuries, according to a copy of the complaint provided by Hope Kirsch, the attorney who filed it.

In approving The ACES as a facility school in Colorado, the state education department said it followed a “thorough process” in which The ACES submitted budget projections, curriculum information, staff licensure information, its educational policies and procedures, and more.

But Colorado didn’t look into The ACES’ operations in Arizona. “The rules do not include provisions for out-of-state investigations,” a department spokesperson said.

In Colorado, many students are placed at facility schools because the special education options in their local school districts can’t meet their needs. Michelle Abeyta’s 10-year-old grandson, who has autism, started at The ACES soon after it opened in the fall of 2024.

“Looking back, it all sounded really good on the surface,” Abeyta said. But as time went on, she said, “I started to see through the cracks of the facade.”

Her grandson started refusing to get out of bed or eat breakfast for fear of being sent to the school’s behavior intervention room, where he’d been made to stand silently facing the wall, she said.

Then this winter, he came home with fingerprint-sized bruises on his arms, said Abeyta, the boy’s legal guardian. He told his grandmother that he’d gotten into a fight and been restrained by school staff. Abeyta said there was no mention of it in his daily report from the school.

“I feel betrayed, I feel angry, and I feel lied to,” said Abeyta, who pulled her grandson out of the school in mid-April. “I am deeply saddened that … so many kids now have trauma, or further trauma, from a place that was supposed to help them.”

The former teacher at The ACES in Colorado, who asked that her name not be used for fear of retribution, said The ACES was the first school to train her to hold a student against the wall or on the floor, even though she’d worked in special education for years. Public records reviewed by Chalkbeat show other teachers told state officials similar things. The ACES said some of those comments were “simply inaccurate” and that its staff receive approximately 34 hours of crisis and behavior intervention training per year.

The teacher said she refused to restrain her students but did sometimes send them to the behavior intervention room. She said her last straw was early this year, when she saw a paraprofessional grab the wrist of a female student who’d walked out of the room. The next thing the teacher saw was the girl on the ground with four men holding her arms and legs and “someone else in her face telling her she needed to calm down,” she said.

“This is the first job I’ve had to leave midyear,” the teacher said. “I worry about those kids every day.”

A Westminster Police Department report from January, which Chalkbeat obtained in a public records request, describes an incident consistent with the teacher’s account.

While several staff members told the police that the restraint followed the regular protocol, one paraprofessional said his colleague had grabbed the girl from behind “almost like a tackle.” He described that approach as “a bit off.”

He said that while he and the others were holding the girl on the ground, she said “over and over” that the men were hurting her. He said the colleague who’d tackled her was “pushing down with more pressure than what they were trained to do.”

The police investigated the incident as misdemeanor child abuse but concluded there wasn’t probable cause to charge anyone with a crime, the report says.

According to the police report, the girl had been sent to the room for sleeping in class.

The ACES is facing scrutiny in Colorado

The paper trail of sanctions against The ACES in Colorado starts in January. After school districts raised concerns about The ACES unnecessarily restraining students with “unnecessary force,” the state education department ordered the corrective action plan.

The plan limited the use of restraint to when a student displays a weapon or demonstrates “a serious, probable, imminent threat of bodily harm.” It said The ACES can’t use restraint as punishment, can’t put “excess pressure” on a student’s chest or back, and must release a student within 15 minutes unless it’s unsafe.

The plan also required The ACES to submit documentation of any restraints to the department every day. A log obtained in a public records request shows The ACES reported more than 460 instances of “physical management” — which includes but isn’t limited to physical restraint of students — between January 27 and May 8. The ACES said only 25% of those instances were restraints. The school served 85 students during that time period, The ACES said.

The ACES was also required to send weekly documentation of the time students spent in the behavior intervention room. But The ACES told the state in late March that it had closed the room, according to an education department spokesperson.

In a statement, the ACES said it was complying with the corrective action plan but was “still awaiting specific details” about the concerns that led to it and an opportunity to respond to them.

“Our actions have shown measurable positive impact in reducing behavioral interventions and supporting increased academic engagement as we create the best possible learning environment for our students and staff,” the statement said.

In February, a parent complained to the state that The ACES improperly restrained their 12-year-old son. In late April, a Colorado Department of Education complaints officer agreed.

According to the written decision, the boy was using “inappropriate and aggressive language” toward a paraprofessional, who told him to face the wall. The boy said, “Make me.” The paraprofessional grabbed the boy by the wrist and held his arm behind his back, a move that was described in his daily report as a “standing therapeutic hold.”

But the state found that the hold was improper. The 12-year-old verbally challenging the paraprofessional wasn’t an emergency, and the boy didn’t pose any danger, the complaints officer wrote. It also wasn’t clear that the less restrictive method that the paraprofessional tried first — making the boy face the wall — had failed. In its written decision, the department reminded The ACES that restraint can’t be used as a punishment.

Following that incident, the family pulled their son out of The ACES, the decision says. The paraprofessional resigned after being told he would be fired, it says.

As a consequence for violating the rules, the state ordered all staff at The ACES to review the 13-page decision and the state rules by June 5. In a mid-May statement, The ACES said the consequence “was minimal and has been completed.”

In late April, the state education department sent The ACES another letter. It said that in the course of implementing the corrective action plan, the department received additional information about The ACES’ restraint practices, “staffing sufficiency,” and more. The “volume and nature” of the information showed “that a broader review is warranted,” Paul Foster, assistant commissioner for exceptional student services, wrote in the letter.

“Ultimately — in the event of continued non-compliance — we could withdraw state funding,” a department spokesperson said. The department is aiming to complete the review in 90 days.

The ACES said in a statement that it welcomes the opportunity to work with the state “to review past actions and develop strategies for further improvement.”

“Over the past several months, we have implemented numerous enhancements related to training, documentation, oversight, and incident review, and we remain committed to continuous improvement,” the school said.

In May, a spokesperson for the Douglas County School District said it had relocated all of its students out of The ACES “due to their restraint practices.”

A spokesperson for the Jeffco Public Schools, which owns the former elementary school building where The ACES is housed, said in mid-May it was “conducting a student-by-student review of all placements at the facility.” The district said it is not placing any new students at The ACES until the school has fully satisfied the state’s corrective action plan.

Neither Douglas County nor Jeffco school officials responded to questions about the size of their student enrollment at The ACES.

A spokesperson for Denver Public Schools said in mid-May the district plans to keep using The ACES because it has no concerns. Denver said it has 16 students placed there.

Former state Sen. Rachel Zenzinger, who sponsored the 2023 bill aimed at fixing the facility school shortage, said she doesn’t think more legislation is needed. She said it’s up to the state to enforce the rules in place and perhaps “button up” the facility school approval process.

“These are honestly our most vulnerable students,” said Zenzinger, who is now a Jefferson County commissioner. “That means they deserve a higher standard.”

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Some students need online classes. Here’s how this Colorado school district does it.

2026-05-14T17:56:08+00:00

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Gracie, a junior at Roosevelt High School in Johnstown, missed lots of school last year. Gossip and drama were stressing her out.

“It was giving me a lot of anxiety,” she said. “It got to the point where I hadn’t shown up so much that I was scared to show up.”

This year, Gracie is one of 97 high schoolers in the online program in her small northern Colorado district — Weld RE-5J — taking a mix of online and in-person classes. She likes the freedom to work at her own pace some days, tapping out history, English, and Spanish assignments at her kitchen table.

As more Colorado districts look to add online offerings to blunt the impact of declining enrollment, Weld RE-5J’s longstanding online program is an example of what’s possible. Although the 4,200-student district doesn’t actively advertise the program, there’s been a waitlist for more than a year. In December, district leaders hired a second teacher to help oversee their online students. Next year, they plan to pilot an online program for up to five middle schoolers and expand the online high school program to 120 students — about 10% of the district’s high school enrollment.

“It’s really important to us to grow slowly enough that we grow well,” said Alexandra Ham, the district’s online administrator.

Weld RE-5J provides online classes primarily through Colorado Digital Learning Solutions, a state-supported nonprofit that offers a large menu of asynchronous online classes taught by Colorado licensed teachers.

Ham said most students in her district’s online program have at least one state-designated risk factor, often anxiety, depression, or health issues that make a full load of in-person classes challenging. About 15% of the program’s students take all their classes online. The rest, like Gracie, have hybrid schedules, with about half in-person and half online classes.

That set-up is ideal, Ham said, because it often addresses the problems students are facing while giving them in-person social opportunities and access to electives and hands-on career preparation classes at the high school.

Dan Morris, co-executive director of Colorado Digital Learning Solutions, described Weld RE-5J as a showcase for its online program.

“It’s my belief … that if a district will offer more hybrid options, fewer kids are going to want to leave for the full-time online,” he said.

Online schools with statewide reach are growing in Colorado. School districts want their students back.

Often, such full-time online offerings are provided by what Colorado calls multi-district online schools, public schools that enroll students from two or more school districts. Statewide, more than 30,000 students attend such schools. The big names include Astravo, GOAL, and Colorado Connections Academy. Some of them have optional in-person components, others operate fully online.

Over the last year, Morris’ group has worked with dozens of Colorado districts interested in launching their own online programs, in part to help win back students who’ve left for multi-district online schools or to keep them from leaving in the first place.

Weld RE-5J, which has run its online program for more than a decade, is in the enviable position of being among a small number of growing school districts in a state full of shrinking districts.

But Ham and her team still want to keep students local while satisfying the growing demand for online learning. The district has used other online class vendors over the years — Edgenuity and Florida Virtual School, for example. With Florida Virtual, it was trickier to get assistance because of the time zone difference. For some platforms, the rigor wasn’t there: Students were passive, showing knowledge through basic multiple choice assignments. Sometimes they completed semester-long classes in days or weeks.

All of Weld RE-5J’s online students — both hybrid and fully online — have a modest in-school requirement: three hours a week either at Roosevelt High or a freshly refurbished portable classroom in Milliken, on the east side of the district. That’s when the district’s two online teachers check in with students about their progress and grades.

Gracie, left, and Briley are part of the Weld-RE-5J school district's online program. They take half their classes online and half in person.

“It makes sure that we have eyes on the students, especially with how much mental health stuff there is going on,” said Ham. “If they miss a meeting, they’re not ignored.”

Gracie, who hopes to be a realtor, attended a recent in-person session with three classmates in a second-floor room at Roosevelt High School. She looked over a chemistry assignment on her tablet, while her tablemate Briley worked on a digital vision board about her aspirations for a job in healthcare, maybe phlebotomy.

Briley, a junior, joined the online program in January. She’s not a morning person and regularly overslept last semester, causing lots of absences and frequent fights with her mom. When she did attend school, she struggled to sit through 90-minute classes when she knew could get the work done more quickly on her own, she said.

Now Briley takes English, history, and physical education in person, while doing math, chemistry, Spanish, and social and emotional learning online.

“It’s definitely been the best change ever,” she said. “My mental health, first of all, is 10 times better, and my grades have honestly never been this good.”

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org

How do schools effectively help students? Senate President James Coleman’s legislation aims to find out.

2026-04-23T22:13:13+00:00

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Last year, Colorado Senate President James Coleman nearly filed an “education deserts” bill that would have allowed the state to authorize charter schools in communities with low-performing schools and without local school board agreement.

He decided against it after hearing from traditional public school advocates, school boards, and superintendents that the idea was unfair.

“I could have passed that bill,” said Coleman, a Denver Democrat. “But I understood that folks felt that it was one-sided.”

This year, he’s taken a new approach to find a solution for students he said are falling through the cracks at low-performing schools. He said he’s worked with Colorado reform and traditional school advocates to take a step back from prescribing one model.

Instead, Coleman hopes Senate Bill 170 will bridge a divide between reform and traditional school advocates by creating a task force to study effective schools and answer the question “how can we make sure that every single one of our children are thriving?”

“Let’s maximize the transformative power of a good public education,” Coleman said during a Senate Education Committee hearing on Wednesday. “Colorado educators, school districts, students, and families are proving that changing outcomes for all kids, no matter the circumstances they come from, is possible.”

The legislation, backed by a bipartisan group of sponsors, received unanimous lawmaker approval at Wednesday’s hearing.

The bill would create an 18-member task force in the Colorado Department of Education of appointees from various regions and public school models to study how successful schools effectively close educational gaps.

The members would explore six main points, including where educational gaps are the most persistent, identifying schools that have closed gaps, understanding the strategies that work, and recommending policy to support innovation and improvement.

A final report would be due Jan. 1, 2027, and the task force would cost about $135,000 funded by grants and donations. Coleman said he hopes lawmakers would use those recommendations to share effective policies.

Several traditional and reform school advocates spoke favorably about the bill during the committee hearing.

Colorado Education Association’s Liz Waddick, who is the union’s vice president, said her union and the American Federation of Teachers Colorado support honest efforts to examine the barriers that many Colorado students face.

“We firmly believe that there is progress to be made in Colorado,” she said. “And we should give this task force the space to explore every opportunity to do so.”

Fernanda Cerros with Transform Education Now, a reform-aligned advocacy organization, said the bill takes an important step toward helping students in every corner of the state.

“Understanding where gaps exist and what defines an effective school and how to expand access to those opportunities is critical to ensuring we are doing right by all students,” said Cerros, the organization’s operations manager.

Some lawmakers raised questions, including whether funders would seek a specific outcome and if the task force would focus on what hasn’t worked. Lawmakers also asked about the breadth of the focus, including examining practices at schools that educate students with significant mental health, behavioral, or medical needs.

State Sen. Cathy Kipp, a Fort Collins Democrat, said she voted in favor of the bill because she wanted to give the process a chance and knows Coleman’s agenda focuses on helping kids.

Kipp, a traditional school advocate and former school board member, said policymakers too often fight over whether charter, innovation, or traditional schools are better. But they focus less on propping up effective practices in all schools.

“I believe we are all committed to moving forward in a way that is going to hopefully support every child,” she said. “And if there is a bias, we should be able to figure that out.”

Clarification: April 24, 2026: The story has been updated to reflect that several traditional and reform advocates spoke favorably about the bill. One anti-reform group spoke against it.

Jason Gonzales is a reporter covering higher education and the Colorado legislature. Chalkbeat Colorado partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage. Contact Jason at jgonzales@chalkbeat.org.

Colorado legislation would require schools to share their plans for at-risk students

2026-04-02T00:31:47+00:00

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How do Colorado schools plan to help students who face the most challenges succeed?

A bill progressing in the Colorado Capitol would require each school to answer that question by adopting a plan and then posting it online for its community to see.

Sponsors of Senate Bill 103 say their bill wouldn’t necessarily put more demands on schools to help at-risk students, such as those who qualify for free or subsidized meals. Instead, it would make the ways that schools are helping such students more transparent for the public.

The Senate Education Committee advanced the bill with a 4-3 vote on Wednesday after a mid-March hearing. The proposal will now head to the full Senate for consideration.

Denver North High School student Matthew Pulido, who represented the Denver advocacy group Movimiento Poder during the March 18 hearing of the bill, said every student deserves a good education and the bill creates accountability and transparency.

“All we want is for Colorado districts to be intentional about where attention and support go,” Pulido said. “It’s about giving every student a fair chance.”

Under the bill, schools would need to have an Achieving Community Commitment to Equitable School Success, or ACCESS, policy that says how the school directs additional resources to at-risk students. The school would then post the policy on its own or district’s website.

The bill says schools may include community partnerships — such as access to health clinics, legal services, or college opportunities — in their plans. School leaders would also be allowed to include the wraparound support they provide, such as tutoring, mental health, or after-school programs. And the policy would also allow schools to highlight teacher retention efforts and family engagement strategies.

State Sen. Chris Kolker, a Centennial Democrat and a bill sponsor, said Colorado has directed more money to schools for at-risk students through the state’s funding formula. And most schools he’s talked to already have plans for at-risk students, he said.

“The bill gives them flexibility to promote these things,” Kolker said. “And it says ‘tell us,’ because we’re giving you extra money for this.”

Kolker said he expects further bill amendments because school districts and boards have said this bill replicates the improvement plans that districts must submit each year to the state education department.

The bill has the support of groups such as the Colorado Education Association, Attorney General Phil Weiser, and the Denver Foundation. Opponents of the bill include the Charter Advocacy Coalition, who say that these requirements would be redundant because charter schools already submit plans to the Colorado Department of Education.

As disability accommodations complaints filed with feds languish, parents ask Colorado for help

2026-03-12T00:55:58+00:00

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Ashley Sutton’s daughter was recommended for a plan by Children’s Hospital Colorado that would provide her with accommodations for her disabilities at the beginning of the school year.

But Sutton said she’s run into trouble getting Palmer Ridge High School, which is just north of Colorado Springs, to follow her daughter’s 504 plan. She filed grievances with the district, then tried the state — which said it doesn’t enforce federal disabilities accommodation law.

She then filed a complaint to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights. But after that office acknowledged it had received the complaint in December, Sutton hasn’t heard back from the federal government.

“My daughter’s approved accommodation still has not been implemented, and the situation at school has become increasingly difficult for my daughter to navigate,” Sutton said.

It’s a similar story to what other parents and disability rights advocates shared at Wednesday’s Senate Education Committee hearing, where lawmakers heard Senate Bill 125. The legislation would allow Colorado’s Department of Education to begin hearing complaints tied to 504 plans.

The state process created by the bill would expand the Colorado Department of Education’s existing ability to mediate other complaints about alleged violations of students’ Individualized Education Programs, or IEPs. An IEP entitles students to special education services, whereas a 504 plan spells out accommodations that students are entitled to receive in schools.

Lawmakers, who approved the bill unanimously Wednesday, said they hope the bill eventually helps parents like Sutton, given the mass firings and shifting priorities at the federal Education Department during the Trump administration.

The federal Education Department investigates such complaints through its Office for Civil Rights. But many complaints have gone unresolved in the last year due to staff cuts. At the same time, the Trump administration has launched new state investigations, including one in Denver Public Schools related to East High School’s all-gender restrooms.

In light of that lack of progress, Colorado lawmakers are part of a growing number nationwide who want their states to help families find resolutions.

In response to questions from Chalkbeat, Rick Frampton, director of student services for Lewis-Palmer School District 38, where Palmer Ridge High School is located, didn’t comment on Sutton’s daughter’s case. But he said in a Wednesday statement that the district provides families information about Section 504 parent and student rights. He said the district follows a structured process and works with families to implement and develop those plans.

“Lewis-Palmer School District 38 believes in implementing all 504 plans with integrity and a commitment to ensuring that students with disabilities receive equal access to education,” Frampton said.

State Sen. Chris Kolker, a Democrat and bill sponsor, said during the hearing that the bill doesn’t create new requirements for schools.

“As the agency shrinks, its ability to respond to complaints and enforce this law shrinks with it,” said Kolker, the chair of the Senate Education Committee, referring to the federal department. “The new reality is that it becomes a new responsibility of the states.”

The legislation would codify federal disability laws into Colorado state law. These laws, known as Section 504, provide protections to people with disabilities. These include ensuring public schools make accommodations available to students with disabilities to access school buildings or spaces, and that they can participate in nonacademic and extracurricular activities.

The legislation would also create a path for parents, students, or groups to file a complaint to the Colorado Department of Education if schools don’t provide accommodations for students. These grievances would need to be filed within 60 days, with the entire process of resolving a grievance needing to be completed within 180 days. Some exceptions would apply, such as a pause for a voluntary fix of the issue.

Disability advocates said although federal law that protects individuals with disabilities still exists, the federal government has left many families in limbo. The bill ensures Colorado can step in, said Emily Harvey, Disability Law Colorado’s co-legal director.

“It really is a way for families to seek a remedy without having to take extreme measures of going to court,” Harvey said.

Colorado lawmakers also filed House Bill 1141 that would allow the Colorado Civil Rights Division’s to investigate alleged K-12 and higher education violations of Title VI, a section of federal law that prohibits discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin.

That bill passed its first hearing last month in the House Education Committee by a 9-3 vote and will be heard next in the House Appropriations Committee, where lawmakers will discuss the financial impact to the state.

Both bills will require state spending if they become law. Lawmakers need to make budget cuts for a second year in a row, which has complicated the odds for new state initiatives and mandates that would require funding.

The disabilities bill would require the state to spend about $668,000 in the first year and $581,000 in the years after, according to a legislative analysis. The civil rights enforcement bill would cost the state about $815,000 in its first year and $686,000 in subsequent years. But advocates of the bills have also argued the bills would ultimately save money by reducing the number of lawsuits against schools.

Some who testified about the civil rights bill on Wednesday unsuccessfully asked lawmakers to amend it so that the Colorado Civil Rights Division would be allowed to hear complaints.

Lawmakers said the new complaint process would fit into the Colorado Department of Education’s current enforcement of disability laws. They added that the bill also wouldn’t stop parents from filing complaints to the civil rights division or the federal Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights.

Sutton said a state complaint process would help fix a gap in the system for parents like herself. Her daughter’s health has since gotten worse, and Sutton has had to pull her out of school.

“Every month that systems fail to respond is a month of education that cannot be recovered. She is living that reality today,” Sutton said. “That is why a clear state pathway with independent review matters so deeply for families like ours.”

Colorado lawmakers want to help parents who feel ‘ghosted’ by the federal Office for Civil Rights

2026-01-30T03:37:42+00:00

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Two Colorado Democratic lawmakers plan to file two bills they hope will help Colorado make up for the void left behind by the Trump administration’s cuts to the federal Office for Civil Rights.

State Reps. Jacque Phillips and Jennifer Bacon want to provide Colorado parents with more ways to report allegations that their child is being harassed or discriminated against at school. The Trump administration’s cuts last year to the federal office, which enforces civil rights laws in schools, have caused some families’ complaints to stall.

One proposal aims to codify the Colorado Civil Rights Division’s response to and enforcement of K-12 and college Title VI violations, or discrimination on the basis of race, color, or national origin. The other would allow the Colorado Department of Education to hear and rectify complaints about public schools that aren’t following 504 plans requiring them to provide accommodations and accessibility to students with disabilities.

Rep. Phillips from Thornton is drafting the disabilities accommodation bill in hopes the state will step up as an increasing number of complaints to the federal Office for Civil Rights aren’t being resolved.

“What I’m hearing from parents is they’re taking too long,” said Phillips. “They can file an OCR complaint, but then they never hear anything back.”

Rep. Bacon of Denver plans to file a bill focused on civil rights violations in schools such as discriminatory discipline practices or unequal access to programs. State Sen. Chris Kolker, a Centennial Democrat, is expected to sponsor both bills.

The Office for Civil Rights’ workforce has been significantly reduced under the Trump administration. At the same time, instead of investigating complaints about unequal treatment of LGBTQ students or those of color, the administration has directed the Office for Civil Rights to focus on policies related to transgender students and diversity, equity, and inclusion.

This has led to slower federal response to some cases but also a slate of new investigations and violations, including one in Denver Public Schools related to East High School’s all-gender restrooms.

The Colorado Civil Rights Division already takes public school civil rights complaints. Enforcement of federal law at the state level also happens in other states. But Colorado civil rights advocacy organizations have said the state’s process is difficult to navigate and slow.

Bacon’s bill would define discriminatory education practices, spell out the way parents can levy a charge against a public school, and provide the timeline and process to investigate, resolve, and monitor the complaint. Parents would have 180 days to make a charge instead of the current 60 days.

Under the bill, the Colorado Civil Rights Division would also report to lawmakers how many cases it gets annually and the outcome. The division would be allowed to consult with the Colorado Department of Education on how to fix issues.

Higher education institutions would be required to designate a Title VI coordinator to ensure institutional compliance.

Bacon said the bill would help parents better understand the process and actions the division would take and make clear the state’s enforcement role.

“Because this president doesn’t care about it, we’re not going to say to our constituents, ‘Nobody’s going to help you,’” Bacon said.

Phillips’ bill would create a process for how the Colorado Department of Education would receive and investigate 504 complaints. The department currently doesn’t investigate these violations. Instead, the federal Office for Civil Rights is charged with enforcement.

The plans are an agreement between a parent and the school that describes a student’s disability and identifies accommodations or modifications they need, such as more time to take a test or the use of an elevator.

The Colorado department does investigate allegations regarding Individualized Education Programs under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. These plans require specialized instruction for students with disabilities.

If Phillips’ 504 bill becomes law, the department would need to receive a complaint within 180 days of a violation, investigate, find or enforce a solution, and monitor the outcome.

Most 504 complaints filed to the federal Office for Civil Rights were fixed quickly by schools and then monitored by the federal government, said Phillips, who is a special education lawyer. The process has slowed since federal cuts, and that leaves schools liable, she said.

“I think this will also protect the schools from a personal injury case,” Phillips said.

A spokesperson for the Anti-Defamation League Mountain States said it plans to support Bacon’s bill because it will protect students from discrimination and harassment.

AdvocacyDenver Executive Director Pam Bisceglia said she backs the Phillips bill because families right now feel like the Office for Civil Rights has “ghosted them, and that there are so many significant changes that they’re not responsive or investigating those allegations of discrimination based on disability.”

Disability Law Colorado Co-Legal Director Emily Harvey said her organization backs the 504 bill because it would create a way for families to find a resolution that isn’t entirely adversarial.

“I really hope that it gives students a pathway to get what they need,” she said.

The bills will face challenges due to a state spending deficit of about $850 million because the legislation could call for additional funding to the state agencies.

The two proposed bills represent a year of work by the lawmakers. Last April, Kolker called a hearing to discuss the changes at the Office for Civil Rights by the Trump administration. Advocates and former OCR employees testified cuts have left families without an important avenue for recourse and reconciliation if their child experienced discrimination.

These Colorado schools may have to stop serving universal free meals if 2 ballot measures fail

2025-10-23T23:34:08+00:00

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About 380 Colorado schools might lose their ability to serve all students free meals if two ballot measures fail in the Nov. 4 election, state education data shows.

State lawmakers put Propositions MM and LL on the ballot to shore up Colorado’s Healthy School Meals for All program, which offers free breakfast and lunch to every student whose district opts in. But the program, which was created by a 2022 ballot measure, has proven more popular — and thus, more expensive — than expected.

This past spring, lawmakers decided to fully fund the program through the end of 2025 but then scale it back if voters don’t approve Propositions MM and LL.

Meals would still be free at schools that participate in the federal Community Eligibility Provision program. To qualify for this provision, at least 25% of students must be “directly certified” to receive free meals because their families already receive public nutrition benefits, or because the students themselves are homeless or in foster care, among other criteria.

Of the 1,803 schools participating in Health School Meals for All, 1,421 are part of the Community Eligibility Provision program, according to Colorado Department of Education data. That means that if Propositions MM and LL fail, meals will still be free at almost 80% of participating Colorado schools, including traditional district-run schools, charter schools, and schools inside youth detention centers.

But families at the remaining 382 schools could end up having to pay for meals themselves, or fill out federal applications to determine if their children qualify for free or reduced-price meals based on family income.

Some of those 382 schools may still be able to get Healthy School Meals for All funding if they’re eligible for, but don’t currently participate in, the Community Eligibility Provision. Other schools might opt to foot the bill for free meals if the measures fail.

Since it started in the 2023-24 school year, the Healthy School Meals for All program’s popularity has meant higher costs than predicted.

The state needs about $150 million this year to fully fund the program, but the revenue from Proposition FF, which created the program, has fallen short.

Proposition MM asks voters for $95 million more a year for the school meals program by increasing taxes on households that make more than $300,000 a year. Money from this measure could also be used to help pay for costs related to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, which was cut by Congress.

And Proposition LL asks voters whether the state can keep millions in revenue raised for its popular free school meals program instead of providing taxpayer refunds.

Below is a list of schools that do and don’t participate in the Community Eligibility Provision. Only schools not participating in the provision may lose the ability to serve free meals funded by the state if Propositions MM and LL fail.

Federal SNAP-Ed program cuts mean less nutrition education for Colorado students and families

2025-10-17T22:50:57+00:00

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Southern Colorado’s Center school district used to offer young children fruits and vegetables to try that they might not have previously eaten at home, like kiwi and jicama.

The federally-backed program that helped provide these foods also assisted educators in teaching preschool and elementary students’ families why fruits and vegetables are good for their health. With kiwi, for example, the district would send home recipes for a salad that could be made by parents, said Janet Sanchez, Center Consolidated School District 26JT’s director of preschool.

The program in Center and others like it across the state received support through the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education, or SNAP-Ed, which ended on Sept. 30 as part of federal budget cuts passed by Congress and signed by President Donald Trump.

The federal government provided Colorado more than $6 million annually to use on educational programs like the one offered in the 600-student school district located in the San Luis Valley.

These programs were meant to reinforce healthy behaviors and show families that even on a shoestring budget, healthy eating could be in reach. Improving eating habits, in turn, can help improve health outcomes, experts say.

“We serve poverty-level families. This gave children an opportunity to try new foods and try new physical activities,” said Sanchez, who works in a district where 90% of the students qualify for free or reduced price meals.

Administrators and advocates say that without the funding, schools and communities have lost a program that taught children and families healthy habits, including lessons on nutrition and cooking from scratch.

Sanchez said the Center school district can’t replicate these types of programs on its own, especially because teachers aren’t experts on nutrition.

“With our budget constraints,” Sanchez said, “we just can’t continue the teachings.”

Nationwide, the federal government spent about $536 million annually for the SNAP-Ed program. Congress also cut the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program by $186 billion through 2034 and has put more of the cost burden on states. The cuts come during a time when food insecurity is on the rise.

While the SNAP program ensures families get fed, the education component was created to teach healthier habits. States used SNAP-Ed in different ways to educate families and students.

The Colorado Department of Human Services distributed the $6 million in federal funding for SNAP-Ed programs to the Colorado School of Public Health and Nourish Colorado.

The Colorado School of Public Health, a collective of three universities that partner on health research and education, primarily operated its programs in preschools and elementary schools, including ones in the Center district.

Associate professor Jini Puma said the programs promoted wellness in schools and created lifelong skills and habits to prevent serious diseases like obesity, Type 2 diabetes, and cancer.

The SNAP-Ed cuts forced the Colorado School of Public Health to lay off 25 employees who supported school gardens where students learned to grow and taste their own food, developed classroom lessons for teachers, and advised cafeterias on healthier meal options, she said.

Colorado School of Public Health officials would also put together the recipes that were sent home with students, created newsletters about nutrition, and promoted classroom activities that helped keep kids active.

They even reinforced lessons in Center such as proper handwashing techniques and how to stay healthy during the flu season, Sanchez said.

The school of public health’s programs operated in over 140 preschool and 56 elementary schools and taught about 19,000 children, teachers, and caregivers in 19 counties, Puma said.

“We really could change the trajectory for those children so that we can prevent later chronic diseases,” Puma said.

Sanchez said the program greatly contributed to the health of her community. The program not only provided the food for students to try, but also made it easy on teachers to teach about nutrition.

Many of the parents in Center work long hours, she said. The program offered easy activities and meals to try with kids, she said.

“And the program also showed parents that they need to take care of themselves,” Sanchez said.

Nourish Colorado, a nonprofit focused on advocating for accessible, nutritious foods, also was granted the federal funds from the state and delivered nutrition education services in 56 of the state’s 64 counties to help reach almost 400,000 Coloradans. The community-based nutrition education programs worked primarily with adults.

Nourish’s Executive Director Wendy Peters Moschetti said the cuts are bad for everyone, especially because the program has proven to improve the health of communities.

U.S. Department of Agriculture research shows that every $1 spent on SNAP-Ed saves up to $10.64 in health care costs by teaching students and families about nutrition and health.

Colorado lawmakers have asked voters for more money for school meals and food programs such as SNAP-Ed on the state’s Nov. 4 ballot.

She said there’s likely to be significant discussion about how the state would use new revenue if Proposition MM passes. She plans to advocate for the SNAP-Ed programs

“We will be at that table,” Peters Moschetti said. “And that is our best bet right now to continue to fund public, community-based nutrition education.”

Colorado has a new child abuse reporting law. Here’s a guide for educators on the new requirements.

2025-08-22T15:00:00+00:00

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Teachers, child care providers, and other people who work with children will soon be subject to a new state law governing how and when suspected child abuse or neglect should be reported.

The law, which takes effect Sept. 1, includes several changes recommended by a state task force that spent two years considering reforms that clarify the responsibilities of mandatory reporters — people who work with kids and are legally required to report suspected abuse or neglect. The new law includes a provision aimed at reducing the disproportionate number of low-income families and families of color who are reported for suspected abuse or neglect.

Some of the task force’s recommendations didn’t make it into the new law because they would have cost more money than state lawmakers wanted to give in a tough budget year. They include a recommendation to require standardized recurring training for mandatory reporters.

Below are answers to common questions about the new law.

If I suspect child abuse or neglect at work, how soon do I have to report it?

The new law requires that mandated reporters make a report within 24 hours. The old law required a report “immediately” but did not define the term, which led some mandated reporters to wait 48 or 72 hours before reporting, according to members of the task force.

If I see signs that a child in my classroom is being abused or neglected, can I let my supervisor make the report instead of doing it myself?

No, you must make the report. The new law prohibits employees from delegating their duty to report to a colleague or supervisor who doesn’t have firsthand knowledge of the suspected abuse or neglect.

In the past, employers such as schools or hospitals sometimes had rules that required employees who suspected abuse to report it to their supervisors instead of going directly to authorities. The idea was that the supervisors would make the report to authorities, but in some cases, they never did. The new law attempts to close that loophole.

Schools and other employers can still require educators to report suspected abuse or neglect to supervisors or go through other internal procedures, but those educators must report to authorities as well.

If multiple mandated reporters at my job see signs of abuse or neglect at the same time, who should report it?

If you are a mandatory reporter, you should always report suspected abuse or neglect. However, if a colleague has reported the same instance you are calling about, you will not be required to make a full duplicate report. Instead, you will receive a referral identification number that fulfills your duty to report.

Does the new law take race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or disability status into account?

The law prohibits reports due to these factors. Experts say this change came about because families of color and low-income families are disproportionately funneled into the child welfare system because manifestations of poverty, racial identity, ethnicity, or disability are sometimes conflated with abuse or neglect.

For example, if a child wears the same clothes four days in a row or tells the teacher they’ve been sleeping on the couch at their aunt’s house, it might not be neglect, but an outgrowth of financial problems, said Jessica Dotter, sexual assault resource prosecutor at the Colorado District Attorneys’ Council and a member of the state task force.

She said teachers should pause to ask questions like, “Is this neglect, or is this poverty? Is this neglect, or is this a kid with two parents who are disabled?”

As a teacher, I’m a mandated reporter. Does that mean I have to report suspected child abuse or neglect that I see outside my job?

No. The old law wasn’t clear on this point, but a 2019 Colorado Court of Appeals decision held that mandatory reporters are obligated to report suspected abuse or neglect even if it happened outside of work. The law change specifies that mandated reporters are not required to do this.

While mandated reporters don‘t have to report outside-of-work instances of suspected abuse or neglect — for example, something they saw at a kid’s soccer game — there’s nothing preventing them from reporting if they choose.

What happens to mandatory reporters if they fail to report suspected abuse or neglect?

If mandated reporters knowingly fail to report, they can be charged with a Class 2 misdemeanor, which carries a maximum of 120 days in jail and a fine of up to $740. But the likelihood of going to jail for violating the law is low, according to an analysis by Dotter.

She found there were 70 failure-to-report cases from 2010 to 2020, and 41 of them were dismissed. In only 19 cases, mandated reporters either pleaded guilty or were found guilty. They were all given probation or another sentencing option that did not include jail time.

“Even though there’s a possibility of jail,” said Dotter, “in 10 years, there was not one case where jail was the outcome.”

Am I a mandatory reporter?

There are more than 40 categories of mandatory reporters under Colorado law. They include public and private school employees, child care employees, nurses, psychologists, social workers, mental health professionals, and coaches. For a full list, check out the FAQ from the Colorado Department of Human Services.

Where can I find information or training on the new law?

The Colorado Department of Human Services offers free online training in English and Spanish for mandatory reporters. A new version of the two-hour training that includes information on the recent law change will be available starting Sept. 1.

For general information about child abuse reporting rules and resources, check the department’s CO4KIDS webpage.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Medio millón de estudiantes en Colorado recibirán $120 en beneficios alimentarios este verano

2025-05-19T17:58:39+00:00

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Chalkbeat Colorado es un noticiero local sin fines de lucro que informa sobre las escuelas públicas.

Las familias de aproximadamente 450,000 estudiantes desde preescolar hasta 12.º grado ya recibieron este mes dinero adicional para compras de alimentos, cargado en tarjetas electrónicas de beneficios, como parte del programa Summer EBT dirigido a menores en situación de bajos recursos. Además de esas familias, los funcionarios estatales esperan entregar el beneficio alimentario, financiado principalmente por el gobierno federal, a unos 50,000 estudiantes más durante el verano.

El año pasado, muchas familias recibieron sus beneficios de Summer EBT con retraso, en algunos casos justo cuando comenzaba el nuevo ciclo escolar. Este año ha sido distinto: la mayoría de las familias recibió el dinero el 1 de mayo.

La implementación del programa Summer EBT es una de varias medidas que Colorado ha tomado en los últimos años para reducir la cantidad de niños que pasan hambre. En 2022, los votantes aprobaron una iniciativa electoral para ofrecer comidas escolares gratuitas a todos los estudiantes del sistema público, sin importar el ingreso familiar. El programa ha sido tan popular que su costo ha superado lo anticipado por los funcionarios estatales.

Para mantener el programa activo ante serios problemas presupuestarios, los legisladores encontraron fondos para financiarlo completamente hasta diciembre. También enviarán dos iniciativas al voto en noviembre que, de ser aprobadas, generarían el dinero adicional necesario para continuar el programa más allá de ese mes.

Los estudiantes de escuelas públicas en Colorado, desde preescolar hasta 12.º grado, son elegibles para recibir la tarjeta Summer EBT si sus familias reciben beneficios públicos como SNAP, Medicaid o Colorado Works, o si califican para comidas escolares gratuitas o a precio reducido. (Aunque ahora las comidas escolares son gratuitas para todos los estudiantes sin importar el ingreso familiar, la mayoría de las escuelas aún solicita a las familias completar formularios de elegibilidad para comidas gratuitas o similares, que evalúan el ingreso familiar).

Las autoridades anticipan que más de 500,000 niños en edad escolar recibirán los beneficios del programa Summer EBT este verano. La mayoría los recibió o los recibirá automáticamente. Sin embargo, algunos — incluyendo aquellos que se mudaron recientemente a Colorado o se inscribieron en una nueva escuela — podrían tener que completar una solicitud en el sitio web del Departamento de Servicios Humanos de Colorado.

Los estudiantes que hayan perdido su tarjeta de beneficios pueden llamar al centro de ayuda de Summer EBT al 800-536-5298 para solicitar una nueva.

Los niños que reciben tarjetas Summer EBT también pueden aprovechar las comidas gratuitas de verano que se ofrecen en escuelas locales u otros puntos de distribución.

Traducido por Rossana Longo, Colorado Community Media

Ann Schimke es reportera senior de Chalkbeat y cubre temas relacionados con la niñez temprana y la alfabetización temprana. Para comunicarte con Ann, envíale un email aaschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Half a million Colorado students to get $120 in food benefits this summer

2025-05-08T23:58:40+00:00

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The families of about 450,000 Colorado students in preschool through 12th grade received extra grocery money from the state this month to cover the cost of food during summer break.

The $120 per child preloaded onto electronic benefits cards is part of the Summer EBT program for children from low-income families. In addition to the families that have already received the benefits, state officials expect to provide the grocery benefit, which is mostly funded by the federal government, to around 50,000 more students through the summer.

Last year, many families received their Summer EBT benefits late, sometimes just as the new school year was starting. But this year is different, with most families getting the money on May 1.

Rolling out the Summer EBT program is among several steps Colorado leaders have taken in recent years to reduce the number of children who go hungry. In 2022, voters approved a ballot measure to provide free school meals to the state’s public school students regardless of family income. The program has been so popular, it’s cost more than state officials anticipated.

In an effort to sustain the program amid serious state budget troubles, lawmakers found the money to keep the program fully funded through December. They’ll also send two ballot measures to voters in November that, if approved, would raise enough additional money to continue the program after December.

Colorado students in public school pre-K-12 are eligible for Summer EBT cards if their families receive public benefits such as SNAP, Medicaid, or Colorado Works, or if they qualify for free or reduced-price school meals. (Although free school meals are now offered to public school students regardless of family income, most schools still ask families to fill out free or reduced-price meal eligibility forms or similar forms that gauge family income.)

State officials anticipate that more than 500,000 Colorado children in preschool through 12th grade will receive Summer EBT benefits this summer. Most received or will receive the money automatically. But some — including those who recently moved to Colorado or enrolled in a new school — may have to fill out an application on the Colorado Department of Human Services website..

Students who’ve misplaced their existing benefits card should call the Summer EBT support center at 800-536-5298 to get a new card sent.

Children in families that receive Summer EBT cards can still take advantage of free summer meals at local schools or other sites.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

‘Harmful and hurtful’: Trump administration cuts to AmeriCorps would impact Colorado students

2025-05-07T22:52:14+00:00

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AmeriCorps member Hannah Chung is spending this week like always: meeting one-on-one with the 25 Aurora students on her caseload, all of whom struggle to show up to school. Chung has been working to improve their attendance through solutions as simple as signing a student up for a bus route and as complicated as helping teenagers address mental health challenges.

This week, Chung has been telling students she won’t be at the school next year.

“And they’re like, ‘What? You’re the only person in the building I trust,’” said Chung, who plans to return to college to finish her degree in psychology. “It’s heartwarming to know we have that relationship, but heartbreaking to know they feel so alone.”

There may not be anyone doing Chung’s job — or nearly 300 others next school year — if a lawsuit by Colorado and two dozen other states isn’t successful at stopping the Trump administration’s cuts to the federal AmeriCorps volunteerism program. Cities and states across the country, including Philadelphia and Michigan, face a similar fate.

AmeriCorps is a federal agency that aims to improve communities through service and volunteerism. Members earn stipends and money for college.

In late April, the Trump administration canceled more than $400 million in AmeriCorps grants nationwide, which amounts to more than 40% of the agency’s funding for this year. The cuts hit 27 of Colorado’s 37 AmeriCorps programs, Lt. Gov. Dianne Primavera said, canceling more than $8 million worth of grants and disproportionately impacting education-focused programs.

Colorado joined a multistate lawsuit over the cuts that argues that the Trump administration’s “decision to dismantle AmeriCorps flouts Congress’s creation” of the agency.

“They’re making these terminations of the programs before the school year even ends,” Primavera said in an interview. “I’m really angry about it, to be honest with you.

“The sad thing is it really impacts the most vulnerable kids,” she said.

Although Colorado got termination notices that cited the same vague reason — that each AmeriCorps grant “no longer effectuates agency policy” — the work is continuing, buoyed by state funding as the court decides whether to block the cuts. But the funding won’t last forever.

“We had a tough budget year in Colorado,” Primavera said. “We’re turning over every rock to see if we can find some money. We don’t know how long we can keep this up.”

‘It’s just gone. That’s harmful and hurtful.’

Maria Chavez Contreras is the family services manager for Catholic Charities of Southern Colorado in Pueblo. She works with eight AmeriCorps members who serve in the Home Instruction for Parents of Preschool Youngsters, or HIPPY, program and who are preparing for their annual preschool graduation ceremony this month.

It’s a big deal: The 5-year-olds wear mortarboard caps and walk up one by one to get a certificate and a backpack full of school supplies. Parents or caregivers get certificates too, in recognition of their weekly meetings with HIPPY home visitors to roleplay educational activities to do at home with their preschool-age children, such as building baking soda and vinegar volcanoes.

“The kiddos, they think they’re playing, while the parent is ensuring their kiddo is ready for kindergarten,” Chavez Contreras said.

In all, federal funding for 25 AmeriCorps members who work as HIPPY home visitors in Pueblo, Denver, Weld County, and the San Luis Valley was canceled, according to Brian Conly, the executive director of Parent Possible, the organization that oversees the program.

The program has real impact, Conly said. At the beginning of last year, only 22% of Colorado HIPPY parents said in a survey that they were confident their child was prepared for school, he said. By the end of the year, that number had jumped to 90%.

“It just takes one adult to make a difference in a child’s life,” he said. “If it’s the parent, even better.”

Losing the HIPPY program, Conly said, would mean losing “the infrastructure to go into a local community and teach its parents how to support their children’s success in life with their culture, with their language, and within their community of trusted folks.

“That just goes away. It’s just gone. That’s harmful and hurtful.”

Katie Navin, the executive director of the Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education, said ending her organization’s AmeriCorps program would have similarly devastating effects.

Environmental Education Corps members reach about 25,000 students yearly through their work as educators with organizations such as the Colorado Canyons Association in Grand Junction, the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies in Brighton, and The Greenway Foundation in Denver.

The 16 AmeriCorps members lead outdoor field trips and tend school gardens. One program in Delta County teaches students to ride a bike in the summer and ski in the winter.

“You need the educator to be supporting and sparking these learning experiences,” Navin said. “So losing that is a tremendous hit to the field as a whole, to the community, and to schools. Those ripple effects, you might not see them for a while. Education is a long-term solution.”

A long list of AmeriCorps cuts in Colorado

Chung, who is working this year at Vista PEAK Preparatory School in Aurora, said she thinks of her position as a bridge between students and the things they need to succeed in school, whether that’s a referral to therapist, a free haircut, or the courage to talk to a teacher about their grades.

Preston Clark did his AmeriCorps service an after-school and family engagement coordinator with School Community Youth Collaborative in Montezuma County.

“A conclusion I’ve come to is this program acts as a lifeline for a lot of students,” Chung said. “It’s not even in a dramatic way. It’s in an actual way.”

Chung is one of 32 AmeriCorps members with the Corps for a Change program. Members are stationed in 26 middle and high schools across eight school districts in the Denver metro area.

“Over the course of the school year, a lot of what our members end up doing is becoming a school-based advocate for these students, helping them navigate attendance issues, navigate issues with grades, conflicts with friends and teachers,” said Manuel Aragon, the senior director of programs at Colorado Youth for a Change, which runs the program.

Corps for a Change is one of four AmeriCorps programs run by the organization. The other three programs, which focus on reading, math and preschool tutoring, were not cut.

While Primavera and others said it’s hard to figure out the rhyme or reason for the cancellations, Corps for a Change focuses most on mental health support, which has been a target of the Trump administration. Corps for a Change members are also part of Colorado’s new Youth Mental Health Corps meant to help connect teenagers to mental health resources and allow AmeriCorps members to earn college credit in the field.

According to the Colorado governor’s office, other education-related AmeriCorps programs that received termination notices include:

The Alpine Achievers Initiative, which has 40 AmeriCorps members in five school districts in rural south-central Colorado, including in Alamosa and Salida. Members provide individual and group academic support during the school day and run after-school clubs. Many members were also part of the Youth Mental Health Corps.
Peak Pathfinders, which has 10 AmeriCorps members doing similar work in the Eagle County School District. The governor’s office noted that several former Peak Pathfinders AmeriCorps members have gone on to become teachers who work in the area.
Bright Futures, which has seven AmeriCorps members working in early childhood education centers in Gunnison, Montrose, and Delta. In addition to supporting students at the centers, members earn an early childhood teaching credential.
The Rural Alliance for Dignity, which has 44 AmeriCorps members who provide a range of social services in the San Luis Valley. Some members work in after-school programs, including two who do one-on-one reading and math tutoring at a Boys and Girls Club.
Spark Health Corps, whose 12 AmeriCorps members are earning a master’s degree in social work. The members do their practicum hours at schools in the Denver metro area, Pueblo, and Durango, providing behavioral and mental health support to students.
TeamUP AmeriCorps, a program run by the United Way of Southwest Colorado that has 10 AmeriCorps members. Some members are focused on youth mental health, while others provide outdoor learning or tutoring for Spanish-speaking students.

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Trump education cuts will affect Colorado, lawmakers are warned

2025-04-16T23:41:15+00:00

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Former U.S. Department of Education employees and state education leaders warned Wednesday that cuts to the federal agency will likely cause disruptions to Colorado’s education system and student learning. The cuts already are impacting students with disabilities.

The group testified for an hour during a special Colorado Senate Education Committee hearing called by Chair Sen. Chris Kolker, a Centennial Democrat, to discuss the U.S. Education Department’s role in Colorado.

Disability Law Colorado Co-Legal Director Emily Harvey said students with disabilities have suffered due to staffing cuts in the department’s Office for Civil Rights. The Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE, laid off about half the agency’s workforce, including within the civil rights office.

Harvey said the Denver office had its staffing cut by a third and other offices were eliminated. There are now just 24 employees to oversee over 2,800 active investigations, including cases that can include discrimination against students with disabilities, she said.

“For many students with disabilities and their families, that means bullying, discrimination and other school rights violations may continue without remedy or recourse,” she said. “It’s not just troubling. It’s unacceptable.”

Nationwide, parents have said they’ve started to see investigations stall. Harvey said the department promises weekly updates on investigations, but hasn’t updated its website in three months.

However, the office has announced new investigations, including into Denver Public Schools’ all-gender restroom.

She called on lawmakers to create a Colorado set of civil rights laws to protect students.

“Colorado can’t count on the federal government to protect children with disabilities,” she said.

Other panel members said there aren’t widespread impacts to education in Colorado yet.

But former Education Department analyst Sarah Newman, who was laid off by the administration, worries they might start to pop up soon. She urged Colorado lawmakers to question the administration’s plans and how the state expects the Education Department’s actions to affect students.

Newman said many of those Education Department workers collected and sorted through data that states and the federal government used to monitor student outcomes and whether programs work, she said. The data also drives decisions that can help states intervene when students are struggling.

“They have demonstrated that their approach shows no regard for minimizing the disruption of services,” Newman said.

Newman added that she has serious concerns that the federal government will have to delay doling out state funding due to staffing levels.

President Donald Trump has also ordered the closure of the U.S. Department of Education, which would require approval from Congress. If that happens, the federal government would likely shift which agencies send out money to states.

Colorado receives about $800 million in federal education funding, according to a Colorado Department of Education presentation.

States receive funds for student services, including various funds that support students in high-poverty schools, migrant education, special education services, and other programs.

Colorado Commissioner of Education Susana Córdova said she’s hopeful the federal government will continue funding for students who need it the most, including students from low-income backgrounds or who need special education.

“We’ve heard from the Secretary of Education (Linda McMahon) that there is a commitment to continue funding,” she said. “We’re very hopeful that that would be the case.”

The administration hasn’t signaled its future funding plans, but it has said that states that don’t comply with its orders on diversity, equity, and inclusion risk losing funding. Córdova said the state complies with federal law.

Committee chair Kolker said he is willing to support legislation next year that would create a set of Colorado civil rights. And while there’s plenty of uncertainty about what’s happening with the Education Department, he said the state is in a good place for now.

But he added that lawmakers need to continue to pay attention and anticipate problems that might pop up due to federal cuts.

Colorado bill seeks to protect student records and limit immigration enforcement on school grounds

2025-04-09T02:07:19+00:00

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Colorado lawmakers gave initial approval to a bill Tuesday that seeks to curtail cooperation and the release of records to federal immigration enforcement officials, including public schools, colleges and universities, and child care centers.

Senate Bill 276 also would ensure public schools and colleges have rules to limit federal authorities’ access to buildings. Immigration enforcement officials only would be able to get access with a court-issued order, subpoena, or warrant.

While a state law passed in 2021 already limits state agencies and local law enforcement from cooperating and sharing information related to a resident’s immigration status with U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement, unless required by federal or state law, the bill seeks to extend that provision to others, including cities, counties, and schools.

The bill is a response to the Trump administration’s hard-line stance on immigration that has led to an uptick in raids, deportations, and the revocation of college student visas. The actions have led to fear among immigrant communities and bill sponsor state Sen. Julie Gonzales, a Denver Democrat, said the bill protects immigrant rights and ensures students and families feel secure going to school.

The bill cleared its first hearing Tuesday in the Senate State, Veterans, and Military Affairs committee with a 3-2 party-line vote. The bill will now be heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee before heading to the Senate floor.

“We’ve seen the Trump administration wield attacks against immigrants, regardless of their immigration status, with increasing frequency and with less and less regard for due process here in Colorado,” Gonzales said during a news conference before the hearing on the bill. “We have no control over what ICE does or does not do, but we do have control here in Colorado over what we do and what we don’t do.”

The vast majority of speakers during the hearing testified in favor of the bill, which is supported by immigrant rights groups, the ACLU of Colorado, and several education advocacy organizations. Three groups have opposed the bill, including the town of Castle Rock, SAFE Colorado, and the Colorado Association of Chiefs of Police.

Bill sponsors and advocates said the bill is especially important after the Trump administration revoked a decades-old policy that limited immigration enforcement at “sensitive” or “protected” places, such as schools, hospitals, and churches.

Recent raids in the Denver-area have terrified communities, and students have said they have seen immigration enforcement drive past school grounds. That’s caused students to stay home and families to skip medical care, supporters of the bill testified.

The bill is also sponsored by state Sen. Mike Weissman, an Aurora Democrat, and state Democratic Reps. Lorena Garcia, from Adams County, and Elizabeth Velasco, from Glenwood Springs. It would cost the state $500,000 a year in additional administrative costs.

Higher education institutions and K-12 schools already are required to protect student information under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, which protects a student’s data and prohibits releasing most student records, such as student identification numbers or Social Security numbers. Information can only be obtained through a warrant, order, or subpoena, according to student privacy law.

Although the federal law has been in place since 1974, the Center for Democracy and Technology, a nonprofit, nonpartisan civil liberties organization, released a study that said about 17% of teachers nationally reported their school shared information with ICE. Colleges and universities would also not be allowed to share visa sponsorship information.

Gonzales said the bill would ensure federal authorities go through the correct process to get student data. And she said it’s important that lawmakers reaffirm that sharing student data isn’t permissible without a court order.

“We are in a moment in which long-standing bedrock protections are being eroded or overturned outright,” she said in an interview. “It’s for that reason that these data privacy safeguards are so critically important.”

The proposal also importantly ensures schools would need to have policies in place on how to respond if federal officials request student information, Weissman said. For instance, Aurora Public Schools sought guidance after February raids in the community, he said.

Summit School District Superintendent Tony Byrd, who supports the bill, said the proposal addresses the concerns of communities and provides clear guidelines for districts on what to do if ICE requests cooperation and student information.

“This bill will foster trust in our community,” Byrd said. “When families feel safe, they’re more likely to engage with our schools.”

The bill also would require state and local groups to keep records of third parties seeking personal information. Reports would then be sent to the governor’s and attorney general’s offices.

The bill would allow fines to be levied if workers violate the law. Employees could face a civil penalty of $50,000, with that money going to Colorado’s Immigration Legal Defense Fund. The Colorado Municipal League has asked lawmakers to amend that portion of the bill due to concerns about the penalties.

The bill removes a portion of state statute related to obtaining state identification and the state’s Advancing Students for a Stronger Tomorrow program, which allows eligible public college and university students to pay in-state tuition.

The bill would no longer require a resident who isn’t here legally to submit an affidavit that says they will apply for legal status if they’re applying for in-state tuition or an identification document. The stipulation is intended to prevent residents from having to submit their information to federal officials, which could open them to deportation.

Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled the name of Summit School District Superintendent Tony Byrd.

Lawmakers ordered schools to report data on seclusion. For the most part, it hasn’t happened.

2025-03-10T22:08:51+00:00

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No one knows how many Colorado students are shut inside rooms, alone, at school.

But Riley Ellis-Beach knows that it happened to her son.

He was a small kindergartener, barely 30 pounds, with big emotions and a diagnosis of autism. When asked to do a task he didn’t want to do, he’d spit, growl, or cuss at school staff, according to a school behavior log. Sometimes he’d bite or hit. The staff began taking him to the “opportunity room,” where he’d stay for as little as five minutes or as long as an hour and a half, the log shows.

“Not until I had to go in and pick him up did we realize it was an empty room with nothing in it,” Ellis-Beach said. One time, she said she showed up to school to find her son in the room with the door shut. His special education teacher was peeking at him through a window, she said.

“He looked like a wild animal that had been trapped in a cage,” Ellis-Beach said.

State lawmakers have tried in recent years to better monitor and oversee seclusion, which means shutting a student inside a room, and restraint, which means physically restraining a student. But a loophole that legislators and advocates say was unintentional has meant that there is almost no public data about seclusion, while restraint data is more readily available.

Only 10 of Colorado’s 179 school districts included a separate tally of how many of their students were secluded last school year in the annual reviews that districts are required to file with the Colorado Department of Education, according to a Chalkbeat analysis of the reports. That’s despite a 2022 state law that was supposed to make data about seclusion available and “easily accessible.”

The lack of information makes it impossible to understand the scope of a controversial practice that some educators say is necessary to control dangerous student behavior but that many families say leaves their children with lasting trauma. Emily Harvey, co-legal director of Disability Law Colorado, called the use of seclusion “an unknown problem.”

“We have no idea how often it’s happening and who it’s happening to,” she said.

The data blackout also makes it hard for state lawmakers to know exactly what to do about seclusion. Two separate bills introduced last month in the state legislature aim to address the information gap. One of the bills goes even further and seeks to ban seclusion altogether.

“We know a seclusion room is an incarceration room,” said state Rep. Regina English, a Colorado Springs Democrat who is sponsoring the ban. “There is no way out for the student. There [are] locked windows and locked doors. That is, for me, inflicting intentional trauma.”

A change to solitary confinement law affects seclusion in schools

In 2017, Colorado lawmakers passed a bill that required school districts to complete annual reviews of their use of restraint and seclusion in an attempt to track it. School districts began complying in 2018, but a Chalkbeat investigation found that no state agency was collecting the annual reports. Essentially, the districts were policing themselves.

So in 2022, state lawmakers passed a bill that was supposed to make the data more transparent by requiring the Colorado Department of Education to collect the districts’ reviews.

But when the state education department went to write rules to put the 2022 bill into practice, it ran into what department spokesman Jeremy Meyer described in an email as “the complexity in our statutes regarding restraint and seclusion.”

Both the 2017 and 2022 bills required school districts to produce annual reviews of their use of restraint alone. That’s not because lawmakers didn’t want data on seclusion; they thought it would be included in the reports because Colorado law for years defined seclusion as a form of restraint.

What lawmakers working on the issue didn’t realize at the time was that in 2016, previous state lawmakers who were worried about restraint and seclusion in a different setting — youth jails — had created separate definitions of the two practices in Colorado law.

They did that so they could put more guardrails around the use of seclusion in youth jails, also known as solitary confinement, and collect more data about it. The 2016 bill followed concerning reports about the overuse of juvenile solitary confinement and the secrecy surrounding it.

That decision inadvertently led to the data collection problem that the education system is grappling with today, nine years later.

Because the state definition of restraint only refers to physical restraints and not seclusion, the disclosure rules developed by the Colorado Department of Education list just four data points that districts must include in their annual reviews: the number of physical restraints lasting more than one minute but less than five, the number of physical restraints lasting five minutes or more, and the number of students who experienced each. The rules say nothing about seclusion.

“It has created such a problem,” said Harvey of Disability Law Colorado. “A lot of people are asking, ‘How widespread is this problem?’ And I’m like, ‘Who knows?’”

Vast majority of Colorado school districts are silent on seclusion

Under the 2022 bill, the Colorado Department of Education began collecting annual reviews of school districts’ use of restraint in the summer of 2024.

Chalkbeat obtained all 179 reports through an open records request. While all the reports include data about the number of physical restraints performed on students, only 10 districts included separate information about seclusion: Cherry Creek, Aurora, Adams 12, Academy 20, Harrison, Cheyenne Mountain, Weld RE-1, Weld RE-4, Weld RE-5J, and Pikes Peak BOCES.

That means just 5% of Colorado districts reported seclusion data in their annual reviews.

Two of the 10 districts, Cheyenne Mountain and Weld RE-5J, reported zero seclusions in the 2023-24 school year. The data in the Weld RE-1 and Harrison 2 reports was redacted. The state allows the data to be suppressed if there are fewer than 16 incidents.

The other six districts reported a total of 907 instances of seclusion last school year.

The 2022 bill also required the state education department to “develop easily accessible, user-friendly profile reports for each school district” that would be posted on its website. The online reports were required to include a host of data ranging from chronic absenteeism rates to the number of students handcuffed to the number of students restrained or secluded.

The Colorado Department of Education did indeed launch the profile reports online. Meyer, the department spokesman, said the department collected restraint and seclusion data for the profile reports “but ultimately did not post it because we have concerns about its accuracy this year.” He pointed to “significant misunderstandings from districts in this first year of implementation.”

“We are working to ensure that districts are better trained on this data collection going forward so that we can present a more accurate picture in the future,” Meyer wrote in an email.

District says there’s a difference between seclusion and visits to the ‘opportunity room’

The Weld RE-4 district, where Ellis-Beach’s son attended, was one of the 10 that reported seclusion data for the 2023-24 school year. It reported a total of 39 instances of seclusion districtwide.

But the behavior log for Ellis-Beach’s son, a copy of which she provided to Chalkbeat, shows that the boy was sent to the opportunity room 63 times in the 2022-23 and 2023-24 school years. He was just one student in a district of 8,700. Chalkbeat is not naming him to protect his privacy.

Advocates and parents are concerned that school districts are under-reporting their use of seclusion by claiming that sending a student to a calm-down room is not seclusion. Seclusion is defined in state law as the placement of a person in a room alone “from which egress is prevented,” which means blocking them in. It’s only supposed to be used in emergency situations.

Even if school staff aren’t holding the door shut, advocates and parents have said, students are often told they can’t leave the room or feel that it’s forbidden.

Several entries in Ellis-Beach’s son’s behavior log say he was not let out of the opportunity room until he was sitting quietly. “OR - until sitting quietly against the wall with hands in lap,” one entry says. The duration? “100 minutes.”

In an emailed statement, Weld RE-4 Communications and Public Relations Director Katie Smith said there are “key distinctions between seclusion events and Opportunity Room visits.”

Weld RE-4 uses seclusion “in limited circumstances in which all other options are exhausted and if students pose a danger / threat to themselves or others for injury or probable injury,” she said.

Visits to the opportunity room, on the other hand, are “utilized for students of all abilities for a variety of purposes beyond seclusion and outside of disciplinary processes, including emotional regulation, privacy, and refocus space,” Smith said.

“This space provides a level of dignity and respect for our students,” she said.

“With the exception of use for seclusion, the student is actively engaged with a staff member the entire visit,” she said of visits to the opportunity room.

The monitoring requirements are different for seclusion, Smith said. A student in seclusion is continuously monitored by at least two staff members, and parents are immediately notified, she said. Legal documentation is completed that identifies the other options that staff tried, she said.

Neither parental notification nor legal documentation is required for visits to the opportunity room, Smith said, adding “however, our practice is to engage and communicate openly with our parents.”

Ellis-Beach said her son’s school didn’t give her a copy of the behavior log noting his visits to the opportunity room until she asked for it.

Seclusion has faced increased scrutiny

What little data there is shows that seclusion happens most often to elementary-aged children with disabilities that affect their ability to regulate their emotions. The practice has long been contentious, but it has faced increased scrutiny in Colorado in recent years.

In Douglas County, the U.S. Department of Justice opened an investigation into a case where a second grader was repeatedly secluded in the “blue room” and the “reset room” at his school. Federal investigators came to Colorado in January to interview witnesses, according to advocates and attorneys familiar with the case.

The status of the investigation is unclear. The U.S. Department of Justice did not respond to a question about the status of the case.

The Douglas County school board voted in January to ban seclusion rooms, but not seclusion. Douglas County School District Public Information Officer Paula Hans acknowledged the change in a statement, saying the board “recently updated district policies to eliminate the use of seclusion rooms. Additionally, the use of seclusion and restraint are limited to emergency situations only, when needed to ensure the safety of our students and staff.”

A case in which Denver middle school students were secluded against school district policy made headlines in 2023 and led to an internal investigation by Denver Public Schools.

That case sparked Rep. English to sponsor a bill to ban seclusion last year. But the bill faced pushback from educators who said seclusion was a necessary “last resort.” English ended up asking fellow lawmakers to postpone her bill indefinitely, effectively defeating it.

English is bringing the bill back this year. The new version, HB25-1178, would ban seclusion but also require school districts to publicly report their use of it “even though seclusion is prohibited,” the bill says.

“I’m absolutely trying to ensure there is proper reporting when it comes to seclusion,” English said of her bill. But she added that she hopes the reporting is unnecessary: “What I will say is we won’t even have to worry about this reporting because I’m out to ban seclusion wholeheartedly.”

Parents ‘sifting through the damages’ after son was secluded

A separate bill, HB25-1248, wouldn’t go as far. It would move the existing laws about restraint and seclusion in public schools from the section of Colorado law that deals with youth detention facilities to the section that deals with education — a move that one supporter characterized as “a common sense next step in standardizing restraint and seclusion.”

The bill also seeks to close the loophole that resulted in seclusion use being left out of most districts’ annual reviews by ensuring that it also gets reported to the state education department alongside restraint usage. HB25-1248 passed the House Education Committee last month on an 11-2 vote and now moves to the House Appropriations Committee.

Rep. Katie Stewart, a Durango Democrat who is co-sponsoring the bill, said at last month’s hearing that while the bill consists mostly of technical cleanup, “it puts us in a better place to understand the data and when restraint and seclusion are being used so we can do better for our students.”

Ellis-Beach and her husband Anthony Beach hope that’s true.

The couple describe their son as bright, resourceful, and curious. He loves the video game Minecraft and playing with Legos. He’s a “connections kid,” Beach said: He bonds easily with adults who he deems safe and who can help him calm the near-constant fight-or-flight response that his type of autism triggers.

The boy entered kindergarten at Windsor Charter Academy in the Weld RE-4 district in the 2022-23 school year. The behavior log notes that staff soon started taking him to the opportunity room. The incidents often began with noncompliance, the log shows: Staff asked the boy to complete a math worksheet or put away his book and he refused.

His parents said school staff often missed their son’s cues. If he chews on his pencil or picks at his eyelashes, it means he needs a break or a different approach to completing a task, they said. Instead, what often happened was a power struggle that ended with a trip to the opportunity room, they said.

In the opportunity room, the boy would climb the walls, strip off his clothes, and try to hurt himself, according to his parents and the behavior log. One entry says he picked his nose so deeply that it started to bleed. “When asked he said if he bleed [sic] enough he could go home,” says the log.

Windsor Charter Academy Director of Communications Sara Sanders said the charter school contracts with the Weld RE-4 school district for its special education services. Sanders said the charter school “will let the school district respond on our behalf.”

Weld RE-4 spokesperson Smith said the district could not discuss specific student cases.

Smith said Weld RE-4 works to ensure all special education staff are trained on non-violent crisis intervention each year, which “goes above and beyond the state’s training requirement of every two years.” Members of the district’s administrative teams and general education and transportation department staff also participate in annual training, Smith said.

Ellis-Beach and her husband eventually pulled their son out of Windsor Charter Academy in the fall of his first grade year after his arm got caught in a door, an incident recorded on a separate communication log. Ellis-Beach left her job as a teacher to homeschool their son.

But they said the damage had been done.

“Our son still brings up the opportunity room and being in seclusion,” more than a year after leaving the school, Anthony Beach said. “We’re still kind of sifting through the damages to our son and trying to get him back on a path of wanting to learn again.”

Melanie Asmar is the bureau chief for Chalkbeat Colorado. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Colorado parents, this new state tax credit could net you thousands of dollars

2025-01-31T16:00:00+00:00

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A new state tax credit worth thousands of dollars is now available to many Colorado families with children under 17.

It’s called the family affordability tax credit and is expected to help hundreds of thousands of cash-strapped families across the state. Lawmakers and advocates who championed the credit during last year’s legislative session see it as a chance to address Colorado’s high cost of living and pick up where the federal government left off when its expanded child tax credit expired in 2021.

That expanded tax credit helped cut child poverty in America nearly in half to a historic low of 5.2% in 2021. By 2023, child poverty rates jumped to 13.7%.

Since then, several states have expanded or created their own child tax credits. Colorado, which already had a child tax credit for families with young children, created the family affordability credit to provide more financial help to families already getting the child tax credit and give new aid to lower income families with older children.

Here’s what you need to know about the new credit.

What is the family affordability tax credit?

It’s a new state tax credit for lower income Colorado families with children under 17. It was created during the 2024 legislative session and is now available for the first time to families filing their 2024 tax returns.

Eligible families can get a tax credit of up to $3,200 for each child who was 5 or younger as of Dec. 31, 2024, and up to $2,400 for each child who was 6-16 years old as of Dec. 31, 2024. The size of the credit goes down as family income goes up, eventually phasing out when single tax filers hit an adjusted gross income of more than $85,000 a year and joint tax filers hit an adjusted gross income of more than $95,000 a year.

How is it different from Colorado’s child tax credit?

The family affordability tax credit is much bigger than the state’s child tax credit and includes families with older children. For example, a single mother who earned $30,000 in tax year 2024 and has a 4-year-old and 7-year-old would receive a family affordability tax credit of $4,445 and a state child tax credit of $600. (The state child tax credit is only available to lower income families with children under 6.)

It’s also worth noting that, unlike the state child tax credit, the family affordability credit may not be available every year. That’s because lawmakers decided to offer it only in good economic times when the state collects enough surplus tax revenue to fund it. During bad years when the state collects too little surplus tax revenue, the state will reduce the amount of the credit or refrain from offering it at all.

How do I know if I’m eligible for family affordability credit?

Use the tax credit calculator from Get Ahead Colorado, which is run by the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment. The online tool asks a few questions about your income and the number of kids you have and spits out a list of state and federal tax credits you may be eligible for, including the family affordability credit.

The tax credit calculator is available in dozens of languages by clicking on the “Select Language” button in the top right corner.

I don’t make enough to pay income taxes. Am I still eligible?

Yes, the family affordability tax credit is refundable. That means that even if eligible families owe nothing in taxes, the state will pay them the amount of the credit as long as they file a state tax return.

Families who earn enough to pay income taxes may still get money back if their family affordability credit exceeds the amount they owe the state.

I don’t have a Social Security number. Am I still eligible?

Possibly. Parents who don’t have a Social Security number may be eligible for Colorado’s family affordability tax credit if they have an Individual Taxpayer Identification number — or ITIN — and their eligible children have a Social Security number.

ITIN numbers are available from the Internal Revenue Service to certain individuals who are categorized as resident aliens or nonresident aliens, regardless of immigration status.

Will getting the family affordability tax credit reduce my SNAP benefits?

No. Tax credits are not considered income and will not negatively affect most benefits, including SNAP, TANF, and Medicaid.

Are there other tax credits for Colorado families with children?

Yes. Both the federal government and the state have earned income tax credits, which are available to lower income families with or without children. Both also offer child tax credits, with the federal version available to qualifying families with children under 17 and the Colorado version available to qualifying families with children under 6.

How can I get help filling out my tax returns?

You can use myfreetaxes.com, an online program offered through United Way. It’s also available in Spanish.

Another free option is getyourrefund.org/en, which allows filers earning under $67,000 a year to get online assistance from certified volunteers. It’s also available in Spanish.

For free in-person help from certified volunteers, consider the Colorado Volunteer Income Tax Assistance program, also known as VITA. Check this list for VITA sites, hours, and other details.

Finally, Get Ahead Colorado has a variety of other tax filing resources available.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Colorado’s Excel Center gives Aurora-area adults another chance at high school — and a diploma

2024-10-25T18:08:44+00:00

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On a recent October day, Roddrick Marshall wore a wide-brimmed hat decorated with red and blue pipe cleaners with a yellow sign that said: “Vote Roddrick & Dejanae.”

Around his neck he also showcased a sign declaring that the pair would “stand on BUSINESS for YOU!” a campaign slogan they hoped would convince fellow students to elect them as co-class presidents of The Excel Center high school in Aurora.

Running for student body elections wouldn’t have happened when he was a 17-year-old getting into trouble, Marshall said. But decades later, at 50, he is getting the chance.

From left, Roddrick Marshall, of Denver, prepares to leave class with his son, Bryson LaCroix, 10, on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024 at the Colorado Excel Center in Aurora, Colorado.

At the Excel Center, run by Goodwill of Colorado and the first high school building in the state dedicated just to adults, Marshall and other adults without a diploma are getting the opportunity to learn in a more traditional type of school setting at no cost to them.

Marshall’s wife first told him about the school and also enrolled him.

“I jumped right on it,” Marshall said. “It’s in person and it’s free, and it’s more of an educational environment where you really get a chance to learn one-on-one with the teacher.”

Statewide, estimates show that over 300,000 Coloradans didn’t finish high school. Despite that high number, Colorado was the last in the nation to begin funding adult education when it did so in 2014.

From left, Mary Garcia, of Denver, and Erika Aldava, of Aurora, holding her daughter Miracle Aldava, 8 months, work on writing fictional short stories during their English II class on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024 at the Colorado Excel Center in Aurora, Colorado.

In 2023, state lawmakers increased annual funding for adult education from $1 million to $3 million a year. They also set aside $5 million to help create the Excel Center.

The plan was to provide the specialized program in an area with great need. Goodwill, which brought the idea to lawmakers and lobbied to open the adult high school, chose Aurora because more than 30,000 adults in the area over the age of 25 never graduated.

The school fits into Goodwill of Colorado’s mission — to help educate, train, and place residents in jobs that help them increase their economic mobility and independence.

The exterior of the Colorado Excel Center building, seen on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024 in Aurora, Colorado.

The adult high school building opened on Aug. 5, and school officials hope to someday enroll as many as 350 students as they work to finish their high school education.

The 26,000-square-foot building, located in an Aurora strip mall complex owned by Goodwill, will have most of its dozen classrooms nearly half full soon — with 58 students enrolling in the first eight week session and about 150 expected in the second session.

Most of the current students have a ninth grade education, although students who are learning English tend to have a lower education level, said James Sanchez, a Goodwill of Colorado director.

Some students are expected to graduate quickly — such as those who dropped out in their senior year. Sanchez expects the school’s first graduation in December for those who only need to earn a few credits.

Students with a ninth grade education might need to stay enrolled up to 18 months, Sanchez said. And students who are learning English take remedial classes first.

Sanchez said the school is very clear that it isn’t just recreating a high school environment. Adults have much busier lives than when they first attended high school, meaning they require more resources.

A paper reading “Don’t Quit” is taped on the window in Austin Malone’s classroom, a teacher with the Colorado Excel Center, on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024 at the Colorado Excel Center in Aurora, Colorado.

The program offers onsite day care for students’ kids over the age of 2-and-a-half, gives them bus passes and gas cards, screens students for learning disabilities such as dyslexia, and has flexible class schedules. The school also caps classes at 24 students.

“We really try to get them individualized support,” Sanchez said.

The Aurora Excel Center is part of a network of 41 other Goodwill schools in nine states across the nation. The first school was started in 2010 in Indianapolis.

Although Goodwill has a history of offering this program, Sanchez said there still have been challenges starting something new in Colorado.

It has been difficult to find teachers, and most of those who’ve taken jobs at the center were previously retired. The school also doesn’t offer students the opportunity to earn as many industry certificates as leaders had hoped, though they’re working on more partnerships that will help students pursue higher paying jobs after graduation.

English language arts teacher Lizzie Louis agreed building something new for adults in the area can be difficult. But the students make it easy.

Dr. Lizzie Louis, a teacher with the Colorado Excel Center, smiles as she listens to students during the English Language Arts III class on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024 at the Colorado Excel Center in Aurora, Colorado.

She said part of teaching them means respecting their life experiences.

She ensures students’ kids have a play space with toys in the corner of her room. And she focuses on encouraging students to pursue their long-held education dreams.

“We get to build community and create a safe place to learn for them,” Louis said.

Marshall said he’s felt the support throughout the building as he tries to earn the high school diploma he’s wanted for years.

On the day he campaigned in his brown hat to become co-class president, Marshall brought his five children with him to school, including his twins. Although they were a rambunctious crew, they’re welcome at the school.

A poster for students Roddrick Marshall, and Dejanae Ryan, both of Denver, to promote their run for student president on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2024 at the Colorado Excel Center in Aurora, Colorado.

“My kids are in school, but it’s times like this when they’re out for fall break, or some type of break, and I still have class that the day care is helpful,” he said.

Marshall, a custodian, wants to study HVAC after he gets his diploma and increase his potential for higher earnings. He also wants his kids to see him succeed.

“It’s good for them to see their parent continue their education and see how important it is to get their high school diploma,” he said. “They’ll get theirs the first time.”

More Colorado children will get state-funded full-day preschool classes this year

2024-07-25T22:38:21+00:00

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State officials say over 11,000 Colorado children will get free full-day classes through the state’s universal preschool program this year, more than double the number last year.

The increase means progress towards one of the state’s original goals for the preschool-for-all program: extra hours for 4-year-olds with the greatest needs, like those from low-income families, as well as kids who are learning English, have special education plans, are homeless, or in the foster care system.

It’s a significant contrast from last summer, when the state backpedaled on plans to cover full-day preschool for every child with one of those five risk factors. So many families applied for half-day seats in the new program that Colorado didn’t have the money to fund as many full-day seats as it had hoped. State officials notified thousands of families that were expecting to get free full-day preschool about the pullback just weeks before the start of school. That left many parents in the lurch and angered preschool providers.

Several school districts stepped up to cover the full-day preschool costs themselves last year, but expressed frustration about the budget hit. Some districts cited the state’s last minute decision to limit full-day preschool in a wide-ranging lawsuit over universal preschool alleging broken funding promises, among other things. (A Denver district court judge dismissed the case in early July.)

Not every 4-year-old with one or more risk factors will qualify for free full-day preschool this year. But at least 6,000 more will qualify compared with last year, and that number could rise as more families apply for universal preschool in the coming weeks.

Dawn Odean, director of the universal preschool program, said the increase shows progress toward the state’s goal of serving students equitably: “We’re really excited.”

Two factors helped pave the way for more children to qualify for full-day preschool this year.

First, the state has more money for it. That’s because voters approved about $24 million in additional preschool funding in November.

Also, state officials rewrote some of the program’s rules last fall to more carefully target the children from the lowest-income families for full-day preschool.

Colorado’s universal preschool proved popular immediately, serving about 39,000 4-year-olds in its inaugural year — about 62% of that age group in the state. Most received 10 to 15 hours a week of tuition-free preschool, but some received 30 hours a week, which the state considers full-day preschool.

When state leaders were rushing to plan the program in the year before its launch, they decided to offer full-day preschool to children with certain risk factors. The idea was to provide more learning time to children facing extra challenges.

But one risk factor captured a particularly large group of kids: the low-income category. That category covered children in families with household incomes up to 270% of the federal poverty line, or about $84,200 in annual income for a family of four.

Last July, as the program was about to begin, 15,000 children with at least one of the five risk factors had joined. But there was only enough funding to serve a fraction of that number with full-day classes. The shortfall triggered a provision requiring students to have both the low-income risk factor and a second risk factor in order to get full-day preschool.

Initially, only 3,700 students qualified for full-day classes, though that number grew to 4,800 by the end of the school year, according to officials at the Colorado Department of Early Childhood, which runs the universal preschool program. Many of the children who lost out on full-day preschool were from low-income households but did not have a second risk factor.

“We heard from many families and many providers … that we were missing our most vulnerable, or specifically those families living in poverty,” Odean said.

For year two, which starts in August for most preschools, state officials decided to add a sixth risk factor to ensure that children from the lowest-income families were not passed over for full-day preschool. This “poverty” risk factor captures children whose families have household incomes up to the federal poverty line, which this year is $32,100 for a family of four.

Because such families are also covered by the “low-income” category, they have the two factors needed to receive full-day preschool.

So far this year, the majority of students eligible for full-day preschool — 63% — have the poverty risk factor. The rest are in the higher-earning tier of the “low-income” category and have one or more additional risk factors.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Colorado bill would limit the use of shortened school days for students with disabilities

2024-02-28T20:33:38+00:00

When Meighen Lovelace’s daughter was in fifth grade two years ago, her school day started at 10 a.m. and ended at noon.

Lovelace said officials in their rural Colorado school district told them that was the only portion of the school day an aide was available to support the girl in her special education classroom.

Lovelace and her husband reluctantly accepted the two-hour school day.

“They had a kind of a take-it-or-leave-it attitude,” Lovelace said of school officials. “It felt like that was our only choice.”

Now, state lawmakers are considering a bill that would put stricter guardrails on the use of shortened schedules for students with disabilities and collect data on how often those students miss part of the school day because they are sent home early or placed on modified schedules. House Bill 24-1063, titled “Addressing Abbreviated School Days,” aims to better track and define a practice that parents and advocates say is isolating for students and disruptive for families, but often occurs under the radar.

The House Education Committee unanimously approved the bill on Feb. 15. Its next hearing will be in the House Appropriations Committee, but that hearing has not been scheduled.

The bill would require the Colorado Department of Education to create a policy stating when shortened school days are permitted and what information parents must be given. The policy would also require school teams to regularly review such schedules for students with disabilities. Under the bill, the department would also have to provide training to school districts on abbreviated school days.

Starting in 2026, the bill would require the department to publicly post school district data showing the number of students with disabilities who have abbreviated schedules, broken down by race, gender, and English learner status. The bill’s $219,000 price tag would cover the cost of additional staff at the education department.

During public testimony at the Feb. 15 hearing, several advocates for students with disabilities, including Lovelace, said students who are sent home early not only lose out on learning and friendships, but quickly get the message that schools value some students more than others. No one testified against the bill, though educators have said on previous occasions that short staffing and a lack of resources make it hard to serve students with severe needs.

Hanni Raley, executive director of the Arc of Aurora, a group that advocates for people with disabilities, said her organization is working with 30 families whose children face shortened school days. In one case, a single father’s job is at risk because he’s been asked to pick up one child early two days a week because the school can’t manage the child’s behavior. In another, a mother has been asked to keep her child home on days she’s not available to be at school to help the child use the toilet because school staff doesn’t have time to assist the child in the bathroom more than three times a day.

“These abbreviated school days currently go undocumented and unreported,” Raley said. “The burden will solely be felt by the family, and the child will continue to experience negative consequences in their academic, social, and emotional development.”

State Rep. Mary Young, a Greeley Democrat who co-sponsored the bill, said there are some cases where a shortened school day makes sense for students and garners explicit consent from families. For example, she talked about a young girl who was in a car accident in which her mother died. Initially, the girl, who’d suffered a brain injury, was brought back to school on a shortened schedule, slowly transitioning back to a full day as she recovered physically and emotionally.

But Young said there are many instances where shortened days are unplanned and educators simply tell parents to pick up their kids early.

“Parents and guardians should not be cut out of their legal right to make decisions with the special education or 504 team about their child’s education,” she said. “This bill addresses those significant concerns.”

A 504 plan spells out accommodations that students with disabilities are entitled to at school.

Lovelace said she wasn’t happy about her daughter’s short school day in fifth grade, but didn’t want to question school officials.

“They’re the professionals and you believe them because they’re the authority figures,” she said in an interview.

Lovelace said even during the two-hour window when her daughter was in school, officials asked Lovelace to stay in the neighborhood — 45 minutes away from the family’s home — in case they needed her to pick up her daughter early. Lovelace, who declined to identify her daughter’s disability to protect the girl’s privacy, said her employer was understanding, but eventually she lost her job. Today, Lovelace serves as the mental health policy lead at the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition, a disability rights advocacy group.

The early school pickup had a big impact on Lovelace’s daughter, too — setting her back academically and socially.

“What am I supposed to do? All my friends are in school,” her daughter would say during the long afternoons at home. “There are no kids at the playground, Mom.”

After months of looking, Lovelace found a school in a different district that offered the support her daughter needed to attend school all day. Although it was even farther away, Lovelace said the school’s approach was far more welcoming and positive.

“It was a relief,” she said.

Lovelace said she believes the bill, if passed, will provide more information about which students are affected by shortened school days and why, so that better processes can be put in place to meet their needs.

She also hopes it will remind policymakers that shortened days may send a message to students with disabilities that they don’t belong at school.

“When they’re sent home, that’s what they feel, that’s what they hear,” she said.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Colorado lawmakers will consider program to ease summer childhood hunger

2023-11-15T00:05:32+00:00

Low-income families in Colorado could receive $120 per child to help pay for groceries next summer if state lawmakers agree to tap a federal program aimed at reducing childhood hunger when school is out.

The legislature begins meeting Friday for a special session to address spiking property taxes after voters rejected Proposition HH. But lawmakers will also consider the summer grocery program because the state must opt in by Jan. 1 to participate in 2024.

The program has a wonky name — Summer Electronic Benefits Transfer, or Summer EBT — but the idea is simple: Reduce childhood hunger in low-income families when school meal programs are on break or harder to access over the summer. Eligible families would get a card preloaded with money to buy food that is sent to their homes when school’s out.

Families of up to 350,000 Colorado children would benefit.

The program would be another step in Colorado’s continuing effort to shrink the number of children who go hungry in the state. Starting this school year, the vast majority of Colorado students can get free school meals regardless of family income because of a universal meal program approved by voters in 2022.

A program similar to Summer EBT was in place during the pandemic, but it was optional for school districts, and it expired last summer. The new Summer EBT program would require all districts in the federal government’s National School Lunch Program to participate. In Colorado, that’s every district but Aspen.

Helping low-income families pay for groceries in the summer reduces childhood food insecurity, increases fruit and vegetable intake, and cuts the amount of sugary beverages children drink, according to federal evaluations of a pilot Summer EBT program in several states.

Families would be eligible for Summer EBT in 2024 if they have household incomes at or below 185% of the federal poverty level — $55,500 for a family of four — and have children attending preschool through 12th grade in a public school that offers the National School Lunch or Breakfast Program.

For the state to participate, Colorado lawmakers will have to appropriate about $3.5 million to help administer the program, said Brehan Riley, school nutrition director at the Colorado Department of Education. The federal government would match that amount, plus send $35 million to $42 million directly to qualifying families in the form of benefit cards. The program would be jointly administered by the Colorado Department of Human Services and the education department.

Riley said children will still be able to get any free summer meals offered through their school district even if their families also receive the Summer EBT benefit.

“The $120, I think it averages out to $1.33 a day,” she said. “So it’s supposed to supplement” the summer school meals program. Some students can’t get to local schools that offer summer meals because they live too far away or don’t have transportation.

If state lawmakers approve the Summer EBT program during the special session, which could last just three days, Colorado would join 10 other states planning to participate next summer. They include Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Jersey, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia

The Colorado State Board of Education voted 7-1 in support of the proposed Summer EBT bill on Tuesday. Board member Debora Scheffel, a Republican who represents a large swath of eastern Colorado, voted no. Board member Steve Durham, also a Republican, was absent.

If lawmakers approve the Summer EBT bill, Riley said the most important thing parents can do to ensure they’re eligible is fill out the free and reduced-price meal form at their child’s school. In some districts, the form may have a slightly different name, possibly the “family economic data survey.”

“We are hearing from districts that families haven’t been filling out those forms,” she said. “In order to receive summer EBT benefits, that form has to be in place.”

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

‘I am here, I care:’ How this Colorado school social worker heads off mistrust

2023-08-16T23:29:52+00:00

Leah Williamson, a middle school social worker in the southern Colorado city of Pueblo, says some of her students have gone through more by age 14 than most adults do in a lifetime. They come from the city’s east side, where poverty and crime rates are high.

They don’t “come from white picket fences, unicorns and glitter, and do not want to be treated as [if] they do,” she said. “They want love and attention.”

But since many of her students have a hard time trusting people, Williamson, who works at Risley International Academy of Innovation, tries to meet them where they are and get to know them as individuals.

“Most are extremely proud to be ‘East-siders’ and need people to see them for who they are and where they come from,” she said.

Williamson, who was named 2023 Trailblazer of the Year by the Colorado School Social Work Association, talked to Chalkbeat about her own school struggles, the effects of the pandemic on students, and her advice for parents who want to help their children with mental health issues.

This interview has been lightly edited for length and clarity.

Was there a moment when you decided to become a school social worker?

I actually had no intention of being a school social worker or working with kids. While I was completing my master’s degree internship with the counseling agency State of Grace, they placed me in the Pueblo 60 district. I loved it and realized I was able to connect with the kids.

The district created a school social worker position and hired me to not only take on Risley but to show the need and establish what we can do. I knew then I had an important mission that would have a ripple effect and help every student and family in the district. Showing our worth ultimately led the district to hire nine more school social workers.

How did your own school experiences impact you and shape your approach to your job?

I was not passionate about school and did not see the value. I was (and still am) horrible at math. It was not something that came easily to me, and I lost confidence in myself. My perspective was If I didn’t do it, I would not fail at it.

This seems to be the case with a lot of kids. They do not believe in themselves. If I can be that one person that believes in them and gets them to at least try, they generally surprise themselves and realize they can do it. Then they get excited and want more of the feelings of pride and accomplishment. And yes, I do share my story of middle through high school — almost not graduating high school to graduating early, then earning a master’s degree.

As we emerge from the pandemic, what kinds of struggles do you see students facing? How do you help them?

The struggles are far deeper than being behind academically. Students have lost social and emotional skills, with communities like mine seeing extreme poverty, gang violence, and abuse. These kids need more than a teacher upset with them over a math assignment they didn’t complete. They need adults to understand and care why assignments aren’t complete.

I work hard to see and hear my students as well as be the connection between them and other adults in the building. I do not pretend students are someone they are not. They are all on the “rough side of town.” They also have goals, dreams, likes, and dislikes.

I work hard to remove the stigma of mental health l. I encourage students to seek help, whether from me or an outside resource without worrying about what others think or how it looks. I let them know I am here, I care, and seeking support is OK.

Do you have suggestions for parents whose children may be facing struggles with mental health?

Talk about it. Do not be ashamed if you, as a parent, have mental health struggles or if your child struggles. Be direct, open, and listen to what they say.

I encourage parents to get the resources they need, whether it is substance abuse support, mental health support, resources to help with finances, or parenting support. I use the “it takes a village” motto when it comes to raising kids and surviving this world.

Tell us about a time when you managed to connect with a challenging student or a student facing a difficult situation. How did you do it?

Last school year, I had a student who came from a significantly broken and abusive home. She was angry at everything and everyone. She did not trust anyone. It took time, but I kept showing up. When she would lash out and push me away, I came back — softer and with more compassion. I showed her I was not walking away or giving up on her.

She still comes to visit me. She now believes she can not only graduate high school but has plans for college. She tells me when she is faced with a decision, she hears my voice.

What’s the biggest misconception you’ve encountered about your role in schools?

The same misconception that all social workers generally face: We are here to destroy your family and take your kids. This is especially hard if you are working with a family involved with the courts or the Department of Human Services. Showing families that you are an ally is one of the biggest obstacles.

Sometimes helping staff understand exactly what you do and why can be challenging as well. Many think we are too soft and do not hold kids accountable when in reality, we do more than anyone. It just looks different.

Tell us about a memorable time — good or bad — when contact with a student’s family changed your perspective or approach.

Last year I also serviced an elementary school. I received a referral for a student who was on the autism spectrum and was extremely selective in who he communicated with. I was warned about his mother and told she was hostile and difficult. After working with her, I came to realize that staying neutral was key. I did not go into it with a bad attitude or assuming the worst. Instead, I offered all the love, support, and resources I could and was able to meet her needs, the needs of the school, and do what was best for the kiddo.

What are you reading or listening to for enjoyment?

I am currently finishing “The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma” by Bessel van der Kolk.

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

How Colorado is filling gaps for its ‘most vulnerable’ children as last-resort schools dwindle

2023-05-14T11:00:00+00:00

Help is finally coming to Colorado’s facility schools, which often serve as a last resort for some of the state’s most vulnerable students.

A new state law will cut red tape and boost funding for the collapsing system, which serves children with intense behavioral, mental health or special education needs. The law also aims to train local teachers and staff, especially in rural areas, to serve such students closer to home.

While experts are hopeful, they acknowledged it won’t entirely fix the problems that led 50 privately run facility schools to close in the past 20 years, leaving just 30 open today.

“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. “But the legislation is trying to take that into account.”

Lawmakers hope to see 12 new schools open in the next three years. 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.

Meanwhile, public school districts have been starting programs of their own. But the new legislation does little to support these “missing middle” programs. The leader of one regional consortium said the state should be funneling money to them instead.

In a state that has long underfunded both education and behavioral health, there are gaps everywhere and no shortage of work to be done. However, there are also models, here and elsewhere, that point toward a better way to serve what can be a forgotten population.

New rules make it easier to form facility schools

The Learning Zone is a small specialized school in Littleton for nonverbal students. It’s in the process of becoming a facility school. 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.

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. The new law eliminates that first hurdle.

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. It’s been a game changer for students who are often left behind in public schools.

“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. “They actually get invited to birthday parties that are for their actual friends.”

But when The Learning Zone sought licensing as a day treatment center, it was subjected to a checklist of safety requirements and psychological goals geared toward an entirely different population: students with mental health issues and trauma.

“We had to become a day treatment even though all of the requirements of a day treatment don’t apply to our school or our population of learners at all,” Attreau said.

“You’re needing to check a thousand boxes for part one just to get to part two, even though the second box is the one that makes sense for you.”

Getting approval is important because school districts are more likely to pay for state-approved programs. However, the process was onerous enough that advisers suggested The Learning Zone wait for the new law to take effect. But Attreu feared losing students and money.

Districts that had been willing to pay part of The Learning Zone’s $60,000 tuition when it started as an alternative to remote school in 2020 had become “antsy,” Attreau said, and given The Learning Zone an ultimatum: become a legitimate school or we’ll take our students back.

“We don’t want the services we are offering to be limited to the people who are wealthy and elite and capable of paying for this,” Attreau said.

Third Way Center’s Joan Farley Academy, a facility school in Denver, tries to create a supportive environment for teens coming out of youth corrections and the foster system.

Not all private programs want to become facility schools

While state approval can be a powerful incentive, not all private programs say they want or need it.

School districts that once balked at the $96,000 annual cost for Firefly Autism in Lakewood are now more likely to pay, even though it’s not a facility school, said President and CEO Amanda Kelly. That could be due to a 2017 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. The high court found the Douglas County School District, which was refusing to pay for a student to attend Firefly, violated that student’s right to an education. It could also be due to Firefly’s 20-year track record.

“We have such a brilliant relationship with our districts,” Kelly said, adding that Firefly has students from 14 different districts. “I think that’s trust built over time.”

And Firefly doesn’t want to become a facility school, in part because it doesn’t see itself as a school. It doesn’t have teachers or students. Instead, the 42 children and young adults who spend their days there — who range in age from 3 to 21 and have a combination of autism and intellectual disabilities — are called “learners.”

They work one-on-one with certified behavior experts to learn life skills, chief among them how to communicate and advocate for their needs. Firefly is a day treatment program, but to become a facility school, it would have to hire teachers and a special education director and follow a curriculum aligned to state academic standards.

“To make such a massive change, we just don’t know if that’s what Firefly should do,” Kelly said.

Humanex Academy, a private middle and high school in Englewood, has another reason for not wanting to become a facility school. The leaders at Humanex, which serves neurodiverse students with autism, ADHD, and other disabilities, disagree with the goal of facility schools, which is to teach students the skills they need to return to public school.

“We didn’t want districts to say, ‘How soon can you fix them and give them back to us?’” Principal Kati Cahill said. “I always was a proponent of public education. But unfortunately the existing system isn’t set up to meet the needs of these kids.”

Students attend class at Third Way Center’s Joan Farley Academy in Denver.

School districts filling the gaps with their own programs

Boards of Cooperative Educational Services, or BOCES, are regional associations of school districts that pool resources to provide a service they would not be able to alone.

Sandy Malouff is the executive director and special education director for the Santa Fe Trail BOCES, which serves six rural school districts in southeastern Colorado. Malouff started a day treatment program years ago because metro Denver facility schools were too far away, and students who did attend those schools often struggled to transition when they returned home.

The Southeast Alternative Learning Academy in La Junta serves students as far as 70 miles away. Over the past five years, about 30% of students have gone back to their local schools.

Malouff based her program on the Pikes Peak BOCES School of Excellence, which serves students who would likely need a facility school from more than a dozen districts around Colorado Springs.

Executive Director Pat Bershinsky said most districts would rather send their students to the School of Excellence “because they still have a connection to that kid. The kid’s not just put in a facility somewhere and forgotten about.”

In addition to the main location in Colorado Springs, a satellite location in the tiny town of Calhan puts services within reach for rural families. One student, Bershinsky said, had previously spent about four hours in a car every day going from Limon to a facility school in Denver. Calhan is less than an hour from Limon.

Bershinsky said lawmakers should have directed money to rural BOCES so they can “stand up their own programs like I have.”

Many metro area districts also have separate schools for students who struggle with behavior. In the Cherry Creek School District in suburban Denver, the Joliet Learning Center is often students’ last stop before going to a facility school or their first stop when they transition back, said Tony Poole, the district’s assistant superintendent of special populations.

But Cherry Creek is going further. Using $14 million in voter-approved bonds and $1.5 million of federal funding, the district is building its own treatment program that officials say is unlike any other.

Traverse Academy is set to open this fall.

Traverse Academy will serve 60 students in fourth through 12th grade in three separate wings: one for kids in mental health crises that will be heavy on therapy and light on academics, another for students with moderate needs that will balance the two, and yet another for students getting ready to transition back to their home schools.

Children’s Hospital Colorado and the University of Colorado Department of Psychiatry will provide clinicians to work alongside the educators.

Opening Traverse Academy this fall won’t eliminate the need for facility schools, Poole said, but he hopes it will alleviate some of the pressure, especially for students who are suicidal.

“With the closure of these facilities, we just have more kids in crisis who are left with no option,” Poole said. “It means we have kids in significant crisis walking our hallways every day.”

A student writes answers on a worksheet during science class at the Hilltop Day Treatment, a facility school in Grand Junction. Facility schools seek to balance academics and therapy.

Advocates want more inclusion, not just more institutions

Some advocates say the real solution lies with helping public schools support students in traditional classrooms, not in creating more separate programs.

“When you build it, they will come,” said Diane Smith Howard, an attorney with the National Disability Rights Network. “What we have learned is: Anytime you create a program, the slots get filled. And they don’t necessarily get filled with kids who want to be there.”

In California, the CHIME Institute’s Schwarzenegger Community School in the Los Angeles area has been so successful at educating students with disabilities alongside peers without disabilities that CHIME staff provide technical assistance to schools and districts across the state.

If Executive Director Erin Studer could give advice to Colorado, it would be to fund model schools, “those bright spots of practice” that other educators can visit and observe, alongside a technical assistance center.

When students do go to specialized settings, supporting transitions back to their home school is critical. Teachers at Brook Valley South in Nebraska show teachers at students’ home schools how to carefully track behavior through the day and watch for patterns.

Teacher Carrie Fairbairn recalled one student who would run up and down the aisle of the bus badgering other students until they assigned him a seat behind the talkative driver who chatted the whole way to school.

“Lo and behold,” Fairbairn said. “Zero bus issues.”

“Sometimes folks are so quick to see that label on a kid: [emotional disability] or behavior disorder,” she added. “And you’re like, ‘move his seat.’”

Artwork decorates the walls at Skyline Academy, a facility school in Denver. The school tries to help children build social and emotional skills.

‘There’s nothing wrong with kids’

The story of Jack, a fourth-grader with autism, shows how short staffing in public schools can set off a spiral that requires more significant intervention. It also shows how tenuous progress can be and how critical it is to have a range of options.

Not long before Denver Public Schools recommended a facility school for Jack, his special education team thought he was doing so well in a separate classroom they wanted him to start going to the traditional classroom for math, his mother said.

But Jack’s elementary school didn’t have a one-on-one aide to shadow him, and the plan never happened. Disappointed, Jack returned to behaviors he’d mostly overcome: running away from school or refusing to go inside at all.

His mother, Heidi Laursen, lost her job — and her family’s health insurance — because she spent so much time trying to coax him through the schoolhouse door. The school called the police when Jack pulled a paper towel dispenser off the wall.

All last summer, Jack’s family thought he was on a waitlist for a facility school.

Instead, the Friday afternoon before school was supposed to start, Laursen said she got a call saying Jack would have to go back to the separate classroom at his old elementary school — the place that was short-staffed, that had called the police on him, and where Jack spent most of his time with the patient art teacher instead of learning.

“I couldn’t send him back to the school he had been running away from,” Laursen said.

So the family transferred Jack to Boulder, where his father lives. He was placed at Halcyon School run by the Boulder Valley School District.

Principal Matt Dudek describes Halcyon as a small, safe space for students who might otherwise turn their frustrations outward or bottle them up to learn skills to manage overwhelming settings — like a traditional public school with hundreds of peers.

“We don’t fix kids,” Dudek said. “There’s nothing wrong with kids.”

The average stay at Halcyon is about a year. In 15 years, Dudek said he’s only referred one student to a facility school.

Jack’s fourth grade year has gone well, his mother said. Now 10, Jack has earned Matchbox cars and tiny Tech Deck finger skateboards for good behavior. When he’s overwhelmed, he has a “safe tree” outside where he can go, shadowed by a watchful staff member, until he’s ready to return to class.

Jack was doing so well that his team began talking about transitioning him back to a larger public school. Perhaps remembering the disappointment last time, Jack began acting out again, his mother said, running away or refusing to go into the building.

“In the end, we decided that maybe he wasn’t ready to transition, because of the behavior he was showing,” Laursen said. “Maybe he needs more time to feel safe.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Rae Ellen Bichell is a reporter with KFF Health News, formerly known as Kaiser Health News (KHN). Contact Rae at RaeB@kff.org.

Colorado is pouring more money into schools for kids with behavioral health issues and disabilities, but are they helping?

2023-05-13T11:00:00+00:00

Colorado is doubling the funding next year for schools that enroll students whose mental health or medical needs are too intense for regular schools to handle, calling for 12 new schools to open within the next three years.

The number of these specialized schools, which operate as day centers or are part of residential treatment facilities or hospitals, has fallen over the past two decades to 30 from 80. They offer a combination of therapy and academics in an effort to stabilize thousands of students a year so they can return to their home schools.

But even as the state attempts to shore up a system that’s been sapped by staff shortages, inadequate state funding and other challenges, it is nearly impossible for parents and other members of the public to get answers to a fundamental question: Are students enrolled in the schools safe and learning?

Facility schools are intended to act as temporary programs of last resort to stabilize students so they can successfully return to their home schools. Yet, the state does not keep track of how many students return to regular school or how many eventually graduate.

The state requires facility school students to take its standardized tests, but does not provide individual school results, citing student privacy because the classes are so small.

The schools exist at the intersection of the educational, mental health, and juvenile justice systems. Multiple state agencies are responsible for monitoring the schools, but those visits in some cases happen only every two years and reports from the state education and human services departments aren’t readily available to the public. The Colorado Sun and Chalkbeat Colorado filed multiple requests under public records laws to receive reports, some of which were redacted, that offer a glimpse into the facility school environment.

Maintaining separate schools for children who act out aggressively, frequently run from school, or have severe medical or intellectual needs is controversial, with some parents and disability rights advocates questioning whether they are holding centers for kids with behavior problems. It’s clear Colorado needs more facility schools to accommodate the growing number of children with behavioral health struggles, but advocates also want enough information to ensure kids are safe and learning.

Facility schools offer a mix of academics and therapy. The goal is for children to stabilize enough to return to traditional classrooms.

‘We don’t really have a choice but to make them better’

The prime sponsor of the new law that will pour an additional $18 million into facility schools next year, increasing their funding by 2.6 times what’s in current law, agrees that Colorado needs more data about whether facility schools are working.

Sen. Rachel Zenzinger, an Arvada Democrat and chair of the Joint Budget Committee, hopes her legislation will force the various state agencies that oversee the schools to cooperate and report better data on outcomes within a few years. It also requires that schools earn accreditation in order to receive state funding through the new law.

“There are some facilities where we do question whether they are simply warehousing kids and whether they offer good programming,” said Pamela Bisceglia, executive director of Advocacy Denver, which speaks up for Denver Public Schools children with special needs. She has visited several facility schools over the years with parents who are deciding where to place their children. Some are clean, calm, and excelling at teaching children, she said. And some are not.

Bisceglia recalled visiting one Denver school where children ages 5-17 were all in the same room, some lying on the floor, no one interacting with each other, while several staff members in the room were scrolling on their phones.

“They were simply trying to keep them from hurting themselves or others,” she said. “There wasn’t any learning going on. There wasn’t any individualized therapy.”

“Sometimes it’s a moving target for them to try to meet to get back into that neighborhood school. Sometimes they just never learn the skills that the school feels that they need.”

The Arc Pikes Peak Region believes all children should attend their neighborhood schools rather than facility schools where they end up cut off from their peers, said Connie McKenzie, an advocate for children with disabilities. If children do end up in a facility school, their time there should be temporary, with the goal that they will gain skills so they can return to their neighborhood school.

“In actuality, I don’t think that happens as often as anyone would like,” McKenzie said. “In my experience, a lot of times when kids are sent to facility schools, they never return to their neighborhood schools. Sometimes it’s a moving target for them to try to meet to get back into that neighborhood school. Sometimes they just never learn the skills that the school feels that they need.”

Maureen Welch, a member of a task force that studied facility schools for the past year and whose son attended one, said Colorado needs “a lot of light and sunshine” to illuminate the process of approving facility schools in the next few years. She wants to make sure the state is bringing in quality programs ranging from small, neighborhood startups that serve a handful of students with related issues, to large, national operations.

“We need to actually have them learn and move forward,” Welch said. “Yes, it’s expensive, but we don’t really have a choice but to make them better. What are we going to do? Put these kids in the correctional system? There is no place to put them because there are not institutions anymore. We will always have a population of kids that can’t be served in a public school district situation.”

Under the new law, schools must receive accreditation based on recommendations from the state facility school board, a panel created in 2008. Board chairperson Steven Ramirez did not return multiple requests for comment from The Colorado Sun and its partners.

The Office of Facility Schools, within the Colorado Department of Education, pushed back on the characterization that facility schools are just a place to keep kids that school districts don’t want to deal with anymore.

“Are there facilities somewhere out there that exist that maybe aren’t being as effective as they need to be or warehousing kids? I don’t think we can eliminate that as a possibility,” said Paul Foster, the executive director of exceptional student services for the education department. “I think we can pretty safely say if they’re in our facility school system, that that’s not the case.”

If it were the case, he said, monitoring visits by the department would have turned up “serious or even egregious” violations instead of the more pedestrian problems that they more commonly find.

Skyline Academy is operating under capacity because some children have needs beyond what the Denver facility school can manage.

Facility schools are not rated based on their test scores in the same way that traditional public schools are, Foster said. While students at facility schools are required to take state standardized tests, state officials take into account that students have “unique and pretty significant needs — and that’s why they’re in a facility school setting,” Foster said.

Callan Ware, the executive director of student services for Englewood Schools, a small district south of Denver, said that when she sends a student to a facility school, it’s because their behavior is so dysregulated — they’re skipping class, getting kicked out, or harming themselves — that they struggle to concentrate and learn.

“While we do absolutely have academic expectations of facility schools, the No. 1 goal is, let’s learn the skills you need to be successful in a public setting,” Ware said.

She recalled one student who struggled with boundaries and impulsiveness and who routinely got sent home from public school for touching other students in class. After less than a year of daily therapy in a facility school, the student “totally turned it around,” she said. His engagement in academic tasks skyrocketed and when he returned to public school, “we could see the kind of student he could be because he wasn’t getting kicked out of class all the time.”

Human services reports reveal safety issues involving cleaning chemicals, restraints

The job of ensuring students are safe and getting a quality education in facility schools falls to multiple state agencies.

The Colorado Department of Education is charged with making sure the schools are following curriculum guidelines and the components of students’ individualized special education plans. The state Department of Human Services, which includes the child protection division, monitors schools to make sure students are safe. Human Services licenses schools in day-treatment or residential centers, while the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment licenses those in hospitals.

When Colorado lawmakers implemented the Office of Facility Schools at the state education department in 2008, they ordered the office to create curriculum standards, graduation guidelines, and an accountability system for the schools. While those standards were written, some of the performance data isn’t tracked or is not easily accessible to the public.

In response to a records request, the Colorado Department of Education provided average standardized test scores across all facility schools — they are lower than the state average, which state officials attributed to their intense behavioral health needs. Colorado’s strict student privacy law requires redacting data about small student groups, and the state wouldn’t provide any test data for individual schools.

Teacher Timi Meyer goes over a worksheet during science class at the Hilltop Day Treatment facility in Grand Junction.

The Colorado Sun and its partners gleaned what data we could by seeking documents under state open records laws. The state doesn’t track graduation rates or keep a count of how many students return to their home districts after attending a facility school. The Department of Human Services charged $90 for redacted reports on child safety. One police department said it would cost $4,700 for copies of reports that could shed light on why police were called so frequently to a facility school and the residential center where it’s housed in Colorado Springs.

The state human services department conducts regular inspections of schools in day-treatment and residential centers, focusing on whether children’s rights are protected. When the division receives a complaint about the way a child was restrained or injured, a state monitor investigates to determine if the school violated state regulations regarding child abuse or neglect. The Colorado Sun reviewed a year’s worth of school monitoring documents after receiving redacted reports through state open records laws.

The reports shed light on the often chaotic, and at times unsafe, environment at schools for students with a history of behavior problems deemed too much for regular schools to manage.

The Tennyson Center in Denver has operated as a home for children since 1904. It’s currently a day treatment facility school.

Mount Saint Vincent, a Denver day treatment center with a school, was cited last summer after a child was able to get ahold of cleaning chemicals and spray them at staff, sending a worker to the emergency room with possible eye and inhalation injuries.

The school was cited again in September after a father of one of the students complained about a red mark on his child that he said was from being held down by staff members on a “hot sidewalk.” A state report says the child threw a water bottle and began hitting two workers after being told to complete math before playing. The staff members restrained the child in a supine hold, face up on a paved courtyard, as the child screamed “Let my arm go” and “The concrete hurts.”

Tennyson Center, another Denver day treatment center, was cited in January for failing to supervise a child who had a known history of cutting herself. The girl hurt herself in a bathroom after staff failed to check on her, according to one Colorado Department of Human Services report.

Devereux Cleo Wallace, which has a day treatment school in Westminster that is closing at the end of this school year, was investigated after a worker chased after and collided with a child running toward a maintenance shed containing tools.

12 schools cited by education department in past five years

In the past five years, the Colorado Department of Education has ordered 12 facility schools to take corrective action for violations ranging from not uploading individualized special education plan documents, using curriculum not aligned to state standards, and cutting into academic time by pulling students out of class for therapy, according to monitoring and corrective action reports reviewed by Chalkbeat Colorado

Five of those 12 schools are closed now. That means seven of the 30 facility schools currently operating — or about 23% — have had violations in the past five years. Most were addressed by the next time state monitors visited.

Poplar Way Academy, inside a behavioral health hospital in Littleton, was cited for cluttered and dirty learning areas, “minimal structure,” and lots of downtime for the 17 students who were there when the monitors visited last June.

“Students had control over the radio and music was playing loudly as they worked,” said the report, which was by far the most egregious of 88 monitoring reports reviewed for this story. “There were no redirections for inappropriate language or behaviors, and students were often left unsupervised or allowed to walk out of the classroom with no redirection. Inappropriate boundaries were noted among students,” who were male and female.

The school is different from most in that it’s for teenagers who have been admitted to a hospital on mental health holds, meaning they were deemed a danger to themselves or others. The average length of stay is just four to five days, the report says.

The school’s director of special education, Deon Roberts, said that since state officials’ last visit, the school has hired more teachers, increased staff training and expanded the curriculum. The school is “committed to continuous improvement while providing much-needed educational services to a challenging population of students,” she said in an email.

Skyline Academy’s “chill space” provides a separate room where students can find a darker, quieter environment to decompress.

The majority of the violations, however, are for “quick fixes” that schools can address with more training or resources, said Judy Stirman, director of facility schools at the state education department.

State education officials try to help schools with a background in mental health treatment understand their educational obligations, said Foster, with the state education department. “If I’m a therapist or someone at a facility school, I’m looking at the whole package, and so I may not understand that the school side of it has committed to a certain plan for this child in addition to the treatment plan you’re doing.

“Special education is pretty technical, so you can have technical violations,” he said. “Don’t hear me say that technical violations don’t need to be treated seriously. But a technical violation that is quickly remedied is not usually harmful to the student.”

Facility schools with violations get a visit each year from a pair of state monitors. Schools without violations get a visit every other year from monitors who use a 98-item checklist. In addition to whether schools are complying with the mounds of federal requirements related to special education, the monitors determine whether teachers are properly licensed and staff are using positive behavior interventions with students and not punitive ones, for example.

The reports provide a window into what the schools look and feel like. Many describe bright classrooms with student artwork on display. They note that most schools use a reward system where students with good behavior earn tickets that they can redeem for prizes. Some schools hold events like talent shows and carnivals. One has a basketball team. Another has a student choir. A few have therapy dogs, gardens, or culinary arts programs.

Juvenile records laws shield information about safety

Several of Colorado’s facility schools include a mix of students who live at home with their parents and students who are in foster care and live in the residential treatment center that contains the school.

This clouds transparency about the safety of the schools, since police regularly visit residential centers for young people who might have lived in multiple foster homes and juvenile justice centers.

Public records requests from The Sun to police departments in Colorado Springs and Denver revealed a constant drumbeat of emergency calls to facility schools or programs housed in the same complexes.

Between April 2021 and the end of March, for example, Colorado Springs police responded hundreds of times to the J. Wilkins Opportunity School, 10 Farragut Ave., and the residential program across the street, 17 Farragut Ave., police records show.

More than 100 emergencies were reported at the school, including 18 assaults as well as sexual assaults, threats, harassment, 911 hangups, and suicide attempts. The residential facility, where some of the students live, accounted for more than 470 police calls during that period, with dozens more reports of assaults, threats, indecent exposure, missing children, and sexual offenses, the records show.

No details were provided beyond the time, date, and nature of each call. Police said a request for more records of those calls would require an estimated $4,700 payment for research and redaction fees.

“We’re less likely to press charges than a school would. If they’re here, we’re not suspending them, either.”

Managing outbursts and aggressive behavior is nothing new at the J. Wilkins Opportunity School, said Lauren Campbell, the chief operating officer of the Griffith Centers, which runs the school and residential program.

“Some of that behavior is why these kids — a good portion of them — are here,” Campbell said. “It’s not an ideal piece of learning, clearly, but unfortunately it’s the safest place for most of these students to be in general.”

When police are called, the children involved in the emergency are separated from other students, so officers aren’t entering classrooms, Campbell said. That minimizes disruptions and allows staff to restore order and return to teaching, she said.

A threat that might get a child suspended or even kicked out of another school often results in a safety plan involving special accommodations, such as a temporary transfer to a different classroom.

Campbell said calls to police had increased in the past two years, citing a staffing shortage that made it harder for workers to defuse conflicts on their own.

Skyline Academy’s peace room is one place students can get some time apart from their classmates.

The campus used to operate five residential centers, housing up to 40 children. But they closed all but one after the passage of the federal Family First Prevention Services Act, which pushed states to send fewer children to residential care.

The closures reduced the campus staff by roughly 50%, and the only remaining residential center was reserved for the kids with the severest needs, leading to more frequent calls for help, Campbell said.

Still, the emphasis remains on keeping children safe, and on campus.

“They end up in less troublesome situations than in a school setting,” she said. “We’re less likely to press charges than a school would. If they’re here, we’re not suspending them, either.”

In Denver, police similarly logged thousands of calls per year to facility schools or the complexes housing them, also for reports of assaults, missing children and various disturbances, records show. But Denver police declined to provide incident or arrest reports that would disclose more detail, citing a state law meant to protect juveniles’ privacy.

McKenzie, with The Arc Pikes Peak Region, worries Colorado isn’t doing enough to make sure kids at facility schools are safe.

“There isn’t that oversight,” said McKenzie, who advocates for a handful of families each year whose kids end up attending facility schools, noting some students are terrified of returning to one.

“They were afraid,” she said. “They were legitimately afraid of what was going to happen to them if they went back to a place where they felt they had been abused.”

Lawmakers are hoping to see better coordination between the agencies that oversee facility schools.

Becky Miller Updike, director of the Colorado Association of Family and Children’s Agencies, which represents some of the largest youth treatment facilities in Colorado, is hopeful that this year’s legislation will set facility schools on a trajectory of better funding and more accountability.

“With this new investment from the legislature, facility schools will now track data and access technical assistance more robustly than ever before,” she said. “We will have new ways to measure what’s working and what’s not.”

Zenzinger’s legislation requires multiple state agencies to work together to help current schools function better and new ones open.

“Facility schools don’t neatly live under one department. That’s why they are such a challenge,” she said. “We are definitely mandating a new level of cooperation between these different departments so that they are each doing their part.”

“We want to make sure that children in facility schools are able to graduate and go on to college and have productive lives.”

As part of the new accreditation requirements, schools will have to report additional data showing student outcomes, and the new law provides funding for data collection because “we absolutely would like to track things a little bit better,” Zenzinger said. A task force that has studied facility schools for the last year and made recommendations ahead of Zenzinger’s legislation will continue to meet and help determine what data the schools are required to report.

“We want them to be accredited and deliver good quality public education,” she said. “Obviously they aren’t traditional schools. You are not going to have passing periods and a full schedule every day. But we want to make sure that children in facility schools are able to graduate and go on to college and have productive lives.”

One child out of 11 returned to a regular school

On a recent day at Skyline Academy in Denver, elementary school children read quietly at their desks as a flat-screen television at the front of their classroom played soothing music and showed a trickling waterfall.

The desks at Skyline, which is run by Denver’s community mental health center WellPower, have bungee rubber bands that stretch from one chair leg to the other so kids can put their feet on them and bounce as they study fractions or read aloud. Each child gets a plastic rainbow wiggle slug they silently twist and curl in their palm, helping them relieve anxiety. Children can use standing desks or “wobbly” stools inside of regular chairs. There is a “chill room” and a “peace room” containing bean bags and swings where students can hang out if the classroom gets too stressful.

Classrooms at Skyline Academy are decorated with student artwork.

The classrooms, decorated with cheerful colors and maps, are on one side of the building of the Dahlia Campus for Health and Well-Being. On the other side are the mental health center’s counseling offices where children get individual and family therapy.

The school has a capacity for 24, yet only 14 desks are full — even as school districts across Colorado are scrambling to find spaces for children whose needs are beyond what they can handle.

Program manager Erica Edewaard said that’s because many of the children who’ve been referred to Skyline in recent months have behavioral issues more intense than even Skyline can accommodate. Some of the kids referred by school districts, she said, need residential treatment.

Skyline, not far from busy Martin Luther King and Colorado boulevards, won’t accept children who repeatedly run away because they could get hit by cars. Under state law, schools like Skyline are not allowed to lock their doors and staff are prohibited from physically restraining students unless there is imminent risk of danger to themselves or others. Skyline also won’t typically take kids with a history of destroying property or assaulting teachers or other students, especially if they are nearly the same size as Edewaard’s staff.

“I also have to take into consideration the size of the student relative to the size of my staff,” Edewaard said. “If I’m always relying on just my two tallest staff members, that’s going to burn them out really quickly.”

The goal at Skyline is that students learn to cope with their anxiety, depression or attention disorder so they are able to function and learn in a regular classroom. For most, however, a direct transition to regular school is not that easy.

Eleven students have left Skyline in the past year, according to data provided by the school. Three students left for hospitalization or a residential treatment program, one “aged out” and a handful of others went to other step-down or specialized school programs.

Only one returned to a regular classroom.

Jennifer Brown is a co-founder and reporter at The Sun, where she writes about mental health, child welfare and social justice issues. Contact Jen at jennifer@coloradosun.com.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Students in rural Colorado left without options as specialized schools close

2023-05-12T11:00:00+00:00

GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. — 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 with motivational messages like “Determination” and “Courage” scribbled onto paper cutouts of stars and moons.

A closer look reveals that Hilltop Day Treatment is no ordinary school. There are no backpacks or lockers. Students are escorted to the restroom. Hugs aren’t allowed, a precaution against inappropriate touching by students who do not yet understand physical boundaries. And before lunch, the students break from their regular lessons for group therapy.

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. 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. The other 29 facility schools are in the more heavily populated Front Range corridor.

“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. “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.”

Disability rights and mental health advocates say facility schools are overused and can become dumping grounds for students with disabilities. 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.

Democratic Gov. 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 the sparse population and vast distances of the Western Slope and Eastern Plains mean serving these vulnerable students will likely remain a challenge.

“There are no services there. And so you get one student with autism that comes into this little tiny district, what’s going to happen? That child is not going to get what he or she needs, and they’re too far away from the Front Range,” said Barb Taylor, an educator turned consultant who serves as special education director for several Colorado facility schools.

According to a report submitted to lawmakers, among the main reasons students could not be placed at a facility school were lack of openings and, in rural areas, “prohibitive geographic location.”

A few rural patches of the state have figured out alternatives to serve students closer to home. For example, the Santa Fe Trail Board of Cooperative Educational Services, or BOCES, started the Southeast Alternative Learning Academy in La Junta for students in the eastern plains with emotional and behavioral problems.

But few other BOCES, regional associations of school districts that pool resources to provide services they would not be able to alone, have managed to start such programs.

Instead, across much of rural Colorado, “we have people that are trying to work with these kids that are not qualified or that are not trained, that don’t have the skills that they need to be able to do that in the district,” said Sandy Malouff, executive director and special education director of the Santa Fe Trail BOCES.

Sonjia Hunt, director of education at the Hilltop Day Treatment school, describes the services the school offers to children in sixth through 12th grade.

In the western half of the state, Sonjia Hunt, director of Hilltop Day Treatment school, said she has watched facility schools scale down or close: first in Rifle, then in Whitewater, Delta, Durango, and, last year, one inside a Glenwood Springs hospital.

After operating in the red for years, Hilltop had to scale back as well, shutting down its 16-bed residential facility in October 2020. Now, students on the Western Slope who require residential treatment must travel across the Rockies, if not out of state, Hunt said.

The new state law will allow Hilltop to hire another teacher, case manager, and therapist, and take on 12 more students, Hunt said. But Hilltop doesn’t plan to reopen its residential side.

When the residential facility closed, surrounding communities struggled to make up the loss, said Tammy Johnson, executive director of the Uncompahgre BOCES, which serves five rural western districts.

“There’s a big difference between being an educational entity and a therapeutic entity. We just don’t have the training that we need to meet these kids’ needs,” said Johnson.

The Hilltop Day Treatment school in Grand Junction is the only remaining school of its kind on Colorado’s Western Slope. It currently serves 12 girls and boys and always has a waiting list.

‘I just needed help’

Riley George, a 12-year-old with autism and disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, has had to cross a mountain range to get an education. After enrolling in and leaving multiple schools, Riley now lives in a residential facility in Colorado Springs, more than three hours from his home in Del Norte.

The slight preteen, whose tufty hair sticks up in the wind like a thistle, is an avid reader who tears through 400-page science fiction books.

He loves his dog and Baby Yoda, a character from the Star Wars TV series The Mandalorian. He goes for walks with one of his little sisters and plays action figures with his little brother. On a good day, said his mother, Kelly George, he’s “a good, respectful kid” who has no trouble getting himself ready for school.

But Riley’s brain works faster than his hands, which can make tasks like writing or tying shoelaces feel frustratingly insurmountable. He is only now learning how to play make-believe with others cooperatively, something other children tend to learn at a much younger age. And seemingly small things, like an itchy tag on his clothes, or loud noises, like his sister’s happy shrieks, can send him to a bad place.

“When he was younger, he would cover his ears and just immediately hit the floor and start screaming like he was in pain,” said George.

Now that he’s older, overload leads to aggression: hitting, cursing, kicking. “We had to design a code word for the other kids,” said George, to signal to her three younger children to barricade themselves in a room while the parents try to calm the eldest.

From preschool through second grade, Riley attended Bill Metz Elementary School in Monte Vista, one town over from where his family lives. Riley remembered how his teachers there gave him space when he was upset, as on the day his dog ran away. His special education teacher, Kellyn Ross, remembered him complimenting the cafeteria staff for a “divine” lunch.

On a good day, Riley George is “a good, respectful kid” who has no trouble getting himself ready for school, his mother said.

Riley was in the Pokémon Club and could earn points for good behavior that he could redeem for prizes. Riley and Ross developed a system to help him identify his feelings and others’, and to take a break when needed.

Monte Vista School District Superintendent Scott Wiedeman said the school takes a proactive approach to encouraging positive behavior in all students.

But when Ross got a promotion, the school couldn’t find someone with enough experience to fill her spot, and they were at capacity with special education students. In the decade since Ross had started as a special education teacher, her caseload had doubled. So, they had to send out-of-district students, including Riley, back to their neighborhood schools.

“The kicker is just having the resources,” Wiedeman said. “We need more people to deal with the mental health of students. That’s a big factor.”

After that, Riley started lashing out at others. The calls home ratcheted up, as did the use of force at school to restrain him.

When Riley was in third grade at Del Norte Elementary, he was on an individualized education program for serious emotional disability. Despite that, school officials frequently suspended him and whittled his classroom time down to one hour a day, the Georges said. When school districts in Oregon shortened their special education students’ school days due to behavior, experts determined it was as counterproductive as limiting reading time for students who are struggling to read well.

Aaron Horrocks, superintendent of the Upper Rio Grande School District, declined to comment on Riley specifically but said challenging behaviors are on the rise and schools need more support services and options — funding to hire paraprofessionals or a day treatment center within driving range.

One day, Riley slapped the side of the school bus and cursed, his mother said, and school staffers held him on the ground for an hour — Riley said one sat on him. The Georges filed a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Education that alleged school officials had discriminated against Riley because of his disability. The department acknowledged that IEP documents show Riley was physically restrained three times over the course of a month.

A student cuts out a waving hand as she and her classmates create Fourth of July posters for seniors during their group therapy session at the Hilltop Day Treatment facility in Grand Junction.

Before an investigation got underway, the school district settled the complaint by adopting new protocols and training staff members on shortened school days and physical restraints. The Georges eventually chose to take Riley out of that school and enroll him in an online school.

That worked for about a year, with his father, Matthew George, staying home to help with schooling while Kelly George became the sole breadwinner.

But when Riley gave his mother a bruise the size of two softballs — and threatened to kill her while she slept — they were stuck: He had to go somewhere that could meet his needs, for his family’s safety. They contacted several residential facilities and even a few hospitals but ran into a string of denials: Some didn’t accept his insurance; others rejected him because he wasn’t yet a teenager, because of his aggressive behavior or his autism, or because they just had no beds left.

Schools in Utah, Arkansas, and Texas didn’t respond, and there was no room in Wyoming. By that point, Hilltop had closed its residential program, and driving more than four hours each way for a day program was out of the question.

In the meantime, Riley was in and out of short-term treatment facilities on multiple emergency mental health holds between September and January. Under Colorado law, emergency holds allow people to be kept for 72 hours for treatment and evaluation if they appear to be an imminent danger to themselves or others.

When Kelly George called her county’s social services department, she said, the response was that “unless he basically puts me in the hospital or is really aggressive towards one of his siblings and actually hurts them, there was nothing they could do, because it’s not an abuse or neglect case.”

So, they pressed assault charges against their own child.

“I just needed help, and it was the last card I could play,” said Kelly George.

Breaking the cycle of anger

Critics of facility schools condemn their segregated nature, but Riley wound up in even more segregated places over the next four months while his family tried to secure a bed at a residential school. After being criminally charged, Riley first went to Pueblo Youth Services Center, a detention facility. That was followed by a stint in a mental health hospital. His belongings moved with him in a garbage bag — the “essentials,” said Riley, plus 10 books about the military sci-fi franchise Halo.

Then, in late March, the Georges drove him to a Colorado Springs facility school called the J. Wilkins Opportunity School.

“I want to learn to control my anger better,” Riley said on his first day there. He missed his dog. He said he’d be ready to go home when anger no longer feels like “clenched fists.”

The Georges wish there were a place closer to home. “We can’t be the only family in our 200 square miles dealing with this,” said Kelly. A dream scenario, she said, would be to have a school that kids like her son could attend, with transportation to and from school, and therapeutic support at home.

Some provisions in the new Colorado law are intended specifically to help rural areas, such as establishing a statewide technical assistance center to help meet rural students’ needs.

Riley George stands beside his mother, Kelly, and father, Matthew, before he is dropped off at the J. Wilkins Opportunity School, a facility school in Colorado Springs.

It could provide anything from in-person training for school staffers to a behavior analyst available to coach people over the phone in a pinch, said Malouff, the Santa Fe Trail BOCES executive director, who participated in a stakeholder group that came up with the idea. The details have not yet been determined.

Malouff hopes the center will help rural districts gain the skills they need to keep students at home, and free up facility school spots for others with more severe needs.

Michelle Murphy, executive director of the Colorado Rural Schools Alliance, and others in rural education are skeptical that a single statewide technical assistance center can provide the support districts need when so much of the need is for boots on the ground.

“We have workforce challenges in virtually every aspect of our special education programs, from teachers to our special service providers to our paraprofessionals,” said Murphy. “It’s close to, if not an actual, crisis at this point.”

Pat Bershinsky, executive director of the Pikes Peak BOCES in Colorado Springs, said rural needs would be more effectively met if the money instead went directly to BOCES to create their own programs.

The Georges would have kept Riley at or close to home had they been able to get the right training, services, and support. In states like Minnesota, for example, it’s possible to get personal care assistance at home under certain circumstances, including for help with frequent aggressive behaviors for a home-schooled student with an individualized education program.

Such services were created to keep people in their communities and avoid institutional placement. Colorado does not appear to offer such services specifically geared toward aggressive behavior.

On move-in day in Colorado Springs, the Georges toured the campus with Riley and carried his belongings into his new room. Matthew George excitedly pointed out that Riley will be living mere blocks from a U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center.

“I can’t believe that, finally, after all this time — eight months — it’s finally happening and my family’s needs are finally, finally being met,” said Matthew George. But he was also apprehensive. He, too, was institutionalized as a child, bouncing for five years between foster care and the same mental health hospital and facility school organization as his son.

“I never thought I would be in a position where I would be an adult and witness my son going through the same things that I went through,” he said. “Something really needs to be done, because I don’t want to be going and visiting my grandkids in a facility like this.”

Riley’s move has the Georges’ other children worried, too. Kelly George recalled their 5-year-old daughter throwing a temper tantrum over ice cream, then wailing in fright: “I’m gonna get sent away! I don’t wanna get sent away.” But Kelly, too, is optimistic about Riley’s new chapter.

“It’s sad that we’re leaving him here, but at the same time I’m really hopeful that this is going to be what he needs to get him to where he can be OK and be at home with us,” she said.

When it was time to say goodbye, Matthew George hugged his son close. “You can do this,” he told him. And then the family drove away, back through the mountains, back home.

Chalkbeat Colorado senior reporter Melanie Asmar contributed to this report

KFF Health News, formerly known as Kaiser Health News (KHN), is a national newsroom that produces in-depth journalism about health issues and is one of the core operating programs at KFF — the independent source for health policy research, polling, and journalism.

Matthew and Kelly George walk with their son Riley into the J. Wilkins Opportunity School, a facility school in Colorado Springs.

The schools that take Colorado’s ‘most vulnerable’ children are disappearing

2023-05-11T10:59:00+00:00

Erin Schneiderman used to get calls in the middle of the day two or three times a week to pick her son up from his Denver elementary school.

The third-grader had run away or was standing in the hallway screaming. Meltdowns could last for hours. School was just too loud and crowded, with too much unpredictability, for a child with autism who craved routine.

Denver Public Schools decided Schneiderman’s son should go to a privately run school that specializes in serving children with intense behavioral, mental health or special education needs. But when it came time to start fourth grade, he still didn’t have a spot. The boy spent two months at home, most of that time getting no education at all.

Today, nearly five years later, the few options for Colorado students like Schneiderman’s son have dwindled further. In 2004, Colorado had 80 of these specialized programs known as facility schools. Now there are just 30 that serve an estimated 4,000 to 5,000 children a year. A single school serves all of western Colorado. On the Front Range, another school is set to close soon.

Meager state funding, dire staffing shortages, and changes to federal law have pushed the system to the brink. Lawmakers hope a cash infusion and regulatory changes will spur the opening of new schools — even as school districts are seeking their own solutions.

When there’s no open facility school seat, children may languish at home. They may remain in a mental health facility longer than they need to, taking up a bed that could be used by another child stuck in a hospital emergency room. Or they may stay in classrooms, struggling to learn, coming undone, lashing out almost daily, and disrupting the learning of their classmates.

Parents pay the price in lost jobs, and children pay the price in squandered potential.

Public schools have an obligation to educate every child. Facility schools — which operate at the crosscurrents of education, mental health, disability, and trauma — serve as placements of last resort when public schools can’t or won’t meet a child’s needs.

“K-12 was set up to educate the masses,” said Cori Woessner, a career public school educator who isn’t sure her own son with disabilities would have finished high school without the more supportive environment provided in facility schools.

“We’re not talking about the masses. We’re talking about the kids with the most severe needs that need the most support to be a productive member of society. To even have a chance at it.”

Facility schools balance academics and therapy

Facility schools are neither mental health facilities nor schools in the way most people might think about them. Operating in day treatment centers or residential facilities or tucked into hospitals, they offer academic programs within larger therapeutic settings.

Some critics say facility schools too often end up warehousing kids who, with more support, could have stayed in their home schools. Oversight is spread across multiple state and local agencies. When a school district recommends a facility school, parents have no easy way to know if the school is good or safe, though they rarely get a choice about placement.

The goal is to help children stay on an academic path while developing the skills they need to function in a public school before sending them back.

Some facilities serve children in foster care who need mental health care, or children in the juvenile criminal system who need treatment before returning home. The more common scenario is that students live at home and school districts send them to day treatment programs.

“Once we make that decision, it’s not because we don’t like kids and we’re sending them somewhere else,” said Callan Ware, the executive director of student services in Englewood Schools, a small district south of Denver. “We are saying we like them so much, we care about them so much — and we’re admitting to you we don’t have what it takes to support them and we’re going to find it and we’re going to pay for it.”

The Tennyson Center for Children is a facility school located in a bright, modern building in a residential Denver neighborhood. It serves about 50 metro-area students in kindergarten through 12th grade. The staff seems to have endless patience for behavior that would likely get a student kicked out of public school.

On a recent Friday, a middle schooler raged in a stairwell and called the principal a “fucko” because the school removed the game platform Roblox from its computers.

A high schooler who couldn’t sit still tossed a foam basketball at a staff member’s face as she drank from a water bottle, soaking her shirt.

And an elementary student ran up and down the hallway letting out a series of screams between his spelling words and math problems.

The boy was working with a staff member in one of the “nooks” — a small recessed room without a door where students can retreat if they’re feeling overwhelmed.

“I don’t want to do any more work!” the boy said, coming out of the nook and kicking the wall.

“To earn our positive breaks with staff, we have to complete work,” the staff member said, reminding the boy that he was working toward earning computer time in the library.

“It’s hard for me,” the boy said. He asked why his classmates, who had just completed a worksheet on Presidents Day, were earning points for good behavior and he wasn’t.

“Because they stay in class,” the staff member calmly told him as he pouted and fumed. “Part of the expectation of being in school is staying in class.”

The boy went back into the nook and screamed again.

The Tennyson Center For Children, founded in 1904, provides community programs, schooling, and day services to children with intense needs.

When funding dries up, kids are funneled down

Children with these challenges were once institutionalized.

“Almost every general hospital had a kids’ psych unit, and they were all full,” said Skip Barber, a retired child psychiatrist who worked at state mental health institutions and facility schools.

The psychiatric facilities created their own schools. But since the 1990s, the philosophy has shifted away from institutionalization and toward community-based care. Residential treatment programs began receiving kids in crisis who previously would have gone to hospitals. Day treatment programs took kids who would have been placed in residential facilities.

And more kids just stayed in public schools.

The Medicaid dollars that supported the previous system dried up. Twenty residential treatment facilities closed in Colorado between 2007 and 2017, according to newspaper reports. On the heels of those closures, Congress passed the Family First Prevention Services Act, which sought to keep more children with relatives or foster families and placed limits on government-funded residential care.

More residential programs closed, taking their associated facility schools with them or reducing capacity. Options in rural Colorado — where the nearest school might be hours from home — became even scarcer.

“Great if we move away from facilities that aren’t cutting the mustard or doing what we need, but now we’ve gone too far,” said Becky Miller Updike, executive director of the nonprofit Colorado Association of Family and Children’s Agencies, which represents residential facilities.

More children in crisis are now funneled into day treatment programs. But the funding hasn’t increased in tandem.

In a 2020 survey, administrators at 19 facility schools told Miller Updike they were nearly or solidly in the red. One reported having to fundraise $1 million a year.

“The program loses money on a regular basis,” another wrote.

Most funding comes directly or indirectly from the state. Facility schools get $55.05 per student per day in direct state funding, an amount that’s barely increased in the last eight years, said Judy Stirman, director of facility schools for the Colorado Department of Education.

School districts pay tuition fees on top of that, ranging from $75 to $348 per day. Students come and go throughout the year, which means the daily funding comes and goes. But the salaries of the experienced specialists and one-on-one aides who make the system work are constant.

Students at Third Way Center in Denver, a facility school that primarily serves children in foster care and youth corrections, can earn points to “purchase” items like snacks, stationery, games, personal care items, clothing, and more.

Low funding means it’s hard to hire staff. Facility schools often pay their staff less than school districts, which struggle to fill the same positions. That limits how many students they can serve.

“Every hire, we can bring in a student,” said Amy Gearhard, founder of Spectra School, which started as a therapy clinic for children with autism. Most students need one-on-one aides.

But the job is hard, and new hires don’t always stay. The aides at Spectra take 40 hours of behavior technician training and often wear bite guards and spit shields.

Despite those precautions, Gearhard said in January that three Spectra staff members had suffered concussions on the job, and two were out on workers’ compensation claims.

“You can’t pay them $15 an hour,” she said.

Two longtime facilities that closed last year — the Hampden Youth Campus in Aurora, which ran three day treatment programs, and the Youth Recovery Center at Valley View Hospital in Glenwood Springs — cited low funding and staffing shortages.

“Last year this program lost over $300,000, which made it very difficult to be able to hire enough staff to work with the level of acuity that we were seeing in the students,” Aurora Mental Health Center Chief Clinical Officer Kirsten Anderson told the Sentinel Colorado.

Officials with Devereux Cleo Wallace, a day treatment program in Westminster that’s set to close this year, said in a statement that “the continued regional staffing shortages have made it no longer possible to operate our flagship programs at the levels our families deserve.”

But the staff who stay at facility schools say they’re drawn to working with this student population. Renée Johnson, executive director of Third Way Center, a residential facility that serves kids in foster care or youth corrections, said these kids are “used to being thrown away.”

“These alternative schools give kids chances to do it again and be successful,” Johnson said. “That feeling of success is so important to build on.”

Denver-area job postings fill a bulletin board at the Third Way Center’s Joan Farley Academy.

Fewer schools means longer waitlists

Colorado is not alone in its hiring struggles. A nationwide shortage of special education staff means it’s harder for schools to provide the consistent support that would help kids with severe needs be successful in their home schools. At the same time, the inability to hire and retain staff has caused specialized schools nationwide to close or reduce their capacity, leading to students with disabilities being put on long waitlists, according to an October letter to Congress from the National Association of Private Special Education Centers.

“We’re seeing a supply and demand crisis on a national level,” said Danielle Damm, the association’s executive director and CEO.

In Colorado, the number of students served by facility schools has decreased. Thousands of students come and go throughout the year, but there are only so many spots at one time. A statewide snapshot taken on Dec. 1 each year found 1,266 students in facility schools in late 2017 but just 769 students in these schools in 2022. That’s a 40% decrease.

It’s not because the demand has decreased.

“We’re all on waiting lists because the facilities can only accept so many students and they’re short-staffed as well,” said Courtney Leyba, senior manager of extended school support for Denver Public Schools.

In Jeffco Public Schools, the number of students in out-of-district placements dropped 35% — from 211 students six years ago to 138 students this school year. In Denver, it went from 254 to 119 students in the same time period, a whopping 53% decrease.

Fifteen years ago, when Leyba started working for the Denver district, she said students would wait just two or three weeks to get into a facility school. “Now we can wait anywhere between two, three, or sometimes even six months for a placement,” she said.

In the wait, students can unravel even more.

Until he got into a facility school two months into his fourth grade year, Schneiderman’s son would have meltdowns over literally anything, she said.

She and her husband struggled to cobble together care for him. Grandparents from both sides of the family flew in to help, but Schneiderman ended up having to take a leave from her job. An in-home tutor the district promised didn’t start working with him until he’d already been home more than a month.

“It felt like we were completely lost in a system that we had no idea how to navigate,” Schneiderman said. “That had to have been one of the worst periods of our lives for sure.”

Erin Schneiderman and her 13-year old son sit outside their home near City Park in Denver.

‘Effective in some cases, but not in all’

Many advocates and experts say students belong in their own communities, not separate schools that may be hours — or even states — away from home.

“Students don’t need to be segregated in order to have their needs met and be successful in school,” said Lewis Bossing, senior staff attorney with the Washington, D.C.-based Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law. “We think that there are a number of different kinds of supports that can be put in place so that, for the most part, students can be served in general education settings.”

Advocates like Connie McKenzie with The Arc Pikes Peak Region worry about a lack of oversight, and about students getting stuck and never returning to public school.

One student McKenzie worked with attended a facility school from kindergarten through 12th grade. Another was a kindergartener who was referred to a facility school because the child kept running out of the classroom, she said. The child had gone through a traumatic event.

“Removing the child from the school, sending them to a different school, just reinforced to the child that they weren’t safe at school,” McKenzie said.

Facility schools, she said, “are effective in some cases, but not in all.”

People who work in the system say the typical stay is about a year, though it varies widely based on the facility and whom it serves — from less than a week for acute psychiatric hospitalizations to years at schools for students with intellectual disabilities.

The state education department doesn’t track how many facility school students return to their home districts or how they fare later.

But even critics acknowledge there are times when a separate setting is justified.

Zoe Gross, director of advocacy for the Autistic Self Advocacy Network, said that while inclusion is ideal, “if your school district just refuses, or is unable to meet the needs of your kid, then you have really limited options outside of that.”

That’s how Woessner, the career educator whose son attended facility schools, feels.

Her son, now 18, was first referred to a facility school when he was 8. Woessner and her husband adopted him out of foster care as a baby, and he has several diagnoses, including fetal alcohol syndrome, which affects his cognitive ability.

He couldn’t read or write his name in second grade. At 7, he made a plan to kill himself by running out into the street. At 8, he put a belt around his neck at school.

“We were very fortunate that happened when he was 8 and there were still 70-some-odd facility schools and they popped him into a facility school because of the severity of his behaviors,” Woessner said.

Her son spent the next 10 years in six different day treatment and residential programs, including one out of state. He completed 12th grade at a Denver facility school and is now in a small transitional program for older students with disabilities through his home school district.

“He made it a lot further academically going through facility schools than he ever would have in a traditional school,” Woessner said.

Moving ahead toward an uncertain future

A state law signed by Gov. Jared Polis this spring boosts funding for facility schools and revamps the funding model so small schools are less vulnerable to fluctuations in enrollment.

A new technical assistance center will provide consulting services and training in rural districts so that more students could stay close to home. And a new way of approving new schools should make them easier to open.

In advocating for changes to the law, the working group described facility school students as some of Colorado’s “most vulnerable.” Parents, advocates, and special education experts all say that meeting the needs of these children will require more than just saving the schools, however: Families need more options all along the spectrum of inclusion and separation, and children need more care as they make precarious transitions from one setting to another.

Schneiderman’s son did so well at Tennyson Center in Denver that everyone agreed he should go to public middle school, she said. He enrolled at Denver’s Merrill Middle School. But even in a small program with a dedicated teacher and a classroom where he could go when things got overwhelming, going to school with 600 other students proved tough.

Wanting to fit in, Schneiderman’s son rejected help from an aide in traditional classes. He got into fights because he misunderstood regular kid banter as bullying. His meltdowns — which can turn violent and have landed him in the hospital — returned both at home and at school.

Schneiderman began getting calls again to pick him up midday.

Erin Schneiderman’s son, who is 13, plays Journey, an indie adventure video game.

The controlled environment at Tennyson had made it hard to predict how or if her son might struggle once he returned to public school, she said.

Partway through seventh grade, an advocate suggested Schneiderman’s son try something different. Evoke Behavioral Health is not a facility school, but a private day treatment program specializing in a type of intervention called applied behavioral analysis, or ABA. Evoke calls itself a “school alternative.”

Denver Public Schools and the family’s health insurance company agreed to pay — despite previously rejecting a similar placement.

“A lot of this feels like dumb luck,” Schneiderman said.

Evoke, she said, has been life-changing. Now that she’s not picking her son up midday, she’s able to work full-time again. And her goofy 13-year-old eighth grader, who loves video games, science fiction audiobooks, and skiing with his parents, is thriving.

He does ABA — which Schneiderman describes as “work-reward, work-reward” — eight hours a day and has both a one-on-one aide and a caseworker. He’s able to do schoolwork for 20 minutes without getting upset, and he’s working on not arguing with his teacher.

His meltdowns now happen once a month instead of five or six times a week, she said.

But that progress means his time at Evoke is coming to an end.

Because he’s doing so well, Schneiderman said the school district wants him back in public school. That probably means Thomas Jefferson High, which offers the same type of small program he had at Merrill — but in an even larger school with about 1,300 students.

“As a parent, that is terrifying. Absolutely terrifying,” Schneiderman said. “There’s no in-between options that we can find. We can’t figure out what our next step is.”

KFF Health News’ Rae Ellen Bichell and The Colorado Sun’s Erica Breunlin contributed reporting.

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Erin Schneiderman’s 13-year old son walks the family dog, Ernie, in their Denver neighborhood near City Park.

Colorado promises $70 million over 3 years, hopes to see 12 new facility schools open

2023-05-11T10:58:00+00:00

Colorado passed a new law this spring intended to fix the facility school shortage by bolstering funding and encouraging more schools to open.

The measure signed by Gov. Jared Polis last month will increase funding for facility schools by nearly $19 million next year, then by $23 million in 2024 and $28 million in 2025. Lawmakers and legislative staff are predicting that four new schools will open in each of the next three years, which would mean a 40% increase in schools statewide.

The crux of the bill is a change in the schools’ funding model. The state currently funds facility schools based on a daily per-student rate of $55, which hasn’t been enough money for schools, especially small ones, to keep the doors open. Facility schools also get tuition from school districts for students in special education. The tuition ranges this year from $75 to $348 per day.

Under the new model, schools will also get base funding intended to support operational costs and staff pay. The smallest schools will get the largest increase.

It works out to 2.6 times the funding that facility schools receive under current law. But how much Colorado ends up spending depends on how many schools actually open.

The old funding model wasn’t working because enrollment at facility schools can vary dramatically, with kids moving back and forth between facilities and public schools in the same school year. The amount facility schools were paid depended on the number of kids in attendance on designated count days. Added to that is the fact that facility schools range in size from 70 students to fewer than 10, which makes it hard to piece together a staff and budget based on a per-student daily rate.

“In the rural areas, if you only have one or two kids that don’t really have anywhere else to go, they’re going to be in a facility,” said Sen. Rachel Zenzinger, an Arvada Democrat, chair of the Joint Budget Committee and prime sponsor of the legislation. “It’s hard to operate a facility school … for two or three kids, eight kids.”

Three-quarters of facility schools operate at a deficit, according to a Colorado Department of Education survey of schools statewide.

Besides new funding, the other key parts of the law are supposed to help school startups navigate a complicated system regulated by three state agencies. Right now, the state human services department licenses schools in day treatment or residential programs, while the state health department licenses those in hospitals. The law creates a new category of facility schools called “specialized day schools” and a new way for them to get licensed, which is intended to help small groups of parents create new options.

Schools will have to earn accreditation from the state facility school board in order to receive funding under the new law, which will lead to greater oversight and better tracking of student outcomes, Zenzinger said.

And the law sets up a state “technical assistance center” that will help school districts, especially in rural areas where there is no alternative school, create a plan to serve kids with behavioral health needs. The center would train local teachers and staff to operate classrooms for kids with high-level needs who otherwise would have to attend school in another town.

“We’re just not going to be able to have a facility school in all instances,” Zenzinger said. “So you have to use what is available to you, which would be the regular public school system, which if the student had the right supports and if the teachers and the educators had the right supports, it could totally work. Right now, though, they don’t, which means it’s not working.”

The law also sets up a grant program that allows facility schools to save money by banding together to pay for things like food and janitorial services, technology, security, and transportation.

Jennifer Brown is a co-founder and reporter at The Sun, where she writes about mental health, child welfare and social justice issues. Contact Jen at jennifer@coloradosun.com.

Homelessness in Boulder Valley School District hits highest level since Great Recession

2023-04-28T20:11:10+00:00

This story originally appeared on Boulder Reporting Lab and is republished here with permission.

This school year, more than 750 students or their guardians in the Boulder Valley School District have reported they either lack stable housing or are homeless, according to district officials. That’s more students than at any time since the Great Recession.

The uptick in student homelessness comes as city and county rental assistance programs are nearly out of money. Meanwhile, inflation has driven up the cost of everyday basic needs, such as food.

“It’s a reckoning for the community. We have not seen family homelessness like this for many, many years,” said Julie Van Domelen, the executive director of Emergency Family Assistance Association, a Boulder-based nonprofit that provides financial support to families.

The number of homeless students is calculated based on those who qualify for the McKinney-Vento program. Under federal law, the district must provide students enrolled in the program access to certain services, such as free meals and transportation to school. Student homelessness reduces academic performance, among other negative consequences.

The McKinney-Vento data can be compared across time and school districts. It counts the number of students who are staying in shelters, hotels or doubling up due to economic hardship. It also counts the number of unsheltered students, which is more rare than the other situations.

For much of the last decade, the number of homeless students in the Boulder Valley School District had been steadily declining, from 1,024 during the 2010-2011 school year to 290 during the 2020-2021 school year, according to state data. That’s a drop from 3.5% to 1% of the district’s student population of approximately 30,000.

That number spiked to more than 1,400 after the Dec. 30, 2021 Marshall Fire, which destroyed more than 1,000 homes in Boulder County. Most of those students were doubling up with other families. About 20 students displaced by the fire still qualify for the McKinney-Vento program, according to the district.

The enrollment of more than 750 students in the McKinney-Vento program this school year is an indication that student homelessness is on the rise. The district says resources to help those students — such as free transportation and rental assistance — are just about maxed out.

For instance, the district has already had trouble providing transportation for students due to the national shortage of bus drivers. It is currently contracting with HopSkipDrive, a vehicle-for-hire program, to get students to schools. The district is planning to seek grant money in order to continue providing free rides to school.

“We have to make sure we get a hold of every grant available to be able to help with transportation,” Ema Lyman, a McKinney-Vento liaison at the Boulder Valley School District, told Boulder Reporting Lab.

Lyman said the district used federal stimulus money from the American Rescue Plan Act to hire a second McKinney-Vento specialist, which helps connect students and their families to services. The school district is deciding whether to keep that position, which was temporary.

Even so, housing assistance is becoming more scarce. Boulder County ran out of federal rental assistance money this month, and the city of Boulder has spent nearly all its rental assistance money for the entire year in a matter of months.

“In theory and on paper, we have a lot of resources. But they are maxed out,” Lyman said.

Boulder County to give out limited rent assistance

On any given week, Van Domelen of the Emergency Family Assistance Association said about 600 households come to the food bank. That’s nearly twice as many people as prior to the Covid-19 pandemic. This year, the nonprofit is planning to spend $3.4 million in financial assistance, most of which is used for housing assistance, she said. That’s about three times as much money as in prior years.

“Safety nets like EFAA are supposed to be there for the vagaries of life — the shock to a household, a medical bill, a cut in hours,” she said. “None of our safety nets are really designed to substitute for full-time jobs that are not enough to pay for housing, food and basics. So I don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Boulder County has $726,000 available for rental assistance through its Next Steps program, which is a collaboration between Boulder County Housing and Human Services, the St. Vrain Valley School District and the Boulder Valley School District. The money will be available to households earning up to 30% the area median income — about $26,000 for an individual living in Boulder County and more for families.

The county hopes to serve about 41 families with this money during the 2023-2025 grant cycle, providing them just enough support to help them move through a crisis, according to Jim Williams, a spokesman for Boulder County.

“For some families, that might look like assisting with arrears and three months of forward rental assistance to keep them in their current unit after they have experienced a financial setback due to illness,” Williams wrote in an email to Boulder Reporting Lab. “For other families, especially those that are already paying hotel expenses on their own, a deposit and housing navigation to overcome any lease up barriers they may be facing is what is needed.”

During the Covid-19 pandemic, the county gave tenants and property owners nearly $18 million in rental assistance. It stopped accepting applications in January 2023.

In recent months, the number of eviction case filings in Boulder County court has reached the highest levels in years. Many of the tenants showing up in housing court this month are already living in some of the city’s most affordable apartments, leaving them with few more affordable options if they want to stay in Boulder.

In the last decade, the median cost to rent a place in Boulder has increased faster than the median income of its residents, according to the U.S. Census. In 2021, the city’s rental vacancy rate was less than 2%, which is below the national average.

Lyman said she has worked as a McKinney-Vento specialist for 13 years. She said she has also lived in Boulder for more than 40 years.

“I’m fairly acquainted with how the demographics have changed, and how housing prices have gone up year after year,” she said. “A big percentage of students who are unable to get housing, for whatever reason, move away.”

John Herrick is senior reporter for Boulder Reporting Lab, covering housing, transportation, policing and local government. Reach John at john@boulderreportinglab.org.

Almuerzo escolar gratuito: Entérate de qué distritos escolares de Colorado tienen planes para ofrecerlo

2023-03-02T22:03:34+00:00

Read in English.

Chalkbeat Colorado es un noticiero local sin fines de lucro que informa sobre las escuelas públicas en Denver y otros distritos. Suscríbete a nuestro boletín gratis por email en español para recibir lo último en noticias sobre educación.

La mayoría de los distritos escolares de Colorado, entre ellos los 10 más grandes del estado, planifican ofrecerles comidas gratuitas a todos los estudiantes el próximo año a través de un nuevo programa estatal aprobado por los votantes el pasado noviembre.

Tres distritos grandes que estaban indecisos a principios de diciembre — Denver, Douglas County y Academy 20 — le informaron a Chalkbeat que participarán en el programa, llamado Healthy School Meals For All.

El programa nuevo, financiado con un impuesto para las personas con ingresos altos, hará que Colorado sea uno de los pocos estados que les ofrecerán comidas escolares gratuitas a todos los estudiantes, una medida que, según sus defensores, alimentará a más niños hambrientos y eliminará el estigma actual asociado con recibir comidas escolares gratuitas. California y Maine pusieron en marcha programas universales de comida permanentes este año escolar, y algunos otros estados, como Nevada, Vermont y Massachusetts, están ofreciendo este tipo de programa al menos hasta el final del año escolar actual.

La creciente demanda de comidas gratuitas en las escuelas empezó después de dos años escolares en los que el gobierno federal eliminó temporalmente los requisitos de ingresos para recibir comidas a precio reducido, lo cual permitió que las escuelas de todo el país ofrecieran desayunos y almuerzos gratuitos a todos los estudiantes durante gran parte de la pandemia. Los requisitos volvieron a entrar en vigor el pasado verano.

Aunque el programa de comidas universales de Colorado es voluntario para los distritos escolares, la mayoría ha informado que optará por participar. Una encuesta realizada por Chalkbeat en dos docenas de distritos, en su mayoría grandes y medianos, reveló que 21 tienen planes de participar, y uno de ellos (Colorado Springs 11) tiene planes de ofrecer comidas escolares gratuitas el próximo año a través de un mecanismo de financiamiento diferente. Dos distritos, Mesa County Valley 51, basado en Grand Junction, y el Distrito 49, en Peyton, todavía no han decidido.

Otra encuesta reciente de los 178 distritos escolares del estado hecha por la Colorado School Nutrition Association reveló que unos 130 de los 140 distritos que contestaron la encuesta tienen planes de ofrecer comidas gratuitas el año que viene.

“De todos ellos, unos 10 han dicho que no están seguros”, dijo Erika Edwards, presidente de política pública y legislativa de la asociación. “Creo que nos estamos acercando bastante a que la gran mayoría diga que sí”.

En noviembre, los electores de Colorado aprobaron fácilmente la Propuesta FF, una nueva medida tributaria que recaudará más de $100 millones al año para pagar por comidas escolares gratuitas reduciendo las deducciones de impuestos disponibles para los hogares que ganan $300,000 dólares o más.

Para participar en el programa universal de comidas gratuitas, los distritos escolares de Colorado tendrán que maximizar la cantidad de dólares federales para comidas que reciben solicitando un programa llamado Community Eligibility Provision. Este programa nacional ayuda a cubrir el costo de las comidas gratuitas universales en las escuelas que tienen una gran proporción de estudiantes cuyas familias reciben ciertos beneficios del gobierno, como por ejemplo asistencia alimentaria o Asistencia Temporal a Familias Necesitadas (TANF). Las familias de esas escuelas no tienen que llenar solicitudes para obtener comidas gratuitas o a precio reducido.

Pero incluso las escuelas de Colorado que no califiquen para el programa Community Eligibility Provision podrán ofrecerles comidas gratuitas a todos los estudiantes aprovechando los fondos de la Propuesta FF. Las familias en esas escuelas seguirán teniendo que llenar solicitudes para recibir comidas con subsidio.

Edwards dijo que los distritos escolares que no han decidido si van a ofrecer comidas gratis el próximo año tienden a estar en una de dos categorías. Los distritos rurales más pequeños tienen preguntas sobre la logística del programa Community Eligibility, mientras que los distritos metropolitanos más grandes tienen preguntas sobre cómo Colorado planifica darles fondos adicionales a las escuelas con grandes poblaciones de estudiantes de hogares de pocos ingresos, dijo.

Conocido como financiamiento de riesgo (at-risk funding), el dinero se ha distribuido según el número de estudiantes que llenan formularios para recibir comidas con subsidio federal. Colorado está avanzando hacia otras medidas, pero hasta que se complete el cambio, a los distritos les preocupa perder dinero si menos familias llenan los formularios cuando el almuerzo sea gratuito para todos los estudiantes.

Edwards dijo que la asociación de nutrición apoya el programa nuevo y planifica ofrecer capacitación y otras opciones para ayudar a los distritos que quieran participar.

“Creo que es la culminación de todo lo que un profesional de alimentación escolar desea que ocurra”, dijo.

Ann Schimke es reportera senior de Chalkbeat y cubre temas relacionados con la niñez y la alfabetización tempranas. Para comunicarte con Ann, envíale un mensaje a aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

9,000 children don’t show up in Colorado school data. Are they missing or in private school?

2023-02-11T00:25:12+00:00

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news organization covering public education in communities across America. Subscribe to our free Colorado newsletter to keep up with education news from around the state: ckbe.at/subscribe-colorado

Kindergarten enrollment is down. Dropout rates are up. Public school enrollment still hasn’t rebounded to where it was in 2019, before COVID turned education upside down.

Where have the kids gone? A new analysis by The Associated Press and Stanford University’s Big Local News project found an estimated 230,000 students in 21 states absent from publicly available data on public and private school enrollment and home schooling. That tally includes as many as 9,000 uncounted in Colorado, or about 1% of the state’s school-age children.

The uncounted likely include students learning in private school and at their kitchen tables who simply haven’t been reported, along with children who aren’t in school at all.

The findings further illustrate the pandemic’s profound impact on education, with some families rethinking their options and other students struggling to stay connected. They also demonstrate the difficulty of getting a full picture of where students have landed as a result of the upheaval.

States like Colorado where kindergarten is voluntary have many more unaccounted-for children than states where kindergarten is required, the analysis found. Birth rates have declined, meaning there are fewer 5-year-olds than even a few years ago, and thousands of families have moved out of state. But those changes don’t fully account for the decline in kindergarten enrollment.

More families could be keeping their 5-year-olds home even as Colorado prepares to launch a major expansion of public preschool.

“That’s important because kindergarten is the first experience kids have with a formal learning environment, and readiness to learn is really important as they move onto older grades,” said Thomas Dee, a Stanford University education professor who worked on the analysis.

At the other end of their school careers, more Colorado students are dropping out, state data shows, with 10,500 middle and high school students leaving the system in 2021-22, a 23% increase from 2019-20 and the highest dropout rate in four years.

Chronic absenteeism is up too, said Johann Liljengren, the state education department’s director of dropout prevention and student re-engagement.

“We definitely are seeing higher levels of disengagement across various measures, from attendance to dropouts,” Liljengren said. “What we’re trying to do is dig in and find out why and can we see some of those kids come back?”

The analysis used enrollment and U.S. Census data to look at changes from 2019-20 to 2021-22 and doesn’t include the current school year.

State data shows home school declining from its peak in 2020, and private school enrollment is nearly flat, raising questions about where other students who left the public system may have gone. But state education officials acknowledge their data on both student populations is “loose.”

Private schools don’t have to report enrollment, and more than 30% of 700 non-public schools in a state database report no information, potentially accounting for thousands of students. Home-school families are supposed to notify a school district every year of their intentions, but not all do.

Van Schoales, senior policy director at the Keystone Policy Center, said the gap is a symptom of Colorado’s lax approach to data collection. Without better information, it’s hard to know what’s happening or what to do about it, he said.

“We don’t know what the problem is,” Schoales said. “Is the problem that younger parents entering the school system during COVID had bad experiences and don’t trust the system? Or is the problem that high schools abandoned kids who were on the brink? Or maybe parents are making different choices.”

Kindergarten slide raises concerns

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis made improving early childhood education a centerpiece of his administration. He made full-day kindergarten free to parents in 2019 and enrollment surged, only to plummet the following year when many school districts started the year remotely.

Kindergarten enrollment rebounded somewhat in 2021-22 school year that was included in the Associated Press/Big Local News analysis — only to drop again this school year. But even in 2021-22, the share of 5-year-olds who weren’t in kindergarten was higher than before the pandemic. (Demographers caution that population estimates are imprecise.)

In 2019-20, fewer than 2% of Colorado 5-year-olds weren’t in public or private kindergarten. In 2021-22, roughly 4% were not enrolled.

The decline in participation is a concern, said Leslie Colwell of the Colorado Children’s Campaign. But without more information, it’s hard to know if vulnerable children are missing out on key early learning opportunities or if families with more resources are “red-shirting” or holding back their kindergarten-eligible children or enrolling them in private options, she said.

Complicating the kindergarten trends, enrollment in both preschool and first grade are up this year. The launch of universal preschool in August could bring thousands more children into the public school system with part-time free care.

Who’s not in school?

State data gives some insight into how public school enrollment is changing. The largest decrease is among white students. There are 30,000 fewer of them in Colorado public schools this year than in 2019-20. The largest percentage decrease is in Native American students.

Dropout rates increased among all student groups but increased most among Hispanic and Native American students. Hispanic students accounted for more than half of all Colorado students who left school last year without graduating. Some school districts have stepped up efforts to find and bring back students who left school to work or who just didn’t see the point.

Attendance advocates in the Greeley-Evans district go door to door in search of students who are missing school.

Liljengren said state education officials are also revamping how they do their work — bringing together sections that once worked in isolation to better use data to identify students in trouble and to support high schools in revamping their programming to keep students engaged, including with more pathways tied to career options.

But enrollment isn’t down everywhere. Alan Smiley, who heads the Association of Colorado Independent Schools, said the 39 schools his association accredits have seen enrollment grow between 1% and 3% a year since 2019, including families who have moved to Colorado as well as those switching from public school.

Families are attracted to small class sizes, specialized programming, and school environments that reflect their values, he said. Many start in preschool with the intention of remaining in one school for years. His members watch demographic trends just as other school officials do but haven’t seen the declines public schools report.

Regardless of the choices families make, public school enrollment is not expected to rebound anytime soon. There are 79,000 18-year-olds in Colorado, but just 67,000 5-year-olds, according to U.S. Census data provided by state demographer Elizabeth Garner.

Colorado home-school trends are hard to track

Joanna Rosa-Saenz was among more than 15,000 Colorado families who reported home schooling in the 2020-21 school year. She started out running a learning pod from her Denver home and continued after schools opened. She worried about vaccine mandates and wanted to be more hands-on with her children’s education, especially after her middle son fell behind when his school didn’t address his special education needs.

Her children are back in Denver Public Schools this school year. As a single parent, she couldn’t educate her children and support them financially and get more than a few hours sleep a night, she said. And she couldn’t afford tuition at the private Christian schools that most appealed to her.

The state’s official count of home-school students has gone down each of the past two years — perhaps reflecting parents like Rosa-Saenz who could not sustain it — but Stephen Craig, executive director of Christian Home Educators of Colorado, said his membership is holding steady after a notable increase in 2020.

Rosa-Saenz said she knows many home-schooling families that are still going strong. Some didn’t like what their kids were being taught or the political direction of their district. Others were frustrated by high teacher turnover and frequent leadership changes. Still others felt a public school education just wasn’t very good.

“Parents have a lack of trust and so they are pulling their kids out and seeing what they can do to really support them,” she said.

Public school approaches on everything from math instruction to gender have alienated conservative parents, Craig said. Families want an education tailored to their child and their faith.

“For too long we’ve put education in its own box and said 2 plus 2 is 4 and that’s not religious,” he said. “And that’s just not true. Our world view is in everything.”

Tracking these students is tricky. Some families may not report. The Christian home educators group advises families they are not legally required to report if their children are being taught by a parent who is a licensed teacher — an interpretation of the state’s compulsory attendance law supported by the Homeschool Legal Defense Association. State education officials told Chalkbeat they interpret the home-school statute to mean such families should still notify a school district.

Colorado’s public school enrollment data also includes thousands of home-school students who take a class or receive a service from a local public school. That means the real number of home-school students is higher and the real number of public school students lower than publicly available data suggests.

Fall 2020 saw hundreds of thousands of Colorado students learning at home. Some of them stayed there.

Enrollment declines are cause for concern

Regardless of the exact number, missing students and disengaged families demand attention, observers said. Schools connect students not just with education but also with meals, medical care, and community. Schools with fewer students also get less money. Many Denver metro area districts have closed schools or plan to.

Polling data that the conservative education group Ready Colorado expects to release this month shows a big increase in parents concerned that schools are on the wrong track. That aligns with a Magellan Strategies poll from last spring — though the reasons for dissatisfaction were diverse.

Ready Colorado President Brenda Dickhoner said she knows more families who thought private school was out of reach but re-examined their options as they grew less satisfied with their local public school.

“I’m less concerned with whether Joey is in private or public school, but I’m really interested in understanding the parent motivations,” she said.

Colwell of the Children’s Campaign said she worries that more families may be opting out — even though the vast majority of Colorado families continue to enroll in public school.

“We want kids to be connected to high-quality learning opportunities,” she said. “For families to make the choice that they’ll disengage entirely, to see an increasing number of families making that choice in the wake of the pandemic and the political environment, is concerning.”

Bureau Chief Erica Meltzer covers education policy and politics and oversees Chalkbeat Colorado’s education coverage. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Colorado looks to stem the closure of schools for students with intense needs

2023-01-12T22:20:20+00:00

Specialized Colorado schools that serve students with intense behavioral, mental health, and special education needs are closing because they don’t have enough funding.

Over the past five years, the number of these schools, known as facility schools, has shrunk by 30%. The decrease strains public school districts that rely on facility schools to help children whose needs are too great for the districts to meet. It also has devastating impacts on what a new report calls the state’s “most vulnerable students” and their families.

“These are children’s lives that are at stake here,” state Sen. Rachel Zenzinger, an Arvada Democrat who chairs the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee, told her fellow committee members last month. “We can’t afford to continue to lose any more facility schools in our state.”

Facility schools might be inside a day treatment center, a group home, or a hospital. Some children live at the school while others just go during the day. The students might have major medical needs, far more than a school nurse can handle, or serious emotional issues that their local school hasn’t been able to address. Facility schools are charged with providing a meaningful education while also keeping children safe and supporting their other needs.

Facility schools are often placements of last resort — and when there isn’t space for a child, they might spend weeks or months at home, not in school at all. Other times they get placed out of state, far from their families and at much higher cost.

Last year, Colorado lawmakers created a work group to address the problems facing facility schools. The group, made up of 30 public school educators, facility school staff members, state officials, and others, released a set of recommendations in November. They include:

Changing the way facility schools are funded. Right now, the schools are paid per student for the days they attend. In the 2021-22 school year, the daily rate was $53.19 per student per day and an additional $114 per student who receives special education services. Students come and go often, and the schools said they need more reliable funding. The work group recommended funding each school at a baseline amount that would cover the cost of the staff needed to keep the school open.
Helping facility schools share services. Many facility schools are small and struggle to pay for non-educational needs like custodial or food services. The work group recommended creating a grant program that would allow the schools to collectively buy custodial services, for example, to take advantage of economies of scale.
Training school districts to better serve students with intense needs. This recommendation would create a technical assistance center in the Colorado Department of Education that could help school districts keep more students in local schools rather than sending them to facility schools. This could be especially helpful for rural districts far from the Front Range, where most facility schools are located.
Expanding the types of facilities that can become facility schools. For example, some existing programs for students with disabilities told the work group that becoming licensed as a facility school would require them to hire clinical staff their students don’t need. The work group recommended expanding the definition of a facility school and making the licensure process less cumbersome.

Advocate Becky Miller-Updike said a philosophical shift away from placing children in residential facilities — and a federal law aimed at limiting such placements to ensure more children are placed with families — have caused many facilities to close. When the residential part of the facility closes, the school inside it often can’t afford to stay open.

“Great if we move away from facilities that aren’t cutting the mustard or doing what we need, but now we’ve gone too far,” said Miller-Updike, executive director of the non-profit Colorado Association of Family and Children’s Agencies. Several facility schools belong to the organization, including Tennyson Center for Children in Denver, Devereaux Cleo Wallace in Westminster, and Southern Peaks Residential Treatment Center in Cañon City.

The number of Colorado facility schools dropped from 80 schools in 2004 to 32 schools in 2021, state data shows. State education officials emphasized this week that the number has decreased precipitously just in the past five years. But the need hasn’t declined.

About 800 students are served in facility schools on any given day, officials said. The bill that created the work group indicated the need could be twice as great. About 1,600 Colorado children per day require the education offered in residential and day treatment programs, hospitals, and homebound programs, it says.

Zenzinger said she and the entire Joint Budget Committee are interested in sponsoring legislation this year to address the challenges faced by facility schools, though the details are still being worked out. The legislative session began Monday and ends in May.

The State Board of Education also seems eager for solutions. The board reviewed a presentation about the work group’s recommendations Wednesday and asked detailed questions about funding. Member Debora Scheffel also asked how the quality of facility schools is monitored, which state education officials said has been “a topic of conversation.”

“We don’t really want students in residential schools unless they absolutely have to be there,” Scheffel said, “and then the services have to be exemplary so there’s a reason to be there, and then it has to be short-term so they can get out of there.”

A few State Board members said they had personal experience with the schools.

“I have had the experience of placing a child in a facility school,” said board member Karla Esser, who was formerly a teacher and administrator in Aurora Public Schools. “It is not done lightly. By the time we knew we had to do something different at the district, [the child] had two full-time paras [aides}, beyond being in one of our [special education] classes.

“At that point, we just didn’t feel we could keep the child safe.”

Zenzinger is also an educator, having worked in both K-12 and higher education. In an interview, she emphasized that the students in facility schools are the state’s most vulnerable.

“These are students experiencing a lot of trauma, a lot of trial and tribulation,” she said. “They need the most supports in order to be successful.

“That’s just not going to happen if we don’t solve this problem.”

Melanie Asmar is a senior reporter for Chalkbeat Colorado, covering Denver Public Schools. Contact Melanie at masmar@chalkbeat.org.

Confused about child abuse reporting rules for Colorado educators? Clarity is coming.

2022-12-13T22:09:56+00:00

Colorado teachers, principals, school counselors, and other school staff could eventually get more clarity on their legal responsibility to report child abuse and neglect.

A new group of experts, the Mandatory Reporting Task Force, launched this month to consider ways to improve reporting of child abuse and neglect in Colorado. Current reporting rules, which apply to employees in about 40 professions, are often vague and contribute to a disproportionate number of reports targeting families of color. The group’s final report is due in January 2025.

The new task force came out of a 2022 state law prompted partly by the case of Olivia Gant, a 7-year-old girl whose mother falsely portrayed her as being terminally ill.

Stephanie Villafuerte, Colorado’s child protection ombudsman, said another reason for the task force is continued confusion from mandated reporters about what they’re required to report, how quickly reports must be made, and how reporting protocols work in large organizations like school districts and hospitals.

During the group’s inaugural meeting last week, many of the more than 30 members talked of creating a child welfare system that’s friendlier to families, more transparent for mandated reporters, and more careful to avoid conflating poverty with abuse or neglect.

“There’s research nationally that would suggest that we are sweeping in way too many families for issues like poverty, for example,” she said. “There’s also concerns that not only are we sweeping in the wrong families, we’re not sweeping in the right families and those are the cases that you hear when someone should have made a mandated report, and they didn’t.”

Villafuerte said a state campaign promoting reporting of child abuse a decade ago may have inadvertently pushed educators and others to report families living in poverty. The slogan was “You pick up the phone. We make the call” — meaning if mandated reporters had any concerns about a child, they should call the child abuse hotline and let experts sort it out.

“What we’ve learned about that messaging is that good people — teachers — will say, ‘I had a child come to school several days in a row really hungry and not clean and I don’t know who else to call. I’m going to call the child abuse hotline,’” she said.

In such situations, the problem may have nothing to do with abuse, but rather a family’s need for food or housing help, she said. But being reported, even if parents are ultimately cleared of wrongdoing, creates a lingering sense of fear and trauma.

Several task force members said mandated reporters need more ways to support caregivers who are struggling. Others said the final recommendations must also acknowledge the limits of what certain mandated reporters can do to help families.

“Some mandatory [reporters] are in a great position to provide supports, and others like our educators, that’s not their primary job,” said Michelle Murphy, executive director of the Colorado Rural Schools Alliance. “Let’s be clear what we’re asking folks to do and what their skill set is.”

Murphy also noted that in education settings, abuse allegations may focus not on parents, but rather employees or even other students.

Dawn Alexander, who heads an advocacy group for private child care providers, the Early Childhood Education Association of Colorado, said clear rules for mandatory reporters are critical because reports can set off secondary consequences.

She gave the example of a young child left alone on the playground for one minute after the rest of the group had returned to the classroom. Even if the child was immediately retrieved and no harm came of it, a report could trigger separate actions by the state’s early childhood department, she said.

“It could potentially result in monthly visits and probation and all kinds of additional issues that don’t center around that claim of abuse and neglect,” she said. The report “is the door that opens to all those other systemic consequences.”

Other task force members said the law should be rewritten so mandated reporters don’t end up in legal trouble because they didn’t understand the rules.

Villafuerte said Colorado schools must provide training to mandatory reporters, but there are no uniform standards and the content varies widely by district.

Jessica Dotter, sexual assault resource prosecutor with the Colorado District Attorneys’ Council, said she hopes the task force will bring about a law change that “results in no mandatory reporter ever landing on a DA’s desk again for failure to report because it’s so clear what the duty is.”

“In my experience, mandatory reporters are … hardly ever nefariously failing to report,” she said. “It’s a mistake. It’s a lack of training. It’s a lack of understanding.”

Ann Schimke is a senior reporter at Chalkbeat, covering early childhood issues and early literacy. Contact Ann at aschimke@chalkbeat.org.

Querella alega discriminación contra estudiantes discapacitados

2022-09-28T21:05:30+00:00

Read in English.

Abram Sisneros estaba entusiasmado por ir al Kinder en la misma escuela de su hermano, y donde había recién completado dos años de preescolar.

Pero en una reunión antes del comienzo de clases, a sus padres les dijeron que Abram, que tiene Síndrome Down, necesitaba más servicios de los que esa escuela podía ofrecer. Por lo tanto, no podría asistir a la escuela que sus padres habían seleccionado.

El distrito pudo rechazar a Abram porque la ley de opción de escuelas de Colorado (la cual permite que la mayoría de los estudiantes asistan a cualquier escuela que tenga cabida para ellos, no importa donde vivan) también permite que los distritos escolares rechacen a un estudiante discapacitado si sus administradores dicen que la escuela no puede satisfacer las necesidades educativas de ese estudiante en particular.

Una querella presentada ante la Oficina de Derechos Civiles del Departamento de Educación de Estados Unidos alega que la ley estatal permite que los administradores escolares discriminen contra estudiantes discapacitados y que pasen por alto los requisitos federales de derechos civiles cuyo propósito es protegerlos.

“La ley que permite seleccionar una escuela no parece discriminatoria a primera vista, pero si uno la analiza en el contexto de educación especial y lo que les están diciendo a las familias, y cuáles familias no pueden matricular a sus hijos en la escuela de su preferencia, entonces se vuelve problemática”, dijo Emily Harvey, líder de defensa de adolescentes de la organización Disability Law Colorado y la principal autora de la querella.

Harvey dice que frecuentemente se entera de familias como los Sisneros. En muchos casos, los estudiantes rechazados tienen planes de educación especial que piden un nivel relativamente bajo de servicios y pasan la mayor parte del tiempo en los salones de educación general, dijo ella. La ley estatal no les da muchas opciones a las familias porque la capacidad de decisión de los administradores es sumamente amplia.

“Fue bien difícil tener conversaciones con los padres cuando un distrito escolar cita la ley de opción escolar para decirles por qué se les está negando matricular a su hijo(a) y sienten que él o ella no tiene opción escolar disponible por tener un IEP” señaló Harvey. “No queremos que los padres se sientan impotentes”.

Los programas de educación individualizada, o IEP, describen las necesidades y metas educativas de los estudiantes discapacitados y qué servicios necesitan para tener éxito en la escuela. Por otro lado, algunos estudiantes tienen planes 504 si califican para ayuda adicional en virtud de otra sección de la ley federal.

En lugar de pedir investigaciones separadas de casos individuales, la querella busca cambiar la ley de opción escolar a nombre de todos los estudiantes de Colorado y nombra a la Junta de Educación Estatal, a la Comisionada de Educación Katy Anthes, y al Departamento de Educación de Colorado como las entidades que discriminan porque son quienes supervisan el sistema de matrícula abierta.

Dana Smith, portavoz del Departamento de Educación de Colorado, dijo que sus funcionarios están al tanto de la querella y de las inquietudes señaladas por Disability Law Colorado, y que el departamento está trabajando para encontrar una resolución.

El año pasado, Colorado cambió las reglas en cuanto a cuándo las escuelas pueden preguntar sobre la discapacidad de un estudiante y en respuesta a una querella anterior de Disability Law Colorado, alentó a las escuelas a acomodar a los estudiantes en los programas que seleccionaron.

El departamento no tiene autoridad sobre cómo los distritos operan sus sistemas de matrícula abierta, dijo Smith, pero sí revisa las querellas.

La Oficina de Derechos Civiles todavía no ha abierto una investigación y tiene varios meses para decidir si lo hará.

La querella menciona leyes federales que indican que, antes de rechazar a un estudiante, las escuelas demuestren que acomodarlo representa una carga excesiva o requiere cambios fundamentales en un programa educativo. El mismo estándar debe aplicarse al sistema de matrícula abierta, dijo Harvey, en vez de permitir que los administradores decidan que una escuela no cuenta con los recursos apropiados.

La ley de opción escolar también permite que las escuelas rechacen a estudiantes que hayan sido expulsados de otra escuela. La querella menciona que los estudiantes con discapacidades son expulsados con mucha más frecuencia que sus compañeros, y esto limita aún más su habilidad para acogerse a la opción escolar.

Los defensores quisieran ver un proceso de querella más robusto que permita que los padres apelen las decisiones de matrícula y requiera que las escuelas sean más específicas en cuanto a la razón por la que no pueden atender a un estudiante en particular. Además, para calcular los fondos estatales, ellos quieren que las escuelas lleven cuenta de cuáles estudiantes quedaron sin matricular después de haberlos contado.

Harvey dijo que contar con más fondos para los estudiantes de educación especial sería de mucha ayuda. Las escuelas reciben dinero adicional para atender a estos estudiantes, pero la cantidad no cubre el costo por completo.

Rachel Hersch, estudiante recientemente graduada de derecho y miembro de Disability Law Colorado, analizó los datos del estado y descubrió que el porcentaje de estudiantes con discapacidades varía ampliamente entre las escuelas, a pesar de que la mayoría de ellos pasan sus días en los salones de clases regulares.

En casi todos los 16 distritos escolares que Disability Law Colorado estudió, las cinco escuelas con la matrícula más alta de estudiantes con IEP son escuelas de la comunidad y las cinco con la matrícula más baja tienen un estudiantado en que todos o la gran mayoría de los estudiantes están amparándose en el proceso de selección escolar (school choice). Esas escuelas de preferencia, que son más atractivas para las familias, incluyen escuelas chárter y escuelas del distrito que ofrecen programas especializados en arte, matemáticas y ciencias, o aprendizaje basado en proyectos.

Los padres de Abram, Anthony y Sarah Sisneros, habían visto a su hijo mayor progresar en el modelo basado en proyectos y práctica de su escuela, y pensaron que también sería una excelente opción para Abram.

Los Sisneros dijeron que les tomó por sorpresa escuchar que Abram iba a necesitar muchos más servicios de los que estaba recibiendo en el preescolar o que lo que ellos pensaban que necesitaría. El distrito les dijo que su única opción era matricular a Abram en un programa segregado en la escuela de su comunidad.

“Hasta ese punto, el proceso de school choice ha sido bueno para nosotros porque la escuela de nuestra comunidad es una de las de menos desempeño del distrito, y la escuela en donde está matriculado nuestro hijo mayor es una de las mejores”, dijo Sarah Sisneros.

“Estamos realmente convencidos de que él no necesita estar en un salón segregado de educación especial. Queremos que participe completamente con sus compañeros, y todas las investigaciones han demostrado que los niños con Síndrome de Down que están en programas inclusivos tienen un mejor desempeño académico.”

La familia pidió que no se mencionara el nombre de la escuela ni del distrito porque todavía tienen esperanza de llegar a una resolución y porque quieren que la atención se enfoque en la ley estatal.

A Abram le va bien en un salón de educación general en una escuela católica cercana en donde Sarah Sisneros aceptó un trabajo de maestra para poder decirle a su hijo “estamos en esto juntos”. Tomó meses explicarle a Abram que no iba a asistir a la escuela con su hermano, ya que él llevaba mucho tiempo esperando por eso, y al hermano mayor le ha costado mucho entender por qué su escuela no acepta a Abram.

Los niños en la escuela anterior todavía peguntan por Abram y por qué él no está en la escuela con ellos.

Una niña le preguntó a Sarah Sisneros si la razón es “porque él se ve raro o algo así”.

Sarah Sisneros dijo que es desgarrador que la escuela haya perdido la oportunidad de enseñarles a los estudiantes sobre la inclusión.

“La palabra ‘discapacidad’ nubla la mente de las personas, y nadie les da oportunidad a estos estudiantes”, dijo. “Los estudiantes no tienen que ganarse su lugar en una escuela. Todo estudiante debe ser valorado”.

Lee la querella completa aquí.

La jefe de redacción Erica Meltzer es reportera de políticas educativas y supervisa la cobertura de educación de Chalkbeat Colorado Para comunicarte con Erica, escríbele a emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Colorado school choice law discriminates against students with disabilities, complaint alleges

2022-09-14T12:00:00+00:00

Leer en español.

Abram Sisneros was excited to go to kindergarten at the same school his older brother attended and where he had just completed two years of preschool.

But at a meeting before the start of kindergarten, his parents were told that Abram, who has Down syndrome, needed more services than the school could provide. He wouldn’t be able to attend the school his parents had chosen for him.

The district was able to turn Abram away because Colorado’s school choice law — which allows most students to attend any school that has room for them, regardless of boundaries — also allows school districts to reject students with disabilities if administrators say the school can’t meet a particular student’s educational needs.

A complaint filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights alleges that state law allows school administrators to discriminate against students with disabilities and ignore federal civil rights requirements intended to protect them.

“The school choice law is not discriminatory on its face, but if you look at it in the context of special education and what families are being told and which families can’t enroll in a choice school, that’s when it becomes problematic,” said Emily Harvey, youth advocacy team leader for Disability Law Colorado and the lead author of the complaint.

Harvey said she hears frequently from families like the Sisneroses. In many cases, the rejected students have specialized education plans that call for a relatively low level of services and spend most of their time in general education classrooms, she said. State law doesn’t give families a lot of options because the discretion for administrators is so broad.

“It was really hard to have conversations with parents where a school district is citing school choice law to say why they’re being denied enrollment and feeling like if their kid has an IEP, school choice isn’t available to them,” Harvey said. “We don’t want parents to feel helpless.”

Individualized education programs, or IEPs, describe the educational needs and goals of students with disabilities and what services they need to be successful in school. Some students instead have 504 plans, if they qualify for extra help under a different section of federal law.

Rather than ask for separate investigations of individual cases, the complaint seeks changes to the school choice law on behalf of all Colorado students and names the State Board of Education, Education Commissioner Katy Anthes, and the Colorado Department of Education as the entities engaged in discrimination because they oversee the open enrollment system.

Dana Smith, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Department of Education said officials are aware of the complaint and the concerns raised by Disability Law Colorado, and the department is working to find a resolution.

Last year, Colorado changed the rules for when schools can ask about disability status and encouraged schools to accommodate students at their parents’ chosen option in response to an earlier Disability Law Colorado complaint.

The department doesn’t have authority over how districts run their open enrollment systems, Smith said, though it does look into complaints.

The Office for Civil Rights has not yet opened an investigation and has several months to decide whether to do so.

The complaint points to federal laws that require schools to show that accommodating a student would impose an undue burden or require fundamental changes to an educational program before turning a student away. That same standard should apply within the open enrollment system, Harvey said, rather than allowing administrators to assert that a school doesn’t have appropriate resources.

The school choice law also allows schools to reject students who have been expelled elsewhere. The complaint notes that students with disabilities are expelled at much higher rates than their peers, further limiting their ability to use school choice.

Advocates would like to see a more robust grievance process that lets parents appeal enrollment decisions and requires schools to be more specific about why they can’t serve a particular student. They also want schools to track which students are disenrolled after students are counted for purposes of calculating state funding.

Harvey said better funding for special education students would help a lot. Schools get extra money to serve these students, but it doesn’t cover the full cost.

Analysis of state data by recently graduated law student Rachel Hersch for Disability Law Colorado found wide variation among schools in the percentage of students with disabilities, even though most spend their days in general education classrooms.

In nearly all of 16 school districts surveyed by Disability Law Colorado, the five schools with the highest enrollment of students with IEPs were neighborhood schools and the five schools with the lowest enrollment were ones where all or most students use a choice process. These choice schools included both charter schools and district-run schools offering specialized programming in the arts, math and science, or project-based learning that make them appealing to families.

Abram’s parents, Anthony and Sarah Sisneros, had seen their older child thrive through the project-based, hands-on model at his school, and they thought it would be a great fit for Abram too.

The Sisneroses said they were shocked to be told Abram would need far more services than he had been receiving in preschool or than they thought he needed. The district told them their only option was to enroll Abram in a segregated program at their neighborhood school.

“Up until that point, school choice had been good for us, because our neighborhood school is one of the lower-performing schools in the district, and the school our older child attends is one of the highest performing,” Sarah Sisneros said.

“We feel really strongly that he doesn’t need to be in a segregated special needs classroom. We want him to be fully included with his peers, and all the research shows that children with Down syndrome who are in inclusive programs perform better academically.”

The family asked not to name the school or district because they are still hoping to reach a resolution and because they want to focus attention on the state law.

Abram is doing well in a general education classroom at a nearby Catholic school where Sarah Sisneros, a teacher, took a job so that she could tell her son they were “doing this together.” It took months to explain to Abram that he would not be attending school with his brother, as he’d looked forward to for so long, and Abram’s brother has a hard time understanding why his school doesn’t want Abram.

Children at the old school still ask where Abram is and why he doesn’t go there anymore.

One girl asked Sarah Sisneros if it was “because he looks weird or something.”

Sarah Sisneros said it’s heartbreaking that the school missed an opportunity to teach students about inclusion.

“That word disability floods people’s minds and nobody gives these students a chance,” she said. “Students should not have to earn their place at a school. Every student should be valued.”

Read the full complaint here.

Correction: This article has been updated to reflect that changes to rules about when schools ask about disability status applied to all schools, not just charter schools.

Bureau Chief Erica Meltzer covers education policy and politics and oversees Chalkbeat Colorado’s education coverage. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

New limits on student seclusion, restraint pass Colorado legislature

2022-05-12T00:26:49+00:00

A bill headed to the Colorado governor’s desk bans handcuffing students in most circumstances, requires schools to notify parents promptly when they restrain students, and sets higher standards for school resource officers.

The bill also requires school districts to report publicly much more information about student discipline, tickets, and arrests, and to break down the numbers by race, ethnicity, disability, and other student characteristics. The Colorado Department of Education will have to make that data and other information about school climate available online.

“This is a game-changing first step in making sure we know what experiences our students are having in school, including restraints, including discipline,” said Krista Spurgin, executive director of Stand for Children, a supporter of the bill. “There is work ahead of us, but the data we’re collecting here will give us a transparent view of how we need to support our schools and our teachers and our students differently.”

School district officials and special education directors strongly opposed the bill’s data reporting requirements as overly burdensome and unrealistic, while many Republicans raised concerns about student data privacy.

Amendments to the bill laid out privacy protections, many of which are already common practices of the state education department, and eliminated a requirement that districts report all instances of seclusion and restraint that last longer than one minute to the state education department.

Instead, a working group will develop rules for when seclusion and restraint need to be reported and how. Bret Miles, executive director of the Colorado Association of School Executives, said it’s critical for districts to participate in shaping those requirements.

“This impacts how we handle some of the toughest kids,” he said.

Introduced late in the session, House Bill 1376 passed its final legislative hurdle Wednesday, the last day of the 2022 Colorado General Assembly. A year ago, sponsors withdrew a much more expansive school discipline reform effort in the face of fierce opposition.

House Bill 1376 aims to create more supportive school environments for students by shedding more light on disciplinary practices and how they affect students of color, those from low-income families, and those with disabilities, and by encouraging better approaches. The bill was sponsored by Democrats state Reps. Mary Young of Greeley and Leslie Herod of Denver, and state Sen. Faith Winter of Westminster, as well as Republican state Sen. Kevin Priola of Henderson.

The bill calls on the state’s police oversight board to adopt best practices for school resource officers and only assign officers who want to work with youth in school settings. School leaders will have a greater role in evaluating the performance of these officers.

The more controversial aspects of the bill deal with seclusion, which means shutting a student in a room, and restraint, which the law defines as putting a student in a physical hold for more than five minutes. School districts say these methods are used only as a last resort and to protect student and teacher safety.

Advocates for students with disabilities, who are far more likely than their peers to experience seclusion and restraint, say these interventions often traumatize children and worsen challenging behavior. They want educators to be better trained in de-escalation techniques to head off behaviors in the first place.

A 2017 law already bans dangerous prone restraints and requires school districts to conduct annual reviews of their use of seclusion and restraint.

But they don’t have to post that information publicly or share it with the Colorado Department of Education.

And until now, when state regulators have identified violations, they haven’t had the authority to order corrective action.

In a key change, the bill gives the state education department enforcement authority to change district practices when they harm students.

Also, students cannot be handcuffed at school unless they pose an immediate danger to themselves or others or are being placed under arrest. Seclusion rooms will have to have a window or the ability to monitor children by video to make sure they don’t hurt themselves while they’re alone.

And schools will now have to notify parents of any restraints lasting longer than one minute and how many times a student is restrained in one day. Advocates told lawmakers parents sometimes only learn their child was placed in a hold when they see bruises.

Spurgin said advocates need to participate in the rule-making process for data reporting to ensure the bill produces meaningful information about student discipline and racial and other disparities.

The State Board of Education places a premium on student privacy and redacts significant information from large data sets to ensure no one could work backwards to infer, for example, that two Black students in a mostly white school have been suspended. The result can be fields of blank squares where numbers should be.

Spurgin said she believes privacy can be balanced with producing data that schools and communities can act on to get more money, training, and mental health support for Colorado schools.

“At the very least, we’ll have a clearer idea of what those experiences [with discipline and arrest] are looking like for students across race, ethnicity, disability and gender,” she said. “And then we need to look at what resources and training we can give our schools to create a better climate for our students.”

Bureau Chief Erica Meltzer covers education policy and politics and oversees Chalkbeat Colorado’s education coverage. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Colorado bill to improve school climate, limit seclusion and restraint advances

2022-04-22T12:45:00+00:00

Despite strong objections from school districts and charter schools, the House Education Committee put its support behind a wide-ranging bill that limits the use of seclusion and restraint, sets higher standards for school resource officers, and collects more data on discipline practices.

The larger goal of the bill, sponsored by Democratic state Reps. Mary Young of Greeley and Leslie Herod of Denver, is to improve school climate and create a better learning environment.

“We’re trying to create a safe environment where students want to come to school and look forward to coming to school,” Young said.

Students of color and those with disabilities are more likely to be suspended or expelled, referred to law enforcement, and placed in physical holds or seclusion rooms, but it’s hard to know what’s happening in schools that contributes to these disparities.

Supporters, who include education and disability rights advocates, said more consistent and transparent data reporting is a starting point for larger changes, while the limits the bill places on restraints and seclusion will reduce practices that can inflict lasting emotional harm.

Opponents, who include special education directors and representatives of school districts and charter schools, said they support the goals but that the bill would drown them in paperwork to solve an imaginary problem.

“Our current system is working,” said Jon Paul Burdon, director of exceptional student services for the Weld Re-4 district.

Opponents also want a working group to hash out what data-reporting changes make sense, rather than dictating them in law, and they want to maintain current rules for seclusion and restraint.

A 2017 law already bans dangerous prone restraints and requires school districts to conduct annual reviews of their use of seclusion, which means shutting a student in a room, and restraint, which the law defined as putting a student in a physical hold for more than five minutes.

But they don’t have to post that information publicly or share it with the Colorado Department of Education.

A Chalkbeat investigation found wide variations in how school districts tracked and reported this information. Because districts don’t have to submit their annual reviews to any government agency, there is little oversight, and when state regulators identify violations, they don’t have the authority to order corrective action, a gap the bill would address.

The bill makes three main changes.

It would require the state education department to collect more data on school climate, student discipline, and law enforcement referrals and make that information easily accessible. The data would be broken down by race, ethnicity, disability status, and more to make it easier to see which student groups are most affected.
It would ban handcuffing students except in limited circumstances and require schools to document physical holds that last longer than a minute. Rooms used for seclusion would have to meet certain safety requirements.
It would set new standards for school resource officers, including that they have experience working with youth and want to work in schools.

Student behavior presents major challenges

Lisa Humberd, executive director of special education for the Widefield district, described a fourth-grade student with serious emotional disabilities who is working hard on better self-regulation but doesn’t always succeed.

“When she is not able to de-escalate, she becomes physically violent towards herself, other students, and staff,” Humbert said. “Behaviors can include throwing objects at students and staff, from pencils to tables to chairs, books, or laptops, hitting and kicking students and staff, trying to choke students and staff, trying to choke herself, trying to poke others in the eye trying to stab herself with pens or pencils, head-banging against the wall or floor or tables.”

Restraints for this girl often last two to four minutes, Humberd said. Those restraints don’t require documentation under current law, but would under the new law.

Burdon described an elementary student who has been hospitalized due to self-injury and inflicted injuries on staff that generated workman’s compensation claims. Staff sometimes place the student in a hold multiple times a day. Under the bill, each hold would generate one to two hours of additional paperwork, he said.

“We’re already facing the largest teacher shortage on record, and people are leaving the field due to the unmanageable burdens constantly added to teachers, administrators, and specialized staff,” he said. “We need good people to care for our children in our schools.”

Humberd and Burdon said restraint is used only as a last resort, staff are well trained, and parents are involved in developing behavior plans.

Pam Bisceglia, executive director of Advocacy Denver, painted a different picture based on parent reports. Their child may come home from school with a few stickers missing from the chart that tracks good behavior, and then, after dinner and a bath, they notice bruises. Their embarrassed child reports he was restrained at school.

“The parent wonders why didn’t anybody call them and let them know that this had happened during the school day,” she said.

By documenting any restraints that last longer than a minute, parents, therapists, and school staff can work on preventing future outbursts and the need for traumatic physical holds, Bisceglia said. On a larger level, it would allow districts and the state to see which schools are relying more on restraint and promote better practices.

Teachers who testified in support of the bill said they’ve seen better data drive changes in classroom practices at their schools, changes that were good for students and educators.

Pamela Kaspar, a fellow with Stand for Children, which is backing the bill, said verbal delays and a stressful cross-country move led her son to struggle in school early on. Instead of getting help, her son was sent to the office or home. These suspensions were not documented.

“Had that documentation been provided for us, it would have painted a very grim picture of what the school’s discipline policy looked like, and we would have picked a different school for him sooner,” she said.

In a new school with better support, Tristan thrived, Kaspar said.

“I hope this bill passes,” Tristan, 11, said. “So then kids like me, who are afraid of having the same experience as I did, they don’t have to, and they can have a school that is justice.”

The House Education Committee advanced the bill Thursday evening in 6-3 party-line vote. With less than three weeks left in the session, the bill still needs to pass the full House and Senate, where opponents could still seek amendments.

Bureau Chief Erica Meltzer covers education policy and politics and oversees Chalkbeat Colorado’s education coverage. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Colorado bill seeks changes to school discipline, less use of seclusion and restraint

2022-04-15T13:03:09+00:00

Through more training for police who work in schools, more transparency around student discipline, and new limits on the use of handcuffing and seclusion rooms, advocates hope to see schools become safer and more supportive places, especially for students of color and those with disabilities.

A bill introduced in the Colorado House this week calls for significantly more data collection, more public reports on school discipline practices, and fewer loopholes that allow Colorado school districts to essentially police themselves when it comes to seclusion and restraint.

Critically, the bill would give the Colorado Department of Education the authority to order school districts to correct their practices when they violate students’ rights.

The larger goals are to improve school climate and prevent students from entering the school-to-prison pipeline.

“We want to set kids up for success,” said Krista Spurgin, executive director of the Colorado chapter of Stand for Children, an advocacy organization. “If kids are constantly getting in trouble or being told they’re a troublemaker or even getting arrested, you start to see that cycle repeat itself.”

The bill makes three main changes.

It would require the state education department to collect more data on school climate, student discipline, and law enforcement referrals and make that information easily accessible. The data would be broken down by race, ethnicity, gender, family income, English learner status, and disability status to make it easier to see which student groups are most affected by certain discipline practices.
It would limit the use of physical restraints and seclusion rooms. It would ban handcuffing students except in limited circumstances. It would require schools to document physical holds that last longer than a minute, and prohibit using offices and broom closets for student seclusion.
It would set new standards for school resource officers, including that they have experience working with youth and want to work in schools. It would give school officials more say in evaluating officers’ performance and in which officers work in schools.

Advocates hope that by gathering more data and making it more publicly available, they can identify exemplary schools and schools that rely too much on suspensions, expulsions, and other discipline practices that can derail children’s school experience. This data could help develop new policies and direct resources, they said.

“Eventually we would like to get to a place where we have a vision for school and student success that includes a healthy school climate and provides a safe and supportive learning environment for all students,” said Leslie Colwell of the Colorado Children’s Campaign. “To get there, there are some steps that need to happen first. We think this bill lays the foundation for this work that needs to come first.”

The bill developed from conversations that started after a school discipline reform bill was withdrawn last year amid fierce opposition from law enforcement and suburban school districts. But advocates insist this year’s effort is not a re-do. The effort was informed by statewide conversations last summer about improving school climate. Advocates tried to identify steps that would lead to concrete improvements without casting police as the problem or limiting how they do their job.

For example, last year’s bill included a long list of infractions that police would be prohibited from responding to when they occurred on school grounds. Instead, this year’s bill calls for a model policy for school resource officers, the recruitment of officers who want to work in schools, and roles for both school and police officials in evaluating school resource officers, rather than officers only reporting to their police supervisors.

Several of the bill’s provisions deal with the use of seclusion and restraint, practices that overwhelmingly affect students with disabilities.

State Rep. Mary Young, a Greeley Democrat and former school psychologist, said she doesn’t aim to ban seclusion or restraint. In her job, sometimes a child needed to be in a quiet room to calm down or an adult needed to place a child in a hold so they wouldn’t hurt themselves or another student.

“We just want to make sure they’re done appropriately so children are safe,” she said.

Young is sponsoring the bill with state Rep. Leslie Herod, a Denver Democrat who was a driving force behind last year’s withdrawn school discipline bill and 2020’s landmark police reform bill.

Young said this year’s bill should provide better definitions and clearer reporting requirements while still allowing flexibility to respond to student behavior.

“We’re trying to make sure that we as a state are doing it in a way that we are reducing behaviors instead of increasing them,” Young said.

A 2017 law already requires school districts to conduct annual reviews of their use of seclusion, which means shutting a student in a room, and restraint, which the law defined as putting a student in a physical hold for more than five minutes. But they don’t have to post that information publicly or share it with the Colorado Department of Education.

A Chalkbeat investigation found wide variations in how school districts tracked and reported this information. Some districts’ reviews were several pages long and full of data. Others were just a few sentences with no data at all. Even when districts included data, it was inconsistent. Some lumped seclusion and restraint together, while others separated them. Some reported holds that lasted less than five minutes. Others didn’t.

And because districts don’t have to submit their annual reviews to any government agency, there is little oversight.

Even when the state found that districts were in violation of state rules, the state had no enforcement powers. The bill gives the state new enforcement powers to order corrective action plans and compensatory services for students and to monitor school districts that have ongoing problems.

Jennifer Levin, director of public policy for the ARC of Colorado, said many of the students who are placed in holds or closed in seclusion rooms aren’t able to tell their parents what happened. Parents see bruises or notice that their child is more withdrawn, but don’t know what happened.

By requiring schools to document all holds that last longer than a minute, Levin hopes to open up more conversations about what can be done to head off student outbursts before they happen.

“Any time a student is placed in any of these types of restraints, whether it is physical restraint or seclusion, it brings up trauma,” Levin said. “And we find students who are suddenly very fearful and anxious about schools, and some of these students don’t have the capacity to verbally express what happened.”

Spurgin said that collecting more data is a necessary step to understand what’s happening in schools and find the right solutions.

“Our students of color are targeted, more specifically our male students of color,” Spurgin said. “The disaggregated data we will get from this bill is so important. Often you hear anecdotal reasons why certain student groups are disciplined more, arrested more, handcuffed more, but until we have the data, I think it will be hard to convince educators that there is bias in the system.

“It’s not pointing a finger, but pointing out what happens when we see students of color as more problematic than white students.”

It’s not clear whether this measure will face significant opposition. School districts, especially small rural ones, consistently push back against requirements that they share more data or do more training. They say the requirements are burdensome and costly and make it harder to educate students.

The difficulties of the pandemic and staff shortages have amplified those objections. At the same time, many educators say student behavior problems and mental health needs have grown.

Bill supporters say they don’t intend to cast blame on classroom teachers or district administrators. They want teachers to have more tools, not fewer, to respond to challenging behavior.

“We have a sense that these disparities exist — that isn’t disputed at this point — but the data around this is not easy to find,” Colwell said. “We don’t know what is actually happening. We need that before we can start to figure out solutions.”

Bureau Chief Erica Meltzer covers education policy and politics and oversees Chalkbeat Colorado’s education coverage. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Jason Gonzales is a reporter covering higher education and the Colorado legislature. Chalkbeat Colorado partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage. Contact Jason at jgonzales@chalkbeat.org.

A rideshare company is transporting Colorado at-risk students. Whose rules should apply?

2022-04-11T10:45:00+00:00

HopSkipDrive provided the solution when Jerene Petersen was struggling to find rides for foster youth who had been placed in homes far from their regular schools.

At the time, she was the deputy executive director for the Colorado Department of Human Services. She knew that getting students back to their home schools would increase their chances of graduating high school and building stable lives. It’s also required by federal law — but drivers were hard to find.

HopSkipDrive — a rideshare service similar to Uber or Lyft that specializes in transporting children — now contracts with more than a dozen Colorado school districts, as well as human services agencies, to provide rides for vulnerable children: homeless youth, those in foster care, and students with disabilities whose specialized education plans include transportation.

But as a rideshare company, HopSkipDrive hasn’t been regulated like other companies that also provide rides for at-risk students. Those companies have to follow Colorado Department of Education rules that ensure drivers have certain training and vehicles meet safety requirements.

Instead, HopSkipDrive has been regulated like other rideshare companies by the state Public Utilities Commission.

That was set to change this summer. In response to a complaint from a competitor, the PUC ruled that it shouldn’t regulate HopSkipDrive when the company is doing work for school districts. The Colorado Department of Education is prepared to take over regulating HopSkipDrive’s school services.

A bill making its way through the Colorado General Assembly would prevent the education department from assuming oversight and keep regulating HopSkipDrive similar to Uber and Lyft.

HopSkipDrive executives say that if the bill doesn’t pass, all of their services for at-risk youth and others are in danger because contracts with human service agencies and youth shelters could also be found not to be covered under rideshare regulations. They say the company already follows important safety measures through company policy and their contracts.

But advocates for students with disabilities are raising an alarm about the bill. Colorado’s laws and rules governing rideshare companies were developed with adult passengers in mind, and they want all companies providing rides for students to follow the same standards set by the education department.

“There is no reason that a child, by reason of their disability, should be getting transportation with fewer safety regulations than a child riding a yellow school bus,” said JoyAnn Ruscha, who represents the Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition. “We can’t serve at-risk students by cutting corners. Then we’re not serving kids.”

What would it take to put your child in a car with a stranger?

HopSkipDrive was founded in California by three working mothers who wanted a solution to a problem they had themselves: how to get children to after-school activities when school lets out hours earlier than the workday ends.

Trish Donahue, HopSkipDrive vice president for legal and policy, said the company knew parents would need to feel safe, so they took extra steps. Those included running background checks on drivers, using code words to make sure drivers had the right child and children had the right adult, and requiring previous caregiving experience, though that could include the driver simply being a parent.

The company continues to serve parents directly, but government contracts are an important part of its business. The Los Angeles County Department of Human Services was an early client. Now operating in 10 states, HopSkipDrive entered Colorado in 2018 at the urging of Petersen, who is now retired but continues to volunteer with foster youth. Many of them take HopSkipDrive to school.

Demand has grown during the pandemic as school districts struggle with bus driver shortages, more families face homelessness, and more students need extra services.

In Kansas and Missouri, the company has pushed for bills similar to the Colorado one to be exempt from rules governing school transportation, which covers not just school buses but also vans and private cars that provide rides for individual students.

Donahue said the company seeks to be regulated as a rideshare company because that’s what it is. Drivers and clients connect over an app, and drivers use their own personal vehicles. Having similar regulations in different states supports the company’s business model, and the flexibility of rideshare allows HopSkipDrive to respond quickly to changing demand, she said.

“It doesn’t make sense for us to opt into other forms of regulation,” she said.

Advocates want consistent standards

Other companies doing similar work to HopSkipDrive are considered school transportation and regulated by the Colorado Department of Education. Those rules include maintaining vehicle safety logs, carrying a first aid kit, completing certain training, ensuring students don’t have to cross traffic to get in the car, and more. Districts must maintain compliance records for periodic inspection.

For several years, school districts have raised questions about whether they could contract with HopSkipDrive and what regulations applied. HopSkipDrive’s main competitor for school district contracts, ALC Schools, is regulated as a school transportation service. But the state education department doesn’t regulate HopSkipDrive because it is registered as a transportation network company, or TNC — the technical term for a rideshare company — with the Public Utilities Commission.

“The questions we got were: Why is one company regulated by CDE and one company is regulated by PUC when it’s the same service?” CDE spokesperson Dana Smith said.

So when ALC Schools filed a complaint with the PUC, the education department filed an amicus brief asking the commission to provide clarity. The department was prepared to regulate HopSkipDrive, its lawyers said, but did not take a position on the outcome.

Colorado Secretary of State lobbying reports show that HopSkipDrive previously hired the education department’s legislative lobbyist. The lobbyist, Jennifer Mello, said she did a few hours of work in spring 2020, when schools were closed, helping HopSkipDrive make connections with other government agencies.

The State Board of Education has not taken a position on the bill.

In a ruling on the complaint, an administrative law judge found that when HopSkipDrive contracts with school districts, it provides school transportation and isn’t under the commission’s jurisdiction, though the commission could continue to regulate its consumer services. The full commission upheld that decision in March.

Meanwhile, legislation was filed by state Sen. Rachel Zenzinger, an Arvada Democrat, to keep HopSkipDrive entirely under the commission. She said failing to act would endanger a wide range of public services provided by rideshare companies, such as taking seniors to vaccine appointments and foster youth to supervised visits with their parents. The legal arguments applied to determine that school transportation doesn’t fall under the PUC’s jurisdiction might also apply to other government contracts, she said.

“Until we clarify in statute this irregularity, all of these trips that are taking place are unregulated,” she said.

HopSkipDrive made this same argument to the commission — unsuccessfully.

The bill moved quickly through the Senate with broad bipartisan support, though a few Democrats raised concerns around consumer protections, safety for children, and labor rights.

“A 9-year-old with Down syndrome riding alone to school will have the same safety regulations as an adult hailing an Uber on a Friday night,” said state Sen. Robert Rodriguez of Denver.

While a number of local governments and human services agencies are supporting the bill — as are Uber and Lyft — school districts haven’t weighed in.

Parents want safety and care

Frankie Lopez’s 12-year-old son Xavier uses HopSkipDrive to get to Spectra, a specialized school for children with autism.

The school previously contracted with ALC Schools, and Lopez said she was frequently late for work waiting for rides that never came. Now Xavier has the same driver nearly every day through HopSkipDrive. The driver drops off her grandson at a nearby school and picks up Xavier. Lopez gets regular notifications when the driver is on her way and when she might be delayed.

The driver is kind, Xavier is happy, and Lopez makes it to work on time.

Lopez said she wouldn’t want regulations to be so stringent they deter people from driving for HopSkipDrive.

“CPR and first aid certification is great. I would support them having that,” Lopez said. “But I don’t want to lose what we have. They’re very caring and responsive people, and just going to a class doesn’t provide someone with that care.”

The bill is now awaiting a hearing in a House committee. Disability advocates are hoping to see amendments that would provide more safety regulations. Ruscha said HopSkipDrive provides a valuable service and current education department rules may need updating for a new era. But the education department is the right agency to oversee these rides, she said.

HopSkipDrive is the only company providing school transportation in Colorado that’s regulated as a rideshare company. Even if the company has good practices, Ruscha said, the bill could open the way for new operators, though Donahue said school districts would continue to have stringent requirements.

Disabled students with diverse needs require the same protections no matter who is driving or what district they’re in, Ruscha said.

“Some students might be runners,” Ruscha said. “They might be more likely to become agitated and try to bolt from the car. There are students who might have epilepsy. Having first aid training is really important.

“All drivers would benefit from ongoing professional development, and we do not want to remove that standard for one vendor because they happen to also have an app.”

Bureau Chief Erica Meltzer covers education policy and politics and oversees Chalkbeat Colorado’s education coverage. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

Colorado charter schools seek more authority over special education

2022-03-28T00:13:58+00:00

Colorado charter schools serve far fewer students with disabilities than district-run schools do. The gap means those students don’t have access to the same educational opportunities as their peers, and school districts end up serving a larger share of students who require expensive services.

Colorado charter leaders say they’re willing and able to do better — if they have more authority and resources. They’re backing a bill that would let charter networks and groups of schools assume full legal responsibility for educating students with disabilities, as well as take control over state and federal funding that currently flows to school districts.

“Charter schools have simply not had access to the same legal structures that would allow them to serve greater percentages of students with disabilities,” said Dan Schaller, president of the Colorado League of Charter Schools.

House Bill 1294, which received unanimous bipartisan support Thursday in the House Education Committee, is a top priority for the League. Bill sponsor state Rep. Mary Young, a Greeley Democrat and former special education teacher, said the effort represents an evolution on the part of charter schools, though she’s not sure how many ultimately will take on the substantial legal responsibilities involved.

“This bill demonstrates the commitment and interest of some charter schools to participate fully in educating special education students,” she said.

But to serve students well, the state will need to exercise strong oversight, and charter schools will need to be realistic about the costs and obligations involved, said Alex Medler, executive director of the Colorado Association of Charter School Authorizers.

“If the state is going to pursue a change like this, they should explore the capacity of all stakeholders to do their jobs well and whether students would really get to be making choices,” Medler said.

Students with disabilities have fewer choices

About 15% of Colorado students — 134,000 pupils — attend charter schools. Publicly funded but independently run, charters can be authorized by school districts or by the state Charter School Institute. They range from Montessori and expeditionary learning schools to college preparatory and classical curriculum models.

On average, just 7.4% of Colorado charter students have what’s known as Individualized Education Programs to address disabilities. That contrasts with 11.6% of students statewide and is less than charter schools in most other states.

The reasons are complex. A recent report surveying parents of students with disabilities found some parents felt school staff discouraged them. Others said charters didn’t have the right services.

“My son is considered more high-functioning than anything, but even still, it wouldn’t be a good fit for him, but they at least told me that,” one parent who opted not to enroll her child in a charter school told researchers.

Medler said a mix of outdated stereotypes and real challenges get in the way. Some parents think charters don’t serve students with disabilities. Some charter schools want to do better but don’t have a supportive relationship with their district.

Advocates say children with disabilities deserve real choices.

“Parents want a school that welcomes their child and where their child is making progress, and sometimes their child is not making that progress in the traditional school,” said Pam Bisceglia of Advocacy Denver. “Some families say their child does really well at a particular charter school because the rituals and routines are so well defined, and for other parents, that routine is the reason their child struggles.”

When Liz Rodriguez was looking for a middle school for her son Julian, who has ADHD, she was attracted to the small class sizes and careful routines at STRIVE Prep, a Denver charter network. Now a senior preparing to graduate, Julian has had a supportive team cheering him the whole way.

“They had a lot of structure, and that’s what I needed for him, for him to have a structured environment where he could focus,” Rodriguez said.

Medler said Denver Public Schools and STRIVE Prep show what can be achieved within existing legal structures. Denver uses a single enrollment system for all schools and also locates programs for students with more significant needs within charter schools. The STRIVE Prep charter network, meanwhile, has embraced the work. Nearly 15% of STRIVE Prep students have disabilities, higher than the district average.

Founder and CEO Chris Gibbons said the network overhauled its programs to reduce staffing ratios, hire more classroom aides, and emphasize co-teaching, in which general education and special education teachers work side-by-side in the same classrooms. To pay for this, the network supplements public dollars with private philanthropy.

Bill would give charters more resources and responsibility

Currently, the responsibility for meeting students’ educational needs lies with school districts and groups of small districts known as BOCES that have banded together to pool resources. These administrative units, as they’re known in the special education world, oversee programming, make placement decisions, and bear the legal responsibility for ensuring all children get an appropriate education.

The state Charter School Institute is also considered an administrative unit.

They receive extra state and federal money for students with disabilities, but those funds cover only about 35% of the additional costs of educating those students. The rest comes from school districts’ general operating budgets.

Charter schools generally receive just a portion of the money for students with disabilities and pay fees to the district to cover administrative costs and centralized services.

Charter school leaders say districts don’t always make clear what those fees cover or provide adequate services. Several charter school leaders told lawmakers having more money and flexibility to design programs and hire providers would allow them to improve services.

Charter schools also don’t have the freedom to enroll any student whose parents are interested. Instead, the school district may decide the charter school can’t adequately serve the student and send them elsewhere.

As administrative units, school districts bear the ultimate legal responsibility if a student’s educational plan isn’t followed, said Lucinda Hundley of the Colorado Consortium of Directors of Special Education. If they deny a charter school placement, it’s because they don’t believe the school can meet that student’s needs.

The proposed law would enable charter schools that meet certain criteria to make those decisions themselves. Charter school networks or collaboratives could apply to the Colorado Department of Education to become their own administrative unit, while remaining part of their school district in other ways. They also could apply to join the Charter School Institute just for purposes of special education — an option that may be more viable than forming their own unit.

“We’re trying to create additional pathways to have charter schools serve students with special needs,” Schaller said.

With 10 schools serving 3,300 students, STRIVE Prep is larger than many Colorado school districts. Gibbons said he would weigh the pros and cons of forming a separate administrative unit, which might let him do things like maintain a specialized center the district plans to close.

“While our partnership with Denver Public Schools is strong, those flexibilities have been hard-earned and have not always been true,” he said, and not every district is as supportive as Denver. “This bill allows for charter schools with that passion and focus to access that level of independence much more rapidly.”

School districts support the bill’s goals, but they’re seeking amendments to ensure charter schools won’t recoup costs from school districts for services that can run tens of thousands of dollars a year beyond state and federal funding.

“We do want to ensure school districts are not held responsible for excess costs and that the charter school units are responsible for the totality of educating a child with a disability, both in terms of services and costs,” Hundley said.

Bill sponsors say that’s their intent — that charter-run administrative units would not be able to turn students away and would be responsible for their education in every way.

Some advocates say charter schools should look at their own culture and practices before pursuing new legal authority. Recent state rule changes ensure charters don’t ask about IEP status before enrolling students and require more staff training. Another rule change under consideration would give parents a voice when districts and charters disagree about where a student is best served.

While many charters have improved, Bisceglia said she continues to hear from parents who have been told their child is not a good fit — and from administrators who don’t see the problem.

“We do continue to hear from just about every charter school, ‘We’re a school of choice, and if you don’t like how we do things here, another student would take your place,’” she said.

Bureau Chief Erica Meltzer covers education policy and politics and oversees Chalkbeat Colorado’s education coverage. Contact Erica at emeltzer@chalkbeat.org.

College in prison: Colorado may expand education for incarcerated

2022-02-18T17:30:21+00:00

In bringing college classes to more incarcerated people, Colorado officials hope to both enlighten students and cultivate significant social benefits.

The federal government plans to almost double the number of colleges nationwide offering incarcerated people the ability to earn a college degree and to enable them to once again qualify for federal Pell Grants to cover tuition and other educational expenses.

In Colorado, several institutions have indicated interest in joining, and state officials hope they can offer four-year degrees to students. So far, only Trinidad State College in southern Colorado has participated in the federal Second Chance Pell Experimental Sites Initiative.

Graduate Demitrius Herron, 23, said the program feels more like a first chance at a good education for many. Herron entered the Youthful Offender System at age 17. During his six-year sentence, he said he took numerous classes, eventually taking advantage of the Trinidad State Second Chance Pell program. He graduated with two associate degrees — one in science and one in the arts.

Demitrius Herron poses for a photo at his college graduation. He earned two associate degrees while incarcerated.

He said the program takes people at their lowest point, “and someone says to you, ‘Hey, here’s my hand. Let me help you up.’”

Numerous studies have shown the benefits of prison education, including lowered social costs and recidivism rates. About 90% of incarcerated people will be released from prison, said Melissa Smith, Colorado Department of Corrections assistant director of prison programs.

The program benefits not only students, but also their families and communities, Smith said.

The federal program, which began in 2015 under the Obama administration, offers classes from 131 colleges to incarcerated students in 42 states. The federal government plans to add 69 schools, opening up the possibility for more Colorado colleges and universities to participate.

The U.S. will also expand federal financial aid eligibility to incarcerated students starting in July 2023. Incarcerated people haven’t been eligible for federal aid since 1994, when Congress passed a tough-on-crime bill sponsored by then-Sen. Joe Biden. The number of students who were receiving an education in prison dropped off significantly.

For decades previously, incarcerated people had access to federal aid.

The Second Chance Pell program gives incarcerated students the ability to gain the necessary skills to thrive once they exit the prison system, Smith said. The program also helps instill in families that education can lead to good job opportunities, she said. Potentially, it can lead to stopping a cycle of imprisonment that plays out among families of color and those who are low income.

Herron said he’s thankful for the education he received while in the Pueblo Youthful Offender System, a maximum security facility housing people ages 14 to 25 sentenced as adults. The Second Chance program truly provides a chance to better your life, he said.

“There’s a lot of people who were victims of circumstance,” he said. “They weren’t given the belief or confidence that they had all the same opportunities as everyone else.”

When he entered prison, Herron said he wasn’t confident. He was sad and depressed. But education helped him grow in ways he never thought possible. He was a speaker at his graduation ceremony, graduated magna cum laude, and after release, enrolled at Colorado State University Pueblo.

Trinidad State College began enrolling students through the program in 2020 and enrolled about 74 incarcerated students in the fall, according to LiAnn Richardson, the college’s division chair for prison education.

Eleven incarcerated students in the fall 2020 class have earned associate degrees.

Even before the Second Chance Pell program, the college taught incarcerated students. It offered an entrepreneurship program.

Trinidad partners with about 10 prisons. Instructors use online platforms to teach to students across the state. The original plan was for professors to teach classes in the prison, but COVID made those plans difficult, Richardson said. In most cases, students aren’t allowed to work on computers and must use paper and pencil to do their work.

Richardson said she hopes more schools will step up. She wants students to have the chance to earn a bachelor’s degree while in prison.

“Trinidad State can only offer so much. We’re just not a big institution,” she said. “Having partners come on board and be able to fill in those gaps and offer things that we cannot is going to be great for students.”

Herron said he believes incarcerated people will take the opportunities if they’re presented. He watched peers who he thought would never want to attend a college class find themselves and thrive.

“If you gave them all the right materials, they would walk out of there with a doctorate,” he said.

Denver special education evaluations plummet during pandemic

2022-02-04T12:00:00+00:00

Lee en español.

Maria Barraza’s 8-year-old son spent half of first grade and all of second grade online because of the pandemic. When he started third grade this fall, Barraza was concerned. Her son’s writing and spelling were, in Barraza’s opinion, “way below,” and he couldn’t yet read on his own, which meant he struggled in math too because he couldn’t understand word problems.

She took him for an expensive private evaluation in September. The results of two days’ worth of tests confirmed what she suspected: He needed extra help in school. But Barraza said her repeated requests that her son receive special education services went unheeded for months.

“I’m confused as to what the battle is,” Barraza said. “What is the problem?”

Barraza isn’t alone. In Denver Public Schools, the number of initial evaluations for special education services for students ages 3 to 21 fell by about 35% from the 2018-19 school year to the pandemic-interrupted 2019-20 school year and remained low the following year.

Statewide, initial evaluations fell by about 16% and similarly have not recovered. That means 4,200 fewer children across Colorado were evaluated in 2019-20 than in 2018-19.

If children don’t get evaluated in a timely manner and start getting services, they can fall even further behind, lengthening the time it takes to catch up and affecting their self-esteem.

It’s not just a Colorado issue. Districts across the country, including Chicago and New York City, have experienced a decrease in students getting referred or evaluated for special education services, raising concerns that children with disabilities aren’t getting the help they need.

District administrators and special education teachers cite a host of challenges: staffing shortages, increased paperwork, new demands related to remote learning, and a hesitation to designate kids as having learning disabilities when they may be suffering the effects of remote learning and pandemic-related family trauma instead.

“We don’t want to leave a child behind if they need those [special education] services,” said Julie Rottier-Lukens, director of special education for the 90,000-student Denver Public Schools. “And yet we don’t want to make presumptions based on what we’re seeing in front of us right now and discount that kids have been through a lot.”

Parents say they’re sympathetic to the challenges, but their children shouldn’t pay the price.

No excuses

Elisa Aucancela, executive director El Grupo Vida, a local network of Latino parents of children with disabilities, said she feels schools sometimes use the pandemic as an excuse to wait to evaluate children who need more immediate help.

It’s especially frustrating when it happens to Spanish-speaking families whose children already have a diagnosis from a doctor, Aucancela said.

“When it’s a disability, it’s a disability,” she said.

Marta Edith Flamenco’s 4-year-old daughter has Dandy-Walker Syndrome, a congenital brain condition that affects the cerebellum and can cause developmental delays. Her daughter has received therapy through the county since she was born to help her eat, walk, and talk.

In 2020, when the girl was 3, Aucancela tried to refer the family for a school district special education evaluation so she could enroll in public preschool. But, citing a long waitlist, the district encouraged the family to enroll their daughter in preschool first and then do the evaluation, Aucancela said. Flamenco did that — but within two weeks, she said she was hit with a $550 preschool bill that her family couldn’t pay because her husband was out of work.

“The school was telling us we’d have to pay,” said Flamenco, who speaks only Spanish. “We stopped taking her because it was going to be too much.”

Denver charges tuition for preschool on a sliding scale, but students who qualify for special education services attend for free. As it is now, Flamenco’s daughter hasn’t been in school for more than a year. She cries because she wants to go back, her mother said.

“She used to be so happy and ready and she would share what she saw, what she learned, and she came [home] and she was ready to rest,” Flamenco said. “And now, she is so energetic. She’s just here, and she really wants to go to school. She has tantrums about it.”

Aucancela recently submitted another referral for special education services, and Flamenco said her daughter now has an appointment in March to get evaluated. Aucancela is pleased, but she said it’s troubling that it took so long for the family to get what they needed.

“The pandemic is here,” Aucancela said. But, she added, “we cannot use the pandemic as an excuse and just wait and wait and wait until the child is three years behind.”

Stretched thin

Meanwhile, special educators are “overloaded and overworked and overwhelmed,” said Hillary Daniels, a special education teacher at Denver’s Hallett Academy elementary school.

When the pandemic hit in March 2020 and schools shut down, special education evaluations came to a halt. Teachers had no real guidance for how to teach online, let alone conduct the type of tests needed to identify a student for special education. The district may consider evaluations done by outside providers, like the one Barraza obtained for her son, but they aren’t obligated to accept them when making decisions, a district spokesperson said.

The evaluations the district would have conducted in spring 2020 got pushed to the fall — and though officials came up with guidelines for how to do them virtually, it wasn’t easy, said Rob Gould, president of the Denver Classroom Teachers Association and a former special educator.

Know your rights

If a parent suspects their child has a disability, they can initiate the special education evaluation process by telling their child’s school they’d like an evaluation. More information here.

School districts must complete initial special education evaluations within 60 days of a parent or guardian signing a consent form. More information here.

Students and their families are eligible for support from an advocate as they navigate the process. In Denver, an organization called Advocacy Denver has both English- and Spanish-speaking advocates on staff. More information here.

If a parent disagrees with the results of their child’s special education evaluation, they can request the school district pay for an independent educational evaluation by an evaluator who doesn’t work for the district. More information here.

Some parents pay for independent evaluations themselves. While the school district must consider the recommendations of the private evaluator, it does not have to accept them. More information here.

“It’s really hard to tell through a computer screen: Is this a learning disability? Is this an emotional disability? Or is this frustration because they can’t hear the teacher?” he said.

The setting presented challenges too. Before the pandemic, when Daniels would evaluate a student, it was she and the student in a quiet room at school. At home, she said, a student may be in a virtual evaluation while their sister is yelling in the background or horns are honking outside.

That meant that even if educators completed a virtual evaluation, it might not be accurate. Daniels recalls one student who, when school buildings reopened and he returned for in-person learning, did not match the individualized education program, or IEP, based on his virtual evaluation. The goals listed in his IEP focused on paying attention, staying on task, and improving his speech. When he got to school, his teachers realized he couldn’t yet hold a pencil — an important skill that was hard to evaluate online and had been completely missed.

“This child comes to us, and the needs he demonstrates in front of us in person are much different than the paper we got that tried to explain this child,” Daniels said.

In that case, the student had to be re-evaluated for motor skills and cognitive concerns, Daniels said. Such unexpected re-evaluations, when added to the regular flow of initial evaluations, planned re-evaluations, and annual IEP reviews, put special educators behind.

The data reflects that. Per federal law, districts must complete evaluations within 60 days from when a student’s parents give consent. Whereas Denver Public Schools completed 93% of initial evaluations for students ages 3 through 21 within 60 days in pre-pandemic 2018-19, that percentage dropped to 87% in 2019-20 and 84% last school year, according to state data.

On top of doing evaluations, the district asked special educators to write contingency plans that spelled out how each child would receive their services during virtual learning. Later, the district asked educators to review if the services each student received virtually were adequate or if the student qualified for makeup services because they missed so much.

Rottier-Lukens, Denver’s special education director, said the decisions were based on equity. For example, rather than wait for savvy parents to ask for the makeup services, officially known as compensatory services, the district is reviewing each child’s case proactively. But she acknowledged that doing so takes time and has contributed to a feeling among special education teachers and specialists of “being pulled right, left, and center.”

Daniels knows that feeling well. Whereas some special education teachers or specialists may be forced to spend less time working directly with students to complete what Gould called a “tsunami of paperwork,” Daniels has ended up taking her paperwork home.

“My work-life balance does not exist,” she said.

Short staffed

Staffing shortages have also contributed to the problem. It was difficult for districts to fill special education positions before the pandemic, but officials said it’s even tougher now. Denver Public Schools had 19 unfilled special education teacher positions and 118 unfilled special education paraprofessional positions as of January.

Rottier-Lukens said she’s also seeing more mid-year resignations than ever before.

“Typically, most teachers will fulfill their contract at least,” she said. “They’ll make it somehow to the end of the year. I’m seeing a lot more people just resigning in October.”

Because of all these factors, some advocates said they’re treading lightly when it comes to raising the alarm about delayed special education evaluations. Asked about the potential effects the situation is having on students, Gould, the union head, circled back to staffing.

“The effect is students may or may not have an instructor,” he said. “Everybody is at a breaking point now. I’m worried people will choose a different profession other than this.”

Barraza, who has spent months fighting for her 8-year-old son to get an evaluation, doesn’t pin any blame on teachers, who she said are expected to do too much. She’s experienced the fallout firsthand: Her son’s third-grade teacher quit last semester, citing mental anguish.

But Barraza’s compassion doesn’t mean she’s less adamant about getting her son the services and accommodations he needs to succeed in school. She said she knows they exist.

“That’s all I would like,” she said.

Colorado: Solicitud de escuelas chárter no puede preguntar sobre discapacidad

2022-02-01T15:26:28+00:00

Lee en inglés.

Las escuelas chárter de Colorado ya no podrán preguntar en sus solicitudes si los alumnos necesitan servicios de educación especial.

El cambio en esta regla hace que Colorado cumpla con las normas federales emitidas hace más de cinco años. La Junta Estatal de Educación aprobó el cambio por unanimidad el miércoles.

Las escuelas chárter también tendrán que dejar claro en sus páginas de internet que no discriminan y que capacitan a sus empleados para contestar cualquier pregunta sobre las políticas de admisión correctamente para así no disuadir a las familias de estudiantes con necesidades especiales, lo cual incluye a los discapacitados y los que están aprendiendo inglés.

El cambio ocurrió después de que la organización Disability Law Colorado presentara quejas ante la Oficina de Derechos Civiles del Departamento de Educación de EE.UU. contra 29 escuelas chárter que hacían preguntas sobre discapacidad en sus solicitudes.

La mayoría de las escuelas actualizaron rápidamente su solicitud en respuesta a las quejas. Los administradores de muchas de las escuelas dijeron que no tenían intención de discriminar, sino solamente de planificar las necesidades de los estudiantes, pero los defensores de estudiantes con discapacidades dijeron que ese tipo de preguntas podría disuadir a los padres.

Las preguntas de la solicitud parecían violar las normas federales emitidas en un memorando en 2016, pero eran alentadas explícitamente en las reglas de las escuelas chárter de Colorado, que les decían a las escuelas que determinaran “durante el proceso de admisión antes de la matrícula” si una escuela era la adecuada para un estudiante con necesidades especiales, incluidos aquellos con discapacidades y aquellos que están aprendiendo inglés.

Bill Kottenstette, director de Schools of Choice Unit dentro del Departamento de Educación de Colorado, dijo en la reunión del miércoles que esa regla de las escuelas chárter fue adoptada en 2012, antes de la adopción de las normas federales.

Las escuelas chárter de Colorado matriculan menos estudiantes con discapacidades que el promedio del estado - y menos que las escuelas chárter en la mayoría de los otros estados, según un estudio del Center for Learner Equity.

El estudio fue comisionado por el Departamento de Educación de Colorado, que convocó un grupo de trabajo para sugerir cambios en las reglas. Esa labor estaba en progreso cuando se presentaron las quejas.

Los cambios en las reglas dejan claro que las conversaciones sobre qué servicios necesitan los estudiantes deben tener lugar después de admitirlos a la escuela. Las reglas nuevas prohíben que las escuelas chárter hagan preguntas en su solicitud que pudieran identificar a un estudiante como parte de grupos demográficos legalmente protegidos contra discriminación, requieren que las solicitudes sean accesibles para personas con discapacidades, y requieren que las escuelas ofrezcan asistencia para los padres cuyo dominio del inglés sea limitado.

Durante la reunión del miércoles, Alex Medler, director ejecutivo de la Colorado Association of Charter School Authorizers, dijo que una investigación reciente comisionada por el grupo encontró que los padres se quejaron repetidamente sobre la falta de información sobre cómo funcionan las admisiones de las escuelas chárter para estudiantes con discapacidades.

Él elogió los cambios en las reglas pero dijo que aún se necesita más.

“Necesitamos educar a los padres sobre sus opciones, y ayudar al distrito y al personal de las escuelas chárter a comunicarlas,” dijo.

La reportera senior de Chalkbeat Ann Schimke aportó a este reportaje.

Denver charter focused on inclusion for students with disabilities to close

2022-01-14T00:40:22+00:00

A Denver charter elementary school focused on fully including students with disabilities will close at the end of this school year due to staffing and academic challenges school leaders say were exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The board of directors of REACH Charter School voted last month to close the school after learning that Denver Public Schools staff was going to recommend the school board not renew its charter with REACH — which would have been the first such recommendation in nearly a decade. The REACH board decided to surrender its charter instead.

Principal Jason Marsh, a former special education teacher who helped found the school seven years ago, said REACH weighed what it would take to fight the district’s recommendation against giving families as much time as possible to find new schools for their children. The Denver school board voted Thursday to accept REACH’s charter surrender.

“We thought this would be a way we would be able to afford more time to work on student transition and getting our staff transitioned as well,” Marsh said.

Parent Mariam Arab, whose 3-year-old son has a hearing disability, is worried about finding a school that provides the same support and family environment as REACH.

“He loves his teachers,” Arab said of her son, who started preschool at REACH last spring. “I just hope the school we find later has what they have, but I doubt it.”

REACH will be the eleventh Denver charter school to close in the past four years. Many of the charters closed due to low enrollment, an issue affecting the entire district that will likely lead to more school closures.

REACH has also suffered from declining enrollment. It has just 82 students in preschool through fifth grade right now, Marsh said, down from 140 two years ago.

The recommendation to not renew REACH’s charter stemmed partly from a school visit conducted by district staff in November. While teachers were observed treating students respectfully and providing emotional support, the academic instruction was not always rigorous or high quality, according to a report obtained by Chalkbeat. The report notes “significant gaps” in teaching grade-level content and providing extra help to students who need it.

That wasn’t the experience of Jaclyn Miller and her 8-year-old son, who has attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and anxiety. When he started at REACH in kindergarten, he would get so overwhelmed in the classroom that his behavior would become explosive. Now in third grade, he’s learned to advocate for himself and his needs, and he’s reading on grade level.

“They just saw him for who he is,” Miller said of the REACH staff. “That’s what’s so powerful about REACH. … They know what each kid’s unique gifts are and where they need support, and I think that really empowers the kids to grow there.”

REACH’s model is unique in Denver Public Schools in that one-third of its students have special education plans and two-thirds do not. All students are taught in the same classrooms, a practice known as inclusion.

Though Denver Public Schools has said it wants to become a nationwide model for inclusive practices, many Denver students with disabilities are still served in separate classrooms at least some of the time. In accepting REACH’s charter surrender, Denver school board members said the district should learn from the parts of REACH’s model that worked well.

Several said it pained them to see the school close.

“We must make sure — not just as a board, not just as a superintendent, not just as staff, but as community partners as well — that schools that are serving vulnerable communities are able to keep their doors open,” said board member Michelle Quattlebaum.

Marsh said REACH’s model made it difficult to find qualified teachers who believe in the mission — a challenge that was exacerbated by pandemic-era staffing shortages. A schoolwide instructional leader hired in the summer of 2020 left after only one year, the district report notes. A new instructional leader hired this year lasted only a few weeks. Marsh said he was unable to fill a third grade teacher position until the day before school started in August.

REACH also struggled these past two years with the frequent back-and-forth between in-person and remote learning, some of which was driven by districtwide decisions and some of which was in response to COVID outbreaks at the school. When district staff visited REACH to evaluate the school for its charter renewal, students had just returned from a stretch of remote learning, which many students with disabilities found difficult, Marsh said.

“REACH was never intended to be a remote learning program,” he said. “It was very challenging for our impacted young students to be online and then transitioning them back to in-person learning and being able to maintain the high level of rigor. It was very challenging.”

REACH board President Jonathan Leinheardt, whose son attended from first through fifth grade, said it was a difficult decision to surrender the school’s charter. But he said the school is committed to doing all it can to help current families find new schools, including hosting information sessions about the district’s open enrollment process, which starts Friday.

Miller said her 8-year-old son, who formed deep bonds at REACH and has had the same group of friends since kindergarten, is anxious about starting over in a new place.

“I asked him, ‘What is the most important thing you want out of a school?’ and he said, ‘I want my teachers to understand me and I want my friends or my classmates to understand me,’” she said. “He’s very nervous about not being able to find that again.”

‘A beacon that says you belong here’: CU Denver recognized as Hispanic-Serving Institution

2021-10-26T23:31:12+00:00

The University of Colorado Denver and the university’s Anschutz Medical Campus in Aurora are now federally recognized as a Hispanic-Serving Institution, opening up access to multimillion-dollar grants to help attract and retain Hispanic students.

The U.S. Department of Education’s Hispanic-Serving Institution designation requires at least 25% of full-time undergraduate students to be Hispanic and for a substantial proportion to be eligible for federal Pell grants. At CU Denver, Hispanic students make up 26% of its 10,000 undergraduates.

University of Colorado Denver officials say the Hispanic-Serving Institution designation signals a continued shift to a mindset that values students’ culture, language, and background.

“How do we look at our students through an asset lens that they bring something to the organization that we lack right now?” said Antonio Farias, the university’s vice chancellor for diversity, equity, and inclusion.

To prospective students, he said the Hispanic-Serving Institution label is “very much like a beacon that says you belong here … You will not have to code-switch, you will not have to assimilate, you will not have to change your name.”

Farias said the designation is also a message to students’ families, from abuelas, or grandmothers, to small children, that they are welcome on campus, too — and not just at graduation time. As the sense of belonging grows, he believes Hispanic students will develop a stronger voice at the university.

Statewide, 22% of the population is Hispanic, with that share projected to grow to 33% by 2050.

With the addition of University of Colorado Denver, the state now has 11 Hispanic-Serving Institutions, about half of them community colleges. Adams State University, Colorado State University-Pueblo, and Metropolitan State University of Denver also have the designation.

The federal government offers three grant programs to Hispanic-Serving Institutions. Several Colorado colleges have won these grants in recent years. In September, Metropolitan State University announced two such awards, including a $2.9 million grant for its “SpaceTech Scholars” program, which aims to prepare more Hispanic students for jobs as aerospace and engineering technicians.

CU Denver is the first research university in Colorado to receive the Hispanic-Serving Institution designation. Farias said that’s important because research universities often get first dibs on major grants from places like the National Science Foundation and the National Institutes of Health, meaning the university will have access to big-dollar sums unavailable to many smaller Hispanic-Serving Institutions.

Farias said CU Denver is in the process of seeking another federal designation that would classify it as an Asian American Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institution, but it’s not clear when that could come through. To earn that designation, at least 10% of a college’s undergraduate students must be Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander.

Special ed questions on charter school apps violate federal law, complaints allege

2021-10-06T01:12:33+00:00

Advocates have filed civil rights complaints against more than two dozen Colorado charter schools alleging that questions on their application forms about whether prospective students receive special education services violate federal law.

Colorado charter schools enroll students with disabilities at a lower rate than the state average — and at a lower rate than charter schools in most other states, according to a study by the Center for Learner Equity.

The study, commissioned last year by the Colorado Department of Education’s Schools of Choice Unit, identified such screening questions as one reason for the lower enrollment. Even when schools don’t use the question to screen out prospective students, advocates fear parents will be deterred. They might think a school isn’t prepared to serve their child — or doesn’t want to.

The state has convened a working group to improve charter school practices and propose rule changes, but it hasn’t mandated any changes yet.

The complaints filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights identify 29 Colorado charter schools that ask a question about disability status in their application. The federal office has opened investigations into all of them.

Emily Harvey, education team leader and an attorney with Disability Law Colorado, which brought the complaints, said the law firm is seeking applications from more Colorado charter schools that may ask similar questions.

The applications vary by school and may ask if the applicant receives special education services or has services and accommodations spelled out in what are known as an Individualized Education Plan or a 504 plan. Some schools ask applicants to provide copies of the plan, or ask if the student has mental health or behavioral challenges.

“Not every school will be the right location for every student, but they shouldn’t be asking that before they admit a student,” Harvey said.

Charter schools are publicly funded nonprofit organizations run by their own boards. They have more autonomy in their programs and staffing than district schools, but they have to follow the same laws as other public schools when it comes to serving students with disabilities, including not discriminating in admissions. The U.S. Department of Education underscored this point in a 2016 memo.

Even asking the question before admitting a student is discriminatory, Harvey said, unless the school gives a preference to students with disabilities. She’s heard stories from many families that suggest some students are screened out.

“We’ve had situations where siblings apply and one sibling has a disability and another doesn’t, and one is extended an enrollment opportunity and another isn’t,” Harvey said. “We can’t say for sure that was why the charter school didn’t accept them, but it’s happened often enough that we wonder if it is the screening process.”

In 2020, 11.6% of Colorado students had an identified disability, but in charter schools, it was just 7.4%. In 2015-16, the most recent year for which there is nationally comparable data, Colorado charter schools served a smaller proportion of students with disabilities than did charter schools in any other state, according to an analysis from the Center for Learner Equity, which promotes educational access for students with disabilities.

The analysis found that more than 60% of Colorado charter schools lacked clear information on their websites about how they enroll and serve children with disabilities and 10% published information on their websites that could be interpreted as exclusionary.

Harvey has asked federal investigators to look at whether the charter schools that ask screening questions serve a lower percentage of students with disabilities than other schools in their communities. The first 29 schools named in complaints enroll students with IEPs at rates that range from 3% to 19.6%, according to state data.

Lauren Morando Rhim, executive director and co-founder of the Center for Learner Equity, said there are many reasons some charter schools enroll fewer students who need additional services. Those range from how districts allocate money for those services to how charter schools think about their mission.

In some cases, contracts between districts and charter schools restrict which students charters can serve. In other cases, charter school leaders may put higher priority on following a certain educational model than on accommodating students.

“There are districts that are sitting in the IEP meetings and saying we’ve already got a program for that child, it doesn’t make sense resourcewise to say we’re going to develop a program for a single child [at a charter school],” Morando Rhim said. “And then we’ve seen charters say, ‘This is our program, and you’ve got to fit in our program.’”

Colorado charter schools named in the complaints, with 2020 enrollment of students with IEPs:

New Summit Charter Academy, Academy 20, 5.1%

The Classical Academy, Academy 20, 4.1%

AXL Academy, Aurora Public Schools, 11.4%

Pagosa Peak Open School, Archuleta School District 50 JT, 7.5%

Aspen Community Charter School, Aspen School District, 9.6%

Boulder Prep High School, Boulder Valley School District, 17.9%

Mountain View Core Knowledge School, Cañon City Schools, 10.8%

Early College of Arvada, Charter School Institute, 10.2%

AUL Denver, Denver Public Schools, 10.6%

Liberty Tree Academy, District 49, 8.3%

Pikes Peak School of Expeditionary Learning, District 49, 11.6%

Parker Performing Arts School, Douglas County School District, 11%

Renaissance Secondary School, Douglas County School District, 19.6%

The Juniper School, Durango School District 9-R, 9.5%

Monument Academy, Lewis-Palmer School District 38, 6.1%

Littleton Preparatory Charter School, Littleton Public Schools, 5.9%

Independence Academy Charter School, Mesa County Valley School District 51, 6.1%

Juniper Ridge Community School, Mesa County Valley School District 51, 11.7%

Southwest Open School, Montezuma-Cortez School District, 16.7%

Vista Charter School, Montrose County School District, 12.8%

Fort Collins Montessori School, Poudre School District, 5.3%

Chavez/Huerta K-12 Preparatory Academy, Pueblo School District 60, 7.7%

Carbondale Community School, Roaring Fork Schools, 10.4%

Aspen Ridge Preparatory School, St. Vrain Valley School District, 9.5%

Firestone Charter Academy, St. Vrain Valley School District, 10.3%

St. Vrain Community Montessori School, St. Vrain Valley School District, 8.5%

Twin Peaks Charter Academy, St. Vrain Valley School District, 7.1%

Cardinal Community Academy, Weld County RE-3J School District, 6.8%

Windsor Charter Academy, Windsor RE-4 School District, 3%

Harvey said charter schools may also make assumptions about what accommodations students need without talking to families first.

Alex Medler, executive director of the Colorado Association of Charter School Authorizers, who highlighted the issue in a recent blog post, said some charter leaders need to change how they think about their mission.

“A public school that is not a good place for all students is not a good public school,” Medler said. “If you create a model that is only good by excluding students, you have not created a model that is high quality.”

At the same time, the reasons charter schools don’t enroll more students with disabilities are complex, Medler said, and many schools are working to improve both their programming and how they communicate with families.

Chalkbeat reached out to the schools named in the complaints. Those who responded all said they had no intent to discriminate, and the reason they ask about disability is to prepare for incoming students. Some had already removed the question from their application and added anti-discrimination language to their websites. Others said they were working to better understand when in the process they should ask for information about accommodations and specialized learning plans.

In an email, Lisa Gonsalves, executive director of Independence Academy Charter School in Grand Junction, said the complaint had highlighted an area where the school could improve. Last year, 6.1% of students had an IEP.

“While Independence Academy Charter School has always been open to all students, we are diligently working to improve our application processes and procedures to reflect our school’s dedication to educating all students in the state of Colorado,” she wrote.

Casey Simpson, director of Southwest Open School in Cortez, said she removed the question as soon as she got the complaint, but noted the school has limited resources as a small alternative campus for students who have struggled in other settings.

“Specifically, we have one [Exceptional Student Services] teacher and no paraprofessionals, thus our campus may not be the ideal placement for an ESS student with high needs,” she wrote in an email. “In this case knowing as much about the incoming student helps us to evaluate whether our school would be the best fit, or capable of providing the services detailed in a 504 or IEP.”

Still, 16.7% of Southwest Open School students in 2020 had an IEP, well above the state and district average.

Don Knapp, who heads the Pikes Peak School of Expeditionary Learning in Colorado Springs, said it was frustrating to be the subject of a complaint when his school frequently enrolls more students with IEPs than do district-run schools. Last year, 11.6% of students had an IEP, a percentage point higher than District 49, the school’s authorizer, according to state data.

Students are accepted on a first-come, first-serve basis, and Knapp couldn’t recall a time he had turned away a student due to a disability — though there have been times that teachers, school administrators, and parents decide at an IEP meeting that a student would be better served at another school, for example at the district’s center-based program.

At the same time, Knapp said he recognizes the larger issue.

“If it’s making sure other schools are not discriminating, I’m fine with it,” he said. “The last thing that charter schools should want is only accepting certain kinds of students.”

Harvey said she’s pleased that so many schools have made changes quickly and hopes larger changes are on the way. Currently, state guidance encourages charter schools to determine whether they can serve prospective students with special needs “during the pre-enrollment admissions process,” endorsing the very process the federal government prohibits.

A change to that language could come before the State Board of Education as soon as November, said Bill Kottenstette, director of the Schools of Choice Unit within the Colorado Department of Education.

Kaci Coats, director of exceptional student services for the Colorado League of Charter Schools, has worked with schools to improve how they serve students with special needs for more than a decade, going over everything from educational programming to website language to what messages the front office staff give to interested parents.

“Most schools are trying to serve this population and are very open to doing this work,” she said.

Decline in participation of annual English fluency test prompts need for more analysis

2021-05-07T22:15:46+00:00

More than three-quarters of Colorado’s students learning English as a second language took their annual state tests on English fluency this spring.

That’s after a campaign from advocates first sought to cancel the tests, and after failing, turned to teaching parents that it was their right to keep children from taking the test, if they felt unsafe going to school buildings.

The participation rate is lower than usual, which is prompting state education officials to further analyze results to see how useful they may prove in giving educators a big-picture look at how English language learners statewide have fared during the pandemic and whether they progressed in English proficiency.

The tests are usually used to help place students in appropriate English development classes, or to determine when they’ve learned enough English to stop requiring additional support. Given the unusual circumstances, state officials said individual results might also need to be interpreted cautiously in certain cases, but that they are useful for parents and teachers.

But advocates say the results are questionable, which is the reason the tests shouldn’t have been done this year, and that instead teachers are relying on other evidence about how students are learning English.

“It’s going to be important for us to be able to describe the group who tested,” said Joyce Zurkowski, chief assessment officer for the Colorado Department of Education. “We will be able to tell the public things about these students and how they did, but we’re going to have to provide that bigger context.”

It’s possible, for example, that the students who did test may not accurately represent all English learners in Colorado. The state will need to look carefully at the students who were tested, including by region, by race, by their previous English proficiency, and whether they qualify for subsidized lunches, a measure of poverty.

That analysis isn’t typically needed in other years when the vast majority of English learners take the tests. The review would take at least until August.

During the pandemic, many experts have said that English learner students, often in immigrant families, were having a more difficult time with remote learning. Some schools at the beginning of closures didn’t offer English development classes or provided shortened sessions.

English learners also faced more challenges in connecting to the internet and understanding instruction via a computer. The pandemic pounded many families of color, and in Colorado, disproportionately Hispanic families. They were more likely than the general population to get COVID-19, or to be harder hit financially.

The English fluency test, called ACCESS, consists of four parts: to measure different parts of language: speaking into a microphone, reading, writing, and listening on a headset, and has to be done in person.

State officials say of the 89,487 English learners identified in the state, 69,442 students took the tests, or about 77.6%.

Jorge Garcia, the executive director of the Colorado Association for Bilingual Education, one of the advocates who had pushed to cancel the ACCESS tests this year, said that participation is about what he expected.

Once Garcia and other advocates informed parents through radio and television commercials that they could opt their children out if they didn’t feel safe sending them to buildings to take the test, they heard from parents who said their school leaders told them that taking the test wasn’t a choice.

“Why put people through this emotional and physical trauma for tests that will yield results that are questionable at best,” Garcia said. “That was our argument to begin with.”

Individual results, Zurkowski said, can be used as in previous years to help determine the level of proficiency of a student and whether they should be placed in different classes, or no longer receive federally required language services. But, she said, educators should take into account whether the student was testing under unfavorable conditions, for instance, if the student wasn’t feeling well. If so, the results may not be as helpful by themselves.

For students who didn’t take the test, schools use other pieces of evidence to determine a child’s language proficiency to make instructional decisions.

Although state officials say that individual results should help teachers and families understand how their children are learning and progressing, Garcia said that other factors might also make the results difficult to interpret.

Garcia said that students took the test sometimes after receiving little or no instruction. A student that isn’t showing progress could either be having difficulty learning, or simply didn’t have access to instruction.

“What we need to be relying on is the rest of the body of evidence,” he said.

A Colorado principal put an 8-year-old boy in a hold until he passed out. State law has ‘no teeth’ to force changes

2021-04-19T11:00:00+00:00

Two years ago in Colorado, an elementary school principal stood behind an 8-year-old boy gripping the boy’s crossed wrists until his body went limp, his eyes fluttered, and he foamed at the mouth.

The school called 911. They also called the boy’s mother. By the time she arrived, her son was regaining consciousness, she said. The 8-year-old was on the floor, being examined by EMTs. She took him home and never brought him back to that elementary school.

The incident, and how it was recorded and reported, were investigated by the Colorado Department of Education following a complaint by the boy’s family.

The findings of that investigation — and the state’s inability to mandate changes — illustrate what some advocates, attorneys, and families say are dangerous weaknesses in Colorado law.

“There is no enforcement power,” said Jack Robinson, a Denver lawyer who represented the family of the 8-year-old boy. “There is no teeth in any of this.”

Though the school principal wrote an incident report recording what happened, the person in charge of reviewing such reports at the Boulder Valley School District didn’t look at it. Nor did she report the holds in the district’s annual restraint review.

A state complaints officer found that Boulder Valley violated several state rules, including using restraints in a non-emergency situation. But under Colorado law, the education department has no authority to require school districts to take corrective action, and it has no way to punish districts that ignore any non-mandatory recommendations it makes.

“If the school district just says, ‘Go to hell,’ there’s nothing CDE can do,” Robinson said.

The Boulder Valley School District says that’s not what happened in this case. A spokesperson said the district made some changes immediately and even more after the complaint, including reviewing its crisis intervention protocols and providing more training to its staff.

But the principal who restrained the boy remains at the elementary school. He declined to comment for this story.

The boy is no longer at the school. After the incident, he transferred to a special district-run program for students with emotional disabilities, his mother said. While most of his classmates spend some of their time in general education classrooms, the boy is too scared.

“He doesn’t get to go music, PE, and art,” said his mother, Renee, who asked that Chalkbeat not use her last name to protect her family’s privacy. “He just mentally cannot leave the room. He feels safe there but nowhere else.”

‘Investigating themselves’

In 2017, Colorado lawmakers passed a bill intended to protect children from dangerous restraints. The bill did three things: limit a potentially deadly form of restraint called prone restraint, require school districts to file annual reports about their use of restraint and seclusion, and establish a process for families to complain about its misuse.

Many cases of restraint, which means physically restraining a child, and seclusion, which means shutting a child inside a room, involve students with disabilities. Advocates felt the 2017 bill didn’t go far enough. One major flaw was that although the bill requires districts to write annual reports, no state agency is required to collect them, meaning there is no oversight.

“Essentially, the districts are investigating themselves,” said Alison Butler, the former director of legal services for Disability Law Colorado, which advocated for more protections.

A Chalkbeat investigation last year found wide variations in how Colorado’s 10 largest school districts were reporting their use of restraint and seclusion. Some districts’ annual reviews were long and full of details, while others were just a few sentences with no data at all. Two districts refused Chalkbeat’s requests to release their reviews publicly. One of the largest districts hadn’t yet completed a review for a school year that ended nine months prior.

Boulder Valley School District did do an annual review, but it didn’t include the incident in which the 8-year-old lost consciousness. The district behavior specialist in charge of compiling the review told the state complaints officer she believed the hold on the boy had lasted less than five minutes, the threshold that would qualify it as a restraint.

Nor did the behavior specialist include a total number of restraints performed by trained staff. When the state complaints officer asked why the review was incomplete, the behavior specialist said it “was probably just [her] not being organized.”

That’s a problem — and one that will continue to fly under the radar due to the weakness in Colorado’s law, said Jennifer Levin, the director of public policy at The Arc of Colorado, a disability rights organization, and a former attorney at Disability Law Colorado.

“The reporting requirements seem to cover what we’d like to see” in an annual review, Levin said. “It’s just that nobody is going to see it.”

An ultimatum and a hold

The holds on the 8-year-old boy started with a refusal and an ultimatum, according to a 33-page decision by the state complaints officer who investigated the incident.

The boy, who Chalkbeat is not naming at his family’s request, was in third grade at Kohl Elementary School in Broomfield. One morning, he refused to do his schoolwork. He began ripping up papers and throwing them. He also broke a pencil and threw it.

In situations like these, the school’s policy is to first try a range of de-escalation strategies to get the student to calm down. Teachers can call the school principal or school social worker if they need help, but restraint is only supposed to be used as a last resort.

In this instance, the teacher asked the boy to calm down and offered to sit and talk with him. When the boy didn’t respond, the teacher called the principal, who gave the boy a choice: stop being disruptive and stay in the classroom, leave the classroom on his own and go to the office, or “be helped” to the office. The boy continued to rip up papers.

The principal “felt this situation constituted an emergency,” the complaints officer’s report says. So the principal put his hands under the boy’s armpits, lifted him out of his chair, and carried him at least part of the way to the office in that position.

The principal put the boy in the school’s “decompress room,” a small room with three sheetrock walls, one cinderblock wall, a carpeted concrete floor, and a door with a window in it. The school used it as a space for escalated students to calm down.

But on this day, the boy wasn’t calm. He started throwing art supplies that were in the room and slamming the door so hard that the walls shook. The principal told the complaints officer he was worried the boy would hurt himself, so he shut the door, secluding the boy in the room.

The boy’s behavior continued to escalate. He used a chair to ram the glass window of the door. When the principal took the chair away, leaving only a body pillow in the room, the boy shoved the tag of the body pillow and then the pillow itself into his mouth, gagging himself. When the pillow was taken away, he did the same thing with his fingers.

There were electrical boxes mounted on the wall, as well as metal conduit that carried wires from the boxes to the ceiling. The boy stepped on an electrical box, pulled himself up the wall using the conduit, and then threw his body backward to the floor.

Soon afterward, the principal put the boy in the hold in which he passed out. The principal stood behind the boy, held his wrists, and crossed the boy’s arms high across his body.

The principal told the complaints officer he felt the boy’s body “sag.” The boy didn’t respond when the principal called his name. His eyes were fluttering. The office manager, who sat with the boy while the principal called 911, said he was salivating heavily and foaming at the mouth.

The boy’s mother was at lunch with friends when she got the call to come to the school. At first, she said the principal told her that her son purposely held his breath until he passed out.

“It didn’t take long to figure out that’s not what happened,” she said. “He’s 8, a skinny little thing. This is a grown man squeezing him — and doing it wrong.”

A decision and a response

Indeed, the complaints officer expressed concern that the principal executed the holds improperly. She also questioned the decision to bring the boy to the decompress room in the first place, saying it was “not the ideal space for an escalated student.”

And she called what happened in the room “troubling.”

“Principal resorted to physical intervention without utilizing safer, less restrictive alternatives,” like standing between the boy and the electrical box, the complaints officer wrote.

When the hold the principal used is done correctly, the child’s weight is shifted back on the adult’s leg so the child can’t kick. In this instance, the principal said the boy was kicking the wall while he was in the hold, indicating to the complaints officer that the hold wasn’t right.

What’s more, the principal’s training was out of date. State rules require school staff who restrain children to be retrained every two years. The principal had last taken the training in 2016, three years before the incident.

The complaints officer said it was clear that the principal “only loosely adhered” to the proper techniques, which “jeopardized student’s safety.”

Her decision, which covered the incident where the student lost consciousness and an incident several weeks earlier involving the same student, concluded with four recommendations. She recommended the district train the principal on how to recognize an emergency and on “not using restraint as a form of discipline or as a threat to gain control of a student’s behavior.”

She also recommended the district put procedures in place to retrain staff on restraint and seclusion every two years, and strengthen its annual review process.

In a statement, Boulder Valley School District said that “while we disagree with some of the specific findings made by the Colorado Department of Education, notwithstanding the Boulder Valley School District has implemented the state’s recommendations.”

The district said that even before the investigation was complete, it had improved its training processes, its ability to track restraint and seclusion incidents, and its review procedures.

The district also clarified that school staff must write a report for each restraint incident, regardless of how many minutes it lasted. And the district directs its trainers to conduct an on-site review with school staff every time staff members physically restrain a student.

“The Boulder Valley School District takes the safety of our students very seriously and is committed to continuous improvement,” the statement says.

‘No price to pay’

After the incident, the boy developed what his mother called “a pretty intense anxiety.” Although he never returned to that elementary school, his younger sister still went there. The boy refused to go with his mother to pick her up in the afternoons.

“He didn’t even want to be in the car to drive past the school,” his mother, Renee, said.

She said the boy developed a fear of adults. If a teacher went to give him a hug, he’d cower and cry. He no longer wanted to play team sports. New environments scared him. His mother said he was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and prescribed medication to help.

Nearly a year after the incident, in early 2020, the boy’s family reached out to an attorney. Although the child had transferred to another school where he hasn’t been restrained or secluded, Renee said the family was still upset about what happened. Until they spoke to the lawyer, she said they didn’t know families could file complaints about restraint.

“No one ever told us that,” Renee said.

Robinson, the family’s attorney, said this case isn’t unique. He represented two other clients last year who filed restraint and seclusion complaints with the Colorado Department of Education. (Cases that are decided by state complaints officers are made public, but cases resolved in mediation are not. Both of these were decided by complaints officers.)

In one case, a seventh-grader with a traumatic brain injury was put in a headlock by a bus aide for standing up in her seat. In the other, a kindergartener with an emotional disability wet his pants. He refused to change his clothes and kicked and hit two staff members. They carried him to the nurse’s office and secluded him in a small booth used to give hearing tests to students.

State complaints officers found the school districts in both cases violated state law. The complaints officers made recommendations similar to those made in the Boulder Valley case: more training, better reporting procedures, timely completion of annual reviews.

But Robinson and other attorneys and advocates remain frustrated that the state can’t do more. Robinson specializes in special education law, and he said restraint and seclusion cases are particularly discouraging. If the state education department investigates and finds that a school district has violated a student’s rights under federal special education law, the state can order the district to address the violations — and withhold critical funding if it doesn’t comply.

The state doesn’t have that same power when it comes to restraint and seclusion cases. Paul Foster, the executive director of the special education office at the Colorado Department of Education, said his department doesn’t even have a process to follow up with districts to see if they followed the complaints officers’ recommendations.

“Laws are only effective if there’s a hammer at the end,” said Igor Raykin, an Aurora education attorney who was not involved in this case. “That is the whole problem here.”

Renee, the boy’s mother, called the flaws in the law shameful.

“All it does is empower these administrators to be able to do whatever they want,” she said. “Even when the state says they did wrong, they have no price to pay.”

Correction: This story has been updated to reflect that Kohl Elementary School is located in Broomfield, not Boulder. The school is part of the Boulder Valley School District.

Children of color are much more likely to face harsh discipline. This Colorado bill seeks to change that.

2021-03-13T01:33:03+00:00

Colorado school districts would have to reduce suspensions and set higher standards for school resource officers under a state bill introduced Friday that takes aim at what’s called the school-to-prison pipeline.

The bill also bans the use of handcuffs on elementary school students.

Children of color and those with disabilities are more likely to face heavy discipline that puts them in contact with the criminal justice system and derails their education, and the bill’s sponsors said they want to stop the “criminalization of youth.”

“Black, brown, queer and disabled kids are disproportionately impacted by harsh discipline policies, and we have to change it,” said state Rep. Leslie Herod, a Denver Democrat and sponsor of the bill. Herod, who also spearheaded last year’s landmark police reform bill, chairs the Black Democratic Legislative Caucus of Colorado. Its members have signed on as sponsors of the bill.

Senate Bill 21-182 seeks to minimize student run-ins with police, boost district reporting of discipline practices and create positive, alternative ways to address student behavior.

The bill notes more than 4,000 Colorado students were ticketed or arrested for a nonviolent misdemeanor at schools in the 2017-18 school year.

During the 2018-19 academic year, Black students in Colorado were 3.2 times more likely to be suspended than were white students, and Hispanic students were 1.7 times more likely to be suspended than white students. Students with disabilities were three times more likely to be arrested than their non-disabled peers, according to an ACLU study.

Research also indicates that suspension and ticketing are not effective deterrents and lead to greater problems. The bill calls for numerous changes, including:

Standardizing discipline reporting to find racial disparities. The bill requires schools to examine the data and make changes.
Changing codes of conduct to encourage discipline that’s age- and developmentally appropriate. The changes would require schools to find alternatives to suspension and seek preventive measures for certain behaviors.
Limiting student interactions with law enforcement, such as what a student can be ticketed or arrested for, and banning handcuffs on elementary school students.
Setting more stringent rules for the selection of school officers, and noting the number of arrests and tickets issued on officers’ evaluations.
Demonstrating that schools use behavioral management strategies.

Herod and Buckner worked with Gov. Jared Polis’ office to craft the bill, which has won support from Padres & Jóvenes Unidos, Colorado Cross-Disability Coalition, NAACP State Conference, and Stand for Children.

Padres & Jóvenes Deputy Director Keri Smith said the bill will create safer schools and better environments for students and force schools to think about how they handle discipline.

“We have prioritized the use of law enforcement rather than identifying alternatives,” Smith said. “And it’s become a bad habit.”

The bill comes after years of efforts by activists to change discipline policies at the local level and amid a national conversation about the role of police in schools.

In 2020, the Denver School Board adopted a plan to phase out police in schools. Youth activists in Aurora have asked that district to do the same.

Denver Public Schools banned the use of handcuffs on young children in 2019, after a parent activist went public about the handcuffing of his 7-year-old son. A Chalkbeat review of 2017-19 district records found that Black students make up just 13% of enrollment but accounted for almost half of handcuffed children.

This week, the ACLU sued the Douglas County School District and the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office over the handcuffing of an 11-year-old boy with autism. The child, a middle school student, had scratched a classmate with a pencil after the classmate drew on him with a marker. The 11-year-old’s parents had to pay a $25,000 bond to release their son from juvenile jail.

Bill sponsor state Sen. Janet Buckner, an Aurora Democrat and former educator, said she’s seen how uneven discipline impacts youth. She said the way punishments are distributed within schools is inherently discriminatory and has harmful consequences on student health, safety, and their ability to learn.

“I want my grandchildren to grow up in an environment where they are supported through their missteps, not taken away in handcuffs,” Buckner said.

The bill is likely to face resistance from some districts that feel they need more tools to deal with misbehavior. It took three tries to pass a law to severely limit the use of suspensions in early elementary school.

Herod said she expects pushback, but said the bill will lead to better results for students. It doesn’t stop teachers from disciplining students or a police officer from being brought into school.

“What it does say is that we can’t just rely only on that,” Herod said.

These Boulder Latino parents want ‘engagement’ to be more than a buzzword

2020-12-17T02:44:49+00:00

After moving between excitement and frustration, a group of Latino parents in Boulder is now cautiously optimistic that their voices will be heard in a school district that long had paid too little attention to their concerns.

Two years ago, an invitation by then-new Boulder Valley Superintendent Rob Anderson to join an advisory group elated the nearly three dozen parents, who were eager to talk about discipline, academic gaps, translation, and other issues.

The parents delved into research, gathering district data, sometimes submitting records requests, and coming up with proposed solutions.

They presented most of their recommendations to district leaders in March, just days before the pandemic prompted the district to close school buildings. But as months passed and they heard no response, they grew frustrated, worried the district was ignoring their work.

That’s not the case, Anderson said last week as he committed to the group’s proposed equity work. Dealing with the pandemic has thrown some priorities off course. He told parents that the Latino Parent Advisory Council, or CAPL for its Spanish acronym, would continue and that he expected its subgroups would help keep the district on track in its equity work.

“The structure we’ve developed actually will ensure the work continues,” Anderson said.

The parents are cautious, but glad.

Hispanic students in Boulder make up about 19% of the student population, up from about 17% a decade ago. The district has at times had the largest racial achievement gaps in the state.

Among the group’s dozens of recommendations highlighted in a 20-page presentation are requiring teacher training for educating diverse students, staffing every school with a Spanish-speaking employee, and hiring bilingual and bicultural advisers to increase the number of Latino students identified as gifted and talented.

For English learners, they suggested creating a K-12 dual language program rather than relying on programs that pull out students from class to learn English.

Over the summer, the group said the only response they had received from the district was a spreadsheet of the group’s recommendations. The district had marked several recommendations as not possible or as in progress. But the district offered little explanation, leaving some parents dissatisfied.

Tensions grew as the parents met with district leaders this fall and thought that the district planned to disband their group, switching its role to only providing feedback rather than contributing recommendations.

“They were the ones that asked for this parent collaboration,” said Yanira Blanco, mother of a seventh grader. “If I’m not seeing the changes we’ve asked for then it’s not really worth it to be part of the group. They have all the information on hand. They know what they need to do.”

Anderson said that this belief about disbanding the group was a “misconception.”

“There was a little bit of miscommunication,” he said.

But Anderson cited the pandemic as the biggest obstacle to the work for now.

He also said that he understood why parents would be hesitant to trust the district.

Historically, Latino parents in Boulder and in districts across the country have faced pushback when they sought to make their voices heard in decision-making, even as district leaders in many places blame a lack of parent engagement for why their children didn’t excel in school. Parents also have seen that inequities — in how students of color are overrepresented in discipline, or in which students excel — haven’t shrunk in years despite repeatedly voicing concerns.

A 2006 summary of findings from a national panel reviewing research about English learners found research showing that “language-minority parents express willingness — and often have the ability — to help their children succeed academically.” But, the report stated, “schools underestimate and underutilize parents’ interest, motivation, and potential contributions.”

“Districts have learned, you have to have a place at the table for parents, but their idea of what that really means is all over the place,” said Julie Woestehoff, a retired parent activist in Chicago and former director of the national group Parents Across America. “Listening to parents makes education better, period. Parents may not have the same education levels, but what they’re bringing is just as important and needs to be part of the planning.”

Still, positive parent engagement, especially in long-term planning or on substantial issues, is not the norm. Often, experts say, parents start out motivated, and then lose trust in the process as they fail to see meaningful changes.

Kristen Davidson, a researcher and professor at the University of Colorado Boulder who has studied parent engagement and worked with the Boulder district in the past, said that for districts to build trust they must follow through to address concerns that parents raise.

In 2019, a parent advisory council in conjunction with the Colorado Department of Education highlighted the Latino Parent Advisory Council of Boulder in a report on promising practices for engaging parents and communities.

The report described the group as a “vital advisory group” that holds the district accountable.

Anderson said that he believes the group has been successful in helping parents find their voice.

Initially, he said, Latino parents who joined other district groups had their voices drowned out by other parents. Now, he said, the parents of the advisory group reach out to him, other leaders, and the media about what they see that needs improvement.

“To me that shows tons of progress,” Anderson said.

Ana Lilia Lujan Castillo, a parent of three Boulder students and member of the group, said she started volunteering in schools years ago after losing a job. When Anderson started the parent advisory group, she thought it was a “magnificent” opportunity.

“No other superintendent had done that to try to hear us,” Lujan Castillo said.

But she said part of her disappointment over the two years as part of the group is in knowing that the district has always had troubling data about racial gaps in student achievement and in discipline, but did little about it.

“They’ve known the problem,” Lujan Castillo said. “They just haven’t solved it.”

Lujan Castillo said that she would like the district to have Spanish classes that acknowledge that children already come with some knowledge as native speakers. She suggested forming what other districts have created, Spanish language classes for “heritage” or native speakers.

She and other parents in the group said they understand that many of their recommended changes would take time and resources. But they’re now glad the district has at least committed to do the work, they said.

Anderson said the district has already made changes that were prompted by the group, even before receiving formal recommendations.

Among those changes are creating a uniform anti-bullying policy, discipline matrix, and a way for Spanish-speaking parents to report bullying or discrimination. The district has also started centralizing language services to provide translators for parent meetings and interpretation for communications.

“CAPL brought to our attention a lot of the issues parents were having,” Anderson said.

He said some schools had no translators and turned away parents because school staff could not understand them. In some cases, schools used students as translators.

Now, Anderson said, the district is building a centralized office for those requests, and is tracking feedback on each interaction as it improves the services.

Noemi Lastiri, a parent of three Boulder students, said the improvements have kept her from feeling frustrated. She said she trusts that more will come.

Lastiri, who worked on the discipline and anti bullying recommendations, said she is especially thankful for that work.

“Parents didn’t know what to do or who to report these incidents to,” Lastiri said. “It has been a tremendous step.”

The Adams 14 district has a plan to teach English learners

2020-10-15T21:30:59+00:00

It’s taken 10 years, but the Adams 14 school district has finalized a plan that has conditional federal approval to improve education for its English-language learners.

Adams 14, a school district north of Denver where about half of the 6,500 students are English learners mostly from Spanish-speaking homes, had written a plan before — in response to that federal request.

But for the first time, the district has received approval for the plan from the federal Office for Civil Rights. The approval was conditional on some recommended changes that the district has just completed.

“This is a huge step for the district,” said Tonia Lopez, Adams 14’s director of culturally and linguistically diverse education and instruction, “one that will provide opportunities for our kids to be able to thrive.”

Besides never winning federal approval, other plans were never completely rolled out as intended, because of a constant churn in district leadership and at times resistance to some ideas.

The federal office did not respond to requests for comment, nor answer questions about why it did not approve previous plans.

The latest plan builds on ideas from previous plans including graduating students with a seal of biliteracy that demonstrates they are fluent in English and a second language.

The plan also intends to roll out current bilingual programming which exists at four of the district’s seven elementary schools, to include fifth graders next year. The district will also introduce a Spanish language arts class for middle school students, and most notably, the district is looking at creating a dual language program.

The plan is to create a two-way dual language program. Under that model, the district would need to enroll an equal number of students who have English as a native language and Spanish as a native language into the program. The classes are offered in a mix of English and Spanish, and the idea is that the children help each other become bilingual.

The district first will have to assess potential enrollment. For years, community members have asked for a similar model where English-speaking children could also have the opportunity to become bilingual. The district must also assess whether it can hire enough qualified, bilingual teachers. This has been a challenge previously.

Lopez and district officials, however, said that the work aligns with what they’ve heard that the community wants.

District leaders also emphasized that the work is not only about creating new programming, but also about integrating practices that help English learners in all classes across the district.

Adams 14 is in its second year of a four-year plan to improve student achievement. The state ordered the district to hire private management to help make those improvements. The outside firm, MGT Consulting, hired staff with experience in bilingual education to help the district finalize this language plan.

With one of the highest proportions of English learners in any district in Colorado, having a plan for educating English learners is crucial to improving its performance overall. Some research shows that English learners who become fluent in English can outperform native-English speakers. But while students are in the process of becoming bilingual, it is difficult for them to earn high scores on standardized tests normally given in English.

The district is also still working on meeting other federal requirements. Another agreement signed with the Office for Civil Rights addressed improvements the district must make to correct discriminatory practices.

Jorge Garcia of the Colorado Association for Bilingual Education, who has been critical of the district’s education of language learners in the past, said he is glad the district has an approved plan, but hopes that it doesn’t disappear with the next leadership change. While MGT will continue to oversee the district for a few more years, plans call for starting a superintendent search later this school year.

“Every time there’s a new administration, there’s a new plan,” Garcia said. “You can always improve and so I’m definitely not saying that once you have a plan that you should never change it, but I just hope that this particular plan will be consistent — that the district will really try to implement the plan.”

Superintendent Don Rangel echoed the intent to do so, at a meeting with the school board Tuesday.

“It is a journey,” Rangel said. “If we put it in our plan and it’s going to help our students succeed in the way we know it should, then we need to implement it fully and aggressively.”

The school board Tuesday mostly praised the work, acknowledging that it is important programming for district families.

Board members also asked about goals for the programming, whether the district engaged with outside experts and advocates, and how long it would take to implement.

The language plan outlines goals but they lack specifics and deadlines.

One goal, for instance, is for the district to help all students reach English proficiency within six years. The plan calls for the district to identify students who have already taken longer than that, to create individualized plans to help get them back on track.

Garcia also said he has talked with the district about other concerns he still has with the plan around ensuring that students who are not yet fluent in English can be tested in their native language when possible, and around how and when families are involved in the placement process for their children.

“To me it could be and should be so much more participatory,” Garcia said. “Parents are told rather than being asked for input.”

Lopez said the district will keep looking for ways to improve relationships with parents and the community, and said the district has other plans that go into more detail about what language students can be tested in, following state rules.

The plan, which is meant to be a long-term vision for the district’s education of English learners, does not include changes required during the current remote learning period.

Lopez said that while things may look different, including the initial assessment of students’ language proficiency, the services and goals remain the same.

Read the final draft of the full plan, below:

With thousands of students missing, Colorado officials call on parents to enroll their children in school

2020-09-30T00:03:34+00:00

More than a month into the school year, thousands of Colorado students still have not shown up to classrooms, physical or virtual.

On Tuesday, Gov. Jared Polis, Education Commissioner Katy Anthes and others pleaded with parents to enroll their children in school, despite their concerns about the risks of in-person learning or their frustrations with online education.

“A lot of parents are not ready for their children to go back, and they don’t love the online program,” Polis said. “Enrolling is very important. Your kid will likely go back to school at some point in the future, and you don’t want them to have a very big deficit when they do. Schools are working very hard to catch students up, and that’s impossible to do when they are not participating in school in some form.”

In addition to keeping students on track academically, officials said that participating in school even in less-than-ideal circumstances will help children get access to mental health support, social connections, and meals.

“Even if you’re doing it remotely, we can still create a sense of belonging for our students,” Anthes said, describing teachers who had gone above and beyond to reach students in distress. “Students who are not engaged in learning at all are missing out on all the resources that schools can offer them.”

Enrollment is also closely tied to school funding in Colorado. Thursday is Count Day, when Colorado school districts tally their students to determine their official enrollment for the year. Every student is worth thousands of dollars.

Polis said he has directed the Colorado Department of Education to give districts as much flexibility as possible but the state ultimately needs to distribute funding in accordance with the law.

Typically, official enrollment numbers from Count Day aren’t released until January, but around the state, districts large and small are reporting fewer students.

Chalkbeat requested initial enrollment data as of Sept. 10 from the five largest school districts in Colorado. Each district reported lower enrollment — up to about 3.5% fewer students — than what districts had projected before the pandemic.

In Denver, district officials had estimated they would enroll more than 87,000 students this fall. In September, schools had only registered 85,055 students, or 2.3% less.

Aurora enrollment fell 3.5%, the biggest percentage drop of the five largest school districts. Jeffco Public Schools had the smallest decline from projections, at less than 1%.

While Denver and Aurora started the school year online, even districts that offered in-person options saw enrollment declines. In Douglas County, where students started the school year with a hybrid model, officials expected to see about 64,753 students, but in September registered 2% less. Cherry Creek was down 2.6% from expected enrollment of 54,092.

More families are registering their intent to home-school their children. Of the five largest districts, Jeffco appears to show the biggest jump. Through the end of August, Jeffco has received 1,506 letters of intent to home-school. Based on state data, that would be a fivefold increase over last year.

But in most districts, the number of home-schooling families remains low overall and doesn’t account for most of the missing students.

In the press conference, Polis said that home-schooling properly requires a significant investment of time and resources.

“Don’t think you’re homeschooling because you’re giving your kid a book and leaving them all day at home,” Polis said.

In Aurora, a more detailed look at enrollment trends earlier this month showed an unexpected change: fewer new incoming students. The biggest gap was among kindergarten children. Aurora enrolled only 86% of its expected kindergartners.

The large Denver metro area districts are not alone. The Journal reported in late August that nearly 20% of students hadn’t shown up in the 2,500-student Montezuma-Cortez district in southwest Colorado, while Boulder Valley school district has 1,000 fewer students than last year, the Daily Camera reported.

And in a legislative hearing earlier this month, officials told lawmakers that districts in the Pikes Peak region around Colorado Springs cannot account for as many as 4,000 students.

Families appear to be sitting out the school year for several reasons. Some well-off families have formed learning pods with private tutors or enrolled their children in private schools that offered in-person instruction when many school districts started the year online. Other families may not feel safe sending their children to school but don’t think online options provide a good alternative, especially for younger children.

Drops in enrollment seem to be highest in the early elementary grades, though Denver Superintendent Susana Cordova said the district has also seen drops in high schools that work with students most at risk of dropping out.

Other families, having lost jobs and housing or suffering from illness or the death of relatives from COVID, may be in crisis. They might be homeless or have moved out of state or sent their children to live with relatives.

Officials stressed the emotional and psychological importance of school. Dr. Chris Rogers, president of the Colorado Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Society, pointed to the sense of structure and predictability that school provides. The children he treats at Medical Center of Aurora often describe feelings of profound isolation — a feeling that school can mitigate.

He also acknowledged that many students are struggling to focus and complete work in classes in which they previously did well and that parents are more stressed out and juggling more roles than ever before.

“While I don’t pretend to know all the reasons why some families are not prioritizing school enrollment and attendance, I suspect that many have felt that giving up is the easiest option when faced with so many expectations,” Rogers said.

Anthes asked employers to be flexible with working parents so they can support their children and asked community organizations that work with families in severe poverty to make sure to ask about schooling.

Rico Munn, superintendent of the Aurora district, said school staff have fanned out to knock on doors to find out how families are struggling and what barriers exist to children attending school, and other districts have taken similar steps.

On Tuesday, Polis pledged 40 AmeriCorps volunteers to work with high-needs districts to reach out to families and encourage them to enroll. He also announced more than $2 million in housing assistance to help 225 homeless families find stable places to stay.

Munn said the pandemic will affect every student’s life, but it doesn’t need to alter their long-term trajectories, which is a risk of not attending school.

“The way we can make sure this event is not life-changing is to provide as much continuity as possible,” he said. “Public school educators are here with the resources to support you and your family, but to do that, we need you to enroll your kids, whether that’s online or in-person.”

A seventh-grader dared this Colorado teacher to get angry. ‘Mr. Q’ kept his cool.

2020-09-16T15:07:13+00:00

David Quiroz was a chef and musician when his niece began falling behind in reading. He offered to tutor her and soon they were acting out Aesop’s Fables together. That’s when he knew he was meant to teach.

Today, Quiroz works with students who’ve fallen behind at Ignacio Middle School, part of the Ignacio School District in southwest Colorado. Things are different this year — with some students attending in person and some online, but he still starts the day with four questions: “How was your evening? What time did you sleep? What time did you wake up? Did you eat breakfast?”

“Imagine coming to school tired and hungry. Would you be able to stay focused and well mannered?” said Quiroz, one of three Fort Lewis College alumni who won a Southwest Rural Make A Difference Teacher Award from the college’s school of education in January.

He talked to Chalkbeat about the difficulty of teaching remotely last spring, what he did when a student talked about punching him, and his realization that taking care of himself was as important as taking care of students.

This interview has been condensed and lightly edited.

Was there a moment when you decided to become a teacher?

My niece was having a hard time in school and she was falling through the cracks. I began to tutor her in reading comprehension. We acted out Aesop’s Fables. She was able to make up some ground and even get ahead.

I knew then I should become a teacher. I thought maybe I could help other kids going through the same problems who needed a different way of looking at things. A few years after that, I signed up for community college and began the journey.

What was the biggest challenge you faced while teaching remotely last spring?

The biggest challenge was not being able to see the kids on a regular basis. I think I need them as much as they need me. I like my students’ humor and unique perspectives. It did not translate online at the end of the year because it was such a stressful time and many checked out to deal with the enormous dark cloud that loomed over us.

How is school going this year?

It is definitely a whole different world in education. It is challenging because we are in a hybrid model, which means we have both in-person and online students simultaneously. Navigating between both worlds causes starts and stops for a variety of reasons: internet connections, attending to chat box questions in a timely manner, and online etiquette, among others. The bright spot is that my family, my fellow teachers, school staff, and my friends have remained healthy, so far.

How do you get to know your students?

I check in with them every morning and ask four questions: How was your evening? What time did you sleep? What time did you wake up? Did you eat breakfast? It helps me gauge their day and address their needs. I have some dry cereal to address hunger and I refer them to our counselor if needed. If they are sleepy, I allow them to take short naps or to use a jump rope to get them going. I can’t address academics unless their basic needs are met.

You work with students who’ve fallen behind. How do you motivate them and help them re-engage in school?

I break up their assignments into manageable daily goals or chunks. Once they reach their goals, we can do some fun activities like chess, basketball, and walks. Overall, I take a genuine interest in their success.

Tell us about a memorable time — good or bad — when contact with a student’s family changed your perspective or approach.

A seventh grade boy and I were working on some math problems. He stopped me in mid-sentence and asked, “Mr. Q?” He looked down to his hand as he slowly made a tight, white knuckled fist, “What would you do if I punched you right in your big fat nose?” His eyes were daring me to get angry and justify his mental exhaustion.

In a flash, I weighed my options. “Well,” I replied deliberately, “I would probably cry because you are pretty strong.” He looked back at his fist and released his grip. “Don’t worry Mr. Q,” he smiled tenderly, “I wouldn’t hurt you.” I realized what he was saying; we took a break and talked about his cool boots, which he had cut into slip-ons.

Tell us about a favorite lesson you teach.

We read “To Kill A Mockingbird.” Kids need and want to explore the empathetic components of their being and express their opinions about social injustice. I did the lesson when Ferguson [protests over Michael Brown’s killing by police were] happening. The relevance was off the charts and the kids got it.

What’s something happening in the community that affects what goes on inside your class?

Unfortunately, we had lots of grief in this community last winter and spring [before the coronavirus pandemic.] After the death of a few community members, I felt a need to bring it up in class. I welcomed the students and introduced the situation: “There have been some recent deaths in town, does anyone know of anyone who has recently died?”

A third of the classroom knew of someone. I asked questions like, “How are you? How did it make you feel? How are you dealing with it? Do you need to talk more about it in private with our counselor?”

I let them know that they are important to the community as much as that person was to them. We ended with a gratitude exercise to list three things they are thankful for. Studies have shown that gratitude activates the hypothalamus which regulates sleep — something they lose as they think and process these tough events in life.

What was your biggest misconception that you initially brought to teaching?

Early in my career, I missed out on some events that were super important, like a funeral, birth, wedding, reunion. I thought I should not or could not leave my students. There are not many jobs that have this type of commitment. However, we still need to be able to take care of those personal events in order to be at our best, so then, in turn, we can be well for our students.

What are you reading for enjoyment?

Mad Magazine

88% of Denver students showing up for virtual classes, but there are disparities by age and race

2020-09-15T18:31:00+00:00

Fewer Denver students are attending class this fall compared with a year ago, and students of color are less likely than their white peers to regularly tune into real-time video lessons.

Average daily attendance over the first two weeks of school this fall was about 88%. While that’s higher than during springtime remote learning, it’s about 5 percentage points lower than the same period in 2019, when attendance in classrooms was 93%.

Younger students are attending virtual classes this fall more frequently than are older students. On Sept. 1, for example, 92% of elementary school students were present. But only 87% of middle school and 85% of high school students were.

White students are attending more frequently than are students of color. During the second week of school, 94% of white students and 85% of Black and Hispanic students were present.

Average attendance for the second week of school this fall was 88%, down from 93% last fall.

Denver Public Schools counts students as present if they attend a real-time video lesson. The district is taking a different approach to remote learning this fall, with more emphasis on live instruction via video calls in the hopes of better engaging students.

The district will consider students facing what it calls “extenuating circumstances” as present if they communicate with a teacher or turn in an assignment. Teachers take attendance once a day in elementary schools and once every period in middle and high schools.

The district has worked to connect all students in kindergarten through 12th grade to remote learning by distributing computers and helping families with internet access. But barriers remain, including slow internet speeds and hotspot devices that don’t work.

Other data shows students are engaging with their schoolwork even if they’re not showing up for video calls. While only 88% of students were present during the second week of school, 90% of students interacted with one of the district’s online learning systems, SeeSaw or Schoology.

But the results of a student survey are troubling. Fewer students reported that they’re doing “good” or “great” when asked about their well-being. Only 54% of students said they were “good” or “great” this fall, down from 66% in the spring, district data shows.

“Our kids are feeling the impact of this pandemic and need and want to be in school,” Superintendent Susana Cordova told the school board when she presented the data Monday. “That’s not something you always typically hear kids say.”

Fewer Denver students reported feeling “good” or “great” this fall compared with the spring.

In addition to disruptions in their schooling, Cordova said students may be dealing with the financial strain of the pandemic if their parents lost jobs. Many students of color, she said, are also not only witnessing but participating in protests against racism and police brutality.

The district on Friday announced plans to gradually bring students back to campuses. Preschool students began returning to classrooms last week. Kindergarten and first grade students will follow at the end of the month. All students will be back in classrooms by Oct. 21, though middle and high school students will likely take a mix of in-person and virtual classes.

The district will continue to offer a fully virtual school option for families who prefer it.

Poverty, hunger, lost learning all hit children hard. Colorado needs to protect them from COVID fallout, advocates say.

2020-09-12T01:36:19+00:00

Colorado should prioritize opening schools above opening businesses and take stronger action to stave off a looming crisis for the state’s children, 45 advocacy organizations led by the Colorado Children’s Campaign wrote in a letter to Gov. Jared Polis and other state leaders Friday.

While children are less likely to suffer the most serious health consequences from the coronavirus, they are hit harder by nearly every secondary effect of the pandemic and the efforts to contain it, the advocates wrote. Those include poverty, hunger, homelessness, and lost learning.

“Prioritizing the care of our children benefits all Coloradans,” they wrote. “By placing the needs of children and families at the center of our response we can ensure kids are in safe environments provided with the tools and skills to realize their full potential, and we can support parents who need to work so our economy can thrive.

“We are at an inflection point. The trendlines in community spread create an opening to advance strategies that support children and families. As the school year begins, families are having to make impossible choices between the education and care of their kids and meeting basic needs.”

Hundreds of thousands of Colorado students are learning remotely, some by family choice and some because their school campuses remain closed. At the same time, tens of thousands lack adequate internet access to support their learning. Families are also struggling with unprecedented job losses that threaten their housing and their ability to put food on the table. Households with children are more likely to be evicted than those made up just of adults, studies have found.

The letter asks the governor to set clear metrics for when it’s safe for schools to open, improve internet access for all students, set baseline expectations for quality remote learning, shore up child care providers, and make sure children have secure housing and enough to eat.

“What we’re seeing across all the work that we do is that kids and families need a lot right now, and there is more that the state could be doing to put children at the center of our policy response,” said Leslie Colwell, vice president of K-12 education initiatives for the Children’s Campaign.

That starts with providing clearer guidance to school districts and communities about when it’s safe to open schools and prioritizing schools above other types of businesses that could contribute to higher rates of community spread, the letter says.

Over the summer, Colorado did not provide any framework that would indicate when it is safe to return to the classroom. That contributed to the patchwork of school reopenings across the state. In some cases, districts in the same counties with the same health conditions made different decisions.

In late August, after school had started, the state public health department released a draft matrix to guide local reopening decisions. The criteria suggest schools should be open for at least some in-person learning throughout the state.

While the letter praises this as an important step, advocates note that the matrix doesn’t mention child care centers as a distinct category and doesn’t prioritize schools above activities such as gyms and indoor dining in restaurants.

“That misses the mark,” said Erin Miller, vice president of health initiatives for the Children’s Campaign. “Having kids in school and child care is so critical for parents who need to be at work; those should be prioritized.”

“Schools and child care programs should be among our last institutions to close and the very first to open, as these settings directly support our state’s economic recovery,” the letter says. “Therefore, the dial should be revised to prioritize the reopening of in-person schools and child care settings, before businesses that pose a significant risk of community spread.”

Advocates said the state also needs to give more direct guidance to school districts to prioritize in-person learning for younger elementary students, students with disabilities, and others who are particularly poorly served in a remote environment. In some districts, schools don’t have the infrastructure to serve all students safely, Miller said, and the state should be explicit about using an equity lens to determine which students get priority.

The letter also calls for higher and more uniform standards for what constitutes quality remote learning and for putting more resources into improving online education for those circumstances in which school isn’t safe. The state also needs to do more to ensure all students have internet access. Polis and Colorado Education Commissioner Katy Anthes recently announced a $2 million investment in expanding internet access, but it is not expected to fully meet the need.

As families look outside the school system for help and form learning pods, the state should take a greater oversight role and ensure that adults caring for children have, at a minimum, a background check, the letter says. Advocates said the state could do more to encourage school districts to facilitate safe learning spaces even when schools are closed and to steer families toward licensed care.

In addition, the letter calls on the state to do more to ensure all children have access to nutritious meals and to prevent evictions.

“We have children who are starting their semester in a hotel room because their family has been evicted,” said Jack Regenbogen of the Colorado Center on Law and Policy, an advocacy group that works on housing and other issues facing low-income families. “This was a problem before, but it’s more dangerous now. What’s unique right now is that a lot of families are having to make tough choices about whether they go back to work while their children are learning from home.”

Earlier this summer, Polis let a state moratorium on evictions expire. Renters have some protections under new rules from the Centers for Disease Control, but there are too many loopholes to protect children, Regenbogen said.

In addition to stopping evictions now, the letter calls on Polis to require landlords to offer renters reasonable repayment plans to help them stay in their housing long term.

Correction: This article has been updated with the correct spelling of Jack Regenbogen’s name.

Read the full letter and see who signed it below.

Gov. Jared Polis launches $32.7 million fund to incubate ideas to improve student learning during the pandemic

2020-09-09T20:54:15+00:00

To continue the battle against fallout from COVID-19, Gov. Jared Polis on Wednesday launched a $32.7 million grant program that seeks to create innovations that help the state’s most disadvantaged students.

In an interview with Chalkbeat, Polis said he hopes the Response, Innovation, and Student Equity Education Fund, known as RISE, will plant ideas that will leave Colorado in a better place during and after the pandemic.

The state describes the competitive grant fund, which uses federal stimulus money from the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund, as an incubator of ideas that advance student learning, especially among those who have suffered deeply the economic, social, and health effects of the crisis.

Polis also hopes RISE will foster new models of learning, ideas to better the educational experience of college students, and ways to strengthen the connections between high school, college, and careers.

Polis said he wants the state to use the money to address long-standing inequities among student populations.

“The ideas are going to be as creative as our state is,” Polis said

Earlier this year, Polis designated $510 million to Colorado school districts and $450 million to higher education, both from federal stimulus money. A formula determined how much each institution received.

He said the new grant allows the state to identify and address its greatest areas of need outside of the formula.

“We have this ability to direct the funding to the most impactful programs that will create the biggest positive change in terms of achievement,” Polis said.

Colorado Department of Higher Education Executive Director Angie Paccione said the goal of the fund is for colleges and universities to learn from the pandemic and improve higher education for future years.

She said innovative ideas could identify operating efficiencies or create new uses for classroom space. She also wants schools to learn from remote instruction during the pandemic and create systems that help break barriers in teaching diverse and low-income students.

The hope is for schools to create sustainable practices, she said.

“Never let a crisis go to waste,” Paccione said. “And I think that is where this is coming from.”

Colorado Education Commissioner Katy Anthes encouraged school districts to learn from their experience.

“I encourage our districts to take advantage of this opportunity to use what we have learned so far in this pandemic to think creatively and innovatively about solutions to today’s challenges that could lead to lasting positive changes in our ability to support all students for years to come,” Anthes said.

Individual grants will range from $250,000 to $4 million to school districts with high-need students, charter schools, and colleges and universities.

Priority will be given to applicants that serve rural communities, districts that are struggling academically, and those that seek to address academic gaps based on income, ethnicity, disability, or English-learner status.

The first round of RISE applications are due Oct. 17, with a second round due Dec. 19. Awardees will have until September 2022 to spend the money.

A Polis-appointed committee of parents, educators, students, education leaders, and community members will review the applications. Gary Community Investments President and CEO Mike Johnston will chair the committee, according to the news release.

Johnston said while the RISE fund seeks to help solve the inequalities that have been exacerbated because of COVID, the goal is to create new ways to address the underlying inequities that hold back underserved communities.

Gary Community Investments and Colorado’s Gates Family Foundation will also provide help and funds to applicants that may need assistance in filling out a grant proposal.

Why hotspots and internet deals still leave thousands of Colorado students disconnected from school

2020-08-28T21:37:31+00:00

When COVID-19 hit, the internet became an essential school supply. Districts in the Denver metro area scrambled to meet the need, collectively spending more than $1 million in the past five months to buy mobile hotspots and pay families’ internet bills so children could learn. Philanthropies and foundations have spent even more.

But the effort hasn’t been enough. Tens of thousands of Colorado students still don’t have internet access at a time when half of students statewide are starting the school year virtually, and those taking classes in person may have to move online on short notice.

Even families who have gotten connected say the low-cost or temporary options often touted as a solution to bridge Colorado’s gaping digital divide can be slow and unreliable. And the cost of high-speed internet is just one barrier. Other problems include geography and infrastructure, and not just for rural Coloradans.

“Out here, internet can be shaky at best,” said Zuton Lucero-Mills, a mother of five who lives in the Green Valley Ranch neighborhood in far northeast Denver.

Some lawmakers, superintendents, and education advocates are calling for a fundamental shift in the way Colorado thinks about internet access, arguing it should be treated less like a luxury and more like a public utility. But such a shift would take time and money. And until it happens, many families — often low-income families of color — face difficult choices.

Tamika Aumiller has been on a waiting list for a hotspot since March. A single mother who works nights stocking groceries, Aumiller said she can’t afford home internet. When Denver schools shifted to remote learning in the spring, Aumiller had to send her 6-year-old daughter Addy to live with her parents 45 minutes away in Park County. Aumiller’s only source of internet, her cell phone, wasn’t enough to support Addy’s online kindergarten.

But even that situation wasn’t ideal: Addy’s grandparents are not tech savvy and their internet service was spotty. Whenever it crashed, Aumiller had to relay the message to Addy’s teacher, who would mail her packets of worksheets. Aumiller would then take photos of Addy’s completed work and send them to the teacher. Addy’s grandmother would make voice recordings of the girl reading out loud and send those to the teacher, too.

“It was a disaster,” Aumiller said.

And Aumiller feared it would happen again. Three days before school was scheduled to start online in Denver this week, she was still waiting for a hotspot from the district. So she made a difficult decision, one that will temporarily separate her from her daughter: She filled out paperwork to register Addy for school in Park County, where classes are being held in person.

Addy got in. She starts first grade there on Monday.

“My biggest worry is that she’s going to get behind in school,” Aumiller said. “With the way remote learning went last year, they had to pass everybody. I don’t want her to just skate through because they have to pass people. I want her to learn the things she needs to learn.”

Stop-gap solutions

As schools across Colorado shifted to online learning in March and April, a survey conducted by the state education department and the Colorado Education Initiative found that about 53,000 Colorado students lacked a computer or tablet. Even more students — nearly 66,000 — didn’t have internet access at home, the statewide survey found. U.S. Census data suggests the number of households without reliable internet in Colorado could be much higher.

In the past five months, the number of students without a computer has shrunk, as school districts rushed to order devices in bulk and distribute them to kids in need.

But experts fear the number of students without internet access has actually grown. And the reasons why touch on societal problems that are not as easy for school districts to fix — and business decisions by private companies that school districts don’t control.

If a parent loses their job and can no longer pay their internet bill, or if an internet company’s free offer expires, the solution isn’t as simple as buying the family a single device like a computer. It’s a matter of finding a way to pay for a sustained service.

“In 2020, broadband internet is not an option; it’s an essential service for living,” said Denver Public Schools Superintendent Susana Cordova. “This moment has revealed that reliable internet access at home is as vital as power and running water.”

In the absence of a long-term solution, school districts have deployed stopgap measures. Many have bought and distributed hundreds, or even thousands, of internet hotspots, which are pocket-sized devices that use cell phone service to establish a Wi-Fi connection.

But the districts quickly discovered that hotspots don’t always work. In southern Colorado’s San Luis Valley, Centennial School District Superintendent Toby Melster said the surrounding mountains often block the signal. Although his district received a donation of 50 hotspots, he estimates that about 30% of the district’s 200 students still aren’t connected.

For those who are, the connection can be tenuous. One family made an X with tape on their countertop to signify the one place in the house where the hotspot got a signal, he said.

Other families, both rural and urban, have run into a different problem. Hotspot signals are often not strong enough to support multiple siblings doing Zoom calls or uploading homework assignments at the same time. Sometimes the hotspots don’t work at all.

That’s what happened to Maria Rojas’ oldest daughter in the spring. When the hotspot provided by her Denver high school failed to connect, Rojas’ daughter began doing her schoolwork on her cell phone. But she wasn’t able to complete all of her assignments that way.

“She had kind of a nervous breakdown,” said Rojas, a parent leader with the community organization Together Colorado. “All she would do is cry and cry, and I had no idea how to help her. She had been one of the most high-achieving students in her class, always getting awards, and she went to being a student who couldn’t turn in assignments.”

Rojas eventually connected her daughter with a psychologist who is still helping the family.

‘It takes all of us’

Internet service providers — some of them multibillion-dollar corporations — have the power to provide more permanent solutions. With persistent prodding from parents, teachers, and community groups, a few have made strides in that direction.

Comcast is one of the primary internet providers in the Denver metro area. It has for years offered a discounted program called Internet Essentials. In March, as the pandemic unfolded, Comcast announced it would make that program, usually $9.95 per month, free for two months.

But some families still faced big barriers. Initially the company denied services to those with unpaid debt. Undocumented families shied away when the application prominently asked for a Social Security number. And families who did get service said the connection was slow.

Nallely Antúnez Gonzalez had Internet Essentials in the spring. Sometimes her 7-year-old daughter would do her schoolwork online, only to find it all erased when it failed to upload.

“It was like starting over from zero,” Antúnez Gonzalez said. “I would have to explain to her that she had to do it again, and it was really hard for her.”

Coloradans for the Common Good, a group of labor unions and faith communities, set out to change that. They met several times with Comcast executives, telling the stories of parents, teachers, and school social workers struggling to connect families with the internet — and inviting media to cover their extensive advocacy efforts.

The strategy worked. Comcast extended the timeline for its free internet offer and made it clearer that families could use alternative forms of ID.

“That’s an example of what organized people can do,” said Joyce Brooks of the Colorado NAACP and a member of Coloradans for the Common Good. “But now we have entered a new school year. We still have much work to do to close this digital divide.”

The group hasn’t let up. On Wednesday, Coloradans for the Common Good hosted a virtual summit on internet access in education. Panelists included school district officials and representatives from Comcast, as well as hotspot vendors Verizon and T-Mobile.

The organization was direct: Would the companies be willing to work with them to increase access to high-speed internet? All three said yes. But Brent Cooper, the senior manager for government with T-Mobile, said it would take every internet service provider working together, along with municipalities willing to host cell phone towers, to truly solve the digital divide.

“How do you create universal access?” Cooper said. “Well, guess what? It takes all of us.”

Another big internet service provider in Colorado, CenturyLink, didn’t attend the summit. Unlike Comcast, CenturyLink doesn’t offer any free internet. Instead, a company spokesperson pointed to CenturyLink’s participation in the federal Lifeline program, which trims up to $9.25 from a family’s monthly bill.

That could still leave the internet out of reach for many families.

Searching for a signal

Advocates envision municipal broadband as a long-term solution to Colorado’s internet problem. Instead of residents buying internet from private companies like CenturyLink and Comcast, they would get internet service from their city or town, just like they do trash or water.

A 2005 state law banned local governments from providing their residents with high-speed internet without voter approval. In the 15 years since, more than 100 municipalities have voted to opt out of the law. Denver voters will consider whether to do the same in November.

But opting out of the law is only the first step. Building a broadband network takes time and money. The city of Longmont, roughly 40 miles northwest of Denver, began exploring the idea in 1996. Eighteen years and a $45 million bond issue later, Longmont signed up its first customers for a city service called NextLight, which offers fast internet at competitive prices.

Now nearly 60% of households in Longmont get their internet service from NextLight, said Executive Director Valerie Dodd. So does the St. Vrain Valley School District. And for low-income families, Longmont has a program called Sharing the NextLight that provides free home internet service to those whose children qualify for subsidized school meals.

Families must reapply every school year, and Dodd said about 40 have signed up so far this fall. She expects that number to grow; there is funding for as many as 100 more families.

Longmont’s municipal broadband hasn’t completely solved the St. Vrain Valley School District’s digital divide, though. The district is bigger than just Longmont. According to a spokesperson, St. Vrain has spent several thousand dollars on 100 hotpots and got a grant for 250 more, which are earmarked for families experiencing homelessness. The district’s foundation is also spending up to $60 per family to cover the cost of six months of internet service.

But no matter how much money school districts have spent on short-term solutions, leaders say it isn’t enough. While Denver has reduced the percentage of families without internet access from 8% in the spring to 4% this fall, that still leaves about 3,600 families unconnected.

The percentage of students without internet in the wealthier suburban districts of Cherry Creek and Adams 12 is lower: about 2%, according to spokespeople for those districts.

In suburban districts with higher concentrations of poverty, more families are unconnected. As of a month ago in the small Adams 14 school district, 278 students — about 4% of enrollment — indicated they didn’t have reliable internet access at home, a spokesperson said.

Graciela Rocha heads one of those families. A single mom of an 8-year-old daughter, Rocha faced a tough choice: Bring her daughter to work at the Commerce City hair salon she owns, where her mobile hotspot isn’t strong enough to support remote classes, or rearrange her work schedule so she can be with her daughter at home, where the signal is stronger.

Rocha chose the latter. That means she works seven days a week: every weekday afternoon after her daughter’s classes are over and 13- or 14-hour days on the weekends.

“I have to take some pay cuts to be able to be fully present,” she said.

It’s a sacrifice Rocha is willing to make to ensure her daughter gets a good education. But now that the COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the necessity of internet access for all, advocates hope it’s also one that Rocha and other parents won’t have to make again.

Yesenia Robles and Erica Meltzer contributed to this story.

Denver school board: Learning pods will make segregation and inequality worse

2020-08-14T00:50:21+00:00

The Denver school board issued a statement Thursday that urged parents to keep their children enrolled in public schools and think carefully before forming learning pods and micro-schools.

“We are deeply concerned about the pods’ long-term negative implications for public education and social justice,” the board members said in a statement posted to the district website and included in a weekly email to parents.

Citing the district’s history of school segregation and white flight, the board members continued: “While today our student body is as diverse as ever, our schools and communities suffer from segregation. We fear that further flight will exacerbate academic and opportunity gaps among our children.”

While some affluent parents have said they would like to offer space in their learning pods to those from lower-income families, the Denver school board said most parents won’t be able to achieve real equity.

“It is commendable that some pod organizers are looking to create diversity and equity within their pod, but many will find this difficult due to decades of racist residential zoning policies that have created segregated neighborhoods throughout Denver,” the board members said.

For pods to reflect the demographics of the district, they said, each one would need three students of color for every one white student and two students who qualify for subsidized lunches for every one who does not. They would also need at least one student with a disability and one learning English as a new language.

The board members called on parents to keep their children enrolled in school to protect the district’s funding, which is determined based on student count, and to “reject the notion of vouchers or stipends.”

Some Denver parents have announced their intention to withdraw as a protest against the district not meeting their children’s needs, and Republican lawmakers have said parents who do so should have access to the money the state would have otherwise given the district.

The board members also said parents considering forming a co-op with other parents should ask about guns in the home and make sure alcohol and prescription drugs are safely stored. They suggested that adults who will be working with children should undergo a background check and training in how to recognize and report signs of child abuse and suicide risk. Parents should not try to hire Denver Public Schools teachers or paraprofessionals to work privately with students, the statement says.

Board members also urged anyone planning to form learning groups to make sure everyone involved follows safety protocols related to COVID, so that the start of in-person learning isn’t delayed any further.

The Denver board’s strong statement stands in contrast to districts like Adams 12 that are facilitating learning pods for their students in an effort to create more equity in a movement that started among more affluent families. As districts announced a remote start to the school year, these parents looked for ways to improve upon the isolating and often inadequate online learning their children experienced in the spring.

Learning pods can take a variety of forms, from parents forming a co-op to take turns supervising online learning through their school district to parents withdrawing their children from public schools and hiring tutors to teach a small group of children.

There are also community-based efforts. Black leaders in northeast Denver are working to provide a safe space with adult supervision and internet access, as Denverite reported. In Jefferson County, the Edgewater Collective is looking to do the same, expanding on a smaller summer program.

Read the full statement here.

MAPA: Lugares donde puedes recibir comida gratis para tus hijos, mientras están cerradas las escuelas

2020-08-11T03:00:00+00:00

Después del cierre de escuelas, los distritos escolares de Colorado han implementado planes para seguir alimentando a los miles de niños que dependen de las comidas escolares.

El jueves y viernes, docenas de distritos escolares de Colorado que sirven a cerca del 85% de los estudiantes del estado anunciaron cierres de al menos dos semanas. Y es posible que esos cierres se extiendan por más tiempo.

Ya sea un día de nieve o una pandemia, una de las consideraciones más importantes al decidir cerrar la escuela es: ¿Cómo comerán los niños? El desayuno y el almuerzo escolar es una fuente crítica de nutrición para muchos estudiantes.

En todo el estado, alrededor del 40% de los estudiantes son elegibles para recibir comida gratis en la escuela, una indicación de pobreza. Ese número es mucho mayor en muchos distritos del área metropolitana de Denver: 64% en Denver, 74% en Aurora, y 91% en el pequeño distrito de Sheridan, donde muchos estudiantes no tienen hogar.

Al mismo tiempo, muchos negocios tambien están siendo afectados por los esfuerzos para retardar el avanzo del nuevo coronavirus. Hasta las familias que solían poder comprar alimentos ahora pueden tener dificultades para comprar suficiente comida.

Muchos distritos escolares han designado sitios de distribución donde las familias pueden obtener el desayuno y el almuerzo para niños de 1 a 18 años. Denver también dará comida a personas mayores de 18 años que todavía estén inscritas en la escuela, un grupo que incluye a muchos jóvenes con discapacidades.

En la mayoría de los casos, los distritos no solicitan ningún documento relacionado con el ingreso o la residencia, pero los padres o cuidadores deberán traer a sus hijos con ellos. El distrito de Adams 14 cambio esta regla y ahora permitirá que los estudiantes solos recojan su comida.

Las escuelas y los sitios comunitarios tendrán estaciones de autoservicio donde las personas pueden recoger un almuerzo y un desayuno para cada niño.

En algunos casos, los distritos escolares también distribuyen cajas de comida para toda la familia.

El Departamento de Educación de Colorado recibió una exención del gobierno federal que permite a los distritos escolares proporcionar comidas a los estudiantes durante los cierres sin el requisito habitual de que los estudiantes coman juntos. Las exenciones adicionales permiten que las comidas se sirvan fuera de las escuelas y brindan flexibilidad en cuanto a qué alimentos se pueden incluir.

El siguiente mapa muestra los sitios de distribución de alimentos del área metropolitana de Denver. Si hace clic aquí, puede ingresar su dirección y encontrar el sitio más cercano a usted. Algunos centros de recreación de Denver también ofrecen cenas a niños de 18 años o menos y cajas de comida para toda la familia.

Y tenga en cuenta las fechas durante cuales la distribución de alimentos estará disponible. Algunos distritos no ofrecen servicio de comida durante la semana que habría sido su receso de primavera.

La Fundación de Escuelas Públicas de Denver también está recaudando fondos, aquí, para dar comida a los adultos y para repartir bolsas de comida para los fines de semana.

Si el cierre de las escuelas se prolonga más, la distribución de alimentos en la mayoría de los casos continuará también.

Sitios de distribución de comida en la área metropolitano de Denver

Horarios y tipos de alimento varia.

Instrucciones

Abra el mapa y haga clic sobre el botón de búsqueda.
Busque tu dirección de domicilio para encontrar un sitio cercano. Horarios y tipos de alimento varia.
Seleccione el sitio preferido y haga clic en el butón de direcciones.
Encuentre las direcciones al sitio preferido en Google Maps.

Instrucciones para uso en celular

No tengo Google Drive y Google Maps instalados en mi celular.

Abra el mapa y váyase a su barrio.
Seleccione al sitio para ver el horario y tipo de comida.
Haga clic sobre el butón de direcciones para ir al Google Maps.

Tengo Google Drive y Google Maps instalados en mi celular.

Abra el mapa y haga clic en la barra de búsqueda.
Entregue tu dirección de domicilio para encontrar los sitios más cercanos.
Haga clic sobre el sitio preferido para ver el horario y tipo de comida. Haga clic sobre el butón de direcciones para ir al Google Maps.

Nota: Este mapa fue actualizado 8/10/2020 10 p.m. MT .

Estamos haciendo todo lo posible para mantener este recurso actualizado. Debido a nuestro límite de personal, solo vamos a estar actualizando este mapa una vez al día. Es posible que los sitios de distribución hayan cambiado, o cerrado, y puede haber sitios nuevos de los que no sabemos todavía. Recomendamos que llame antes de ir a un sitio o que confirme con el distrito en su página de internet para asegurarse que el sitio está abierto. Si tiene información que debemos saber sobre un sitio que está o no en este mapa, favor de mandarnos un correo a meals@chalkbeat.org. Debido a que esta situación está cambiando rápidamente, es probable que vamos a cambiar nuestro modo de mantener este recurso al paso que cambien las circunstancias. Escucharemos sus opiniones al hacer estas decisiones y los mantendremos informados. Estamos tratando de comunicar claramente mientras navegamos estos tiempos extraordinarios.

Denver survey shows Black and Hispanic families more likely to prefer virtual learning

2020-07-22T01:04:06+00:00

In late June and early July, the Denver school district asked families to make a choice: Would they want their children to stay home this fall and learn online, or would they want to send their children in person to school buildings, with safety protocols to protect against the coronavirus?

The district got answers for about half of its 92,000 students. For 75% of students whose families responded, the preference was the in-person option, which has since been delayed by at least several weeks.

But survey results obtained by Chalkbeat through an open records request reveal differences by race. While 88% of white students chose the in-person option, only 65% of African American students and 67% of Hispanic students did — a trend also seen nationally. A similar percentage of Asian students, 69%, chose the in-person option.

The COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected communities of color nationwide. Here in Colorado, the rate of infection is higher among Black and Hispanic Coloradans than it is among white Coloradans, state data show. The death rate is higher, too.

Denver Public Schools’ survey was non-binding. The purpose, district officials said, was to help the district plan for the fall. Even if school buildings reopen, the district plans to allow families to choose a 100% virtual learning option. District officials said they wanted to get an idea of how many teachers would be needed for that virtual option.

The results indicate that parents of about 23% of all students would prefer the virtual option. But the percentage was higher for some student groups. For example, 35% of English language learners chose the virtual option, as did 28% of students with disabilities and 34% of students who qualify for subsidized school meals, an indicator of poverty.

Those pushing to reopen schools to in-person learning often cite the struggles that virtual learning caused for families living in poverty, or the parents of students with disabilities. But Denver’s survey results suggest those families feel less safe returning to school in person during a pandemic.

Deronn Turner has two children in Denver Public Schools. Her youngest has special needs. She said she worries that going back to school could be more dangerous for students who may need help remembering to take safety precautions such as washing their hands.

“I wish there was a way for them to go in person,” Turner said. “But I don’t ever want to put the teachers’ lives at risk or the students’.”

The families who feel most safe returning to school are white families, the survey results show. Only 10% of white students would prefer virtual learning, according to the results, while 34% of African American students, 31% of Hispanic students, and 29% of Asian students would.

Superintendent Susana Cordova said last week that the survey results shifted toward the end of the survey window, which closed July 10. As coronavirus cases in Denver rose in July, so did the number of families indicating they preferred virtual learning, she said.

Cordova announced Friday that all Denver students would start the year remotely on Aug. 24. If virus numbers fall, those who want in-person instruction would gradually return to school buildings, with safety precautions in place — but not before Sept. 8, she said.

While the previous survey was non-binding, the district will soon ask families to make a choice for real. Registration for the 2020-21 school year begins July 27, and families will be asked to choose whether they want to enroll their children in the 100% virtual option or not.

One barrier to internet access has fallen, but Colorado education leaders say the divide remains too large

2020-07-15T23:06:35+00:00

Despite significant efforts to close the digital divide, Colorado education leaders say that tens of thousands of students lack reliable internet access as districts prepare for an uncertain fall semester.

While more Colorado students have tablets and laptops than when the pandemic started, internet access seems to have gotten worse as families grapple with economic challenges.

“While the device needs, our intelligence suggests, has gone down, the internet connectivity issues seem to have gone up,” Colorado Education Initiative CEO Rebecca Holmes said at a Denver Public Schools briefing Wednesday.

Leaders are calling for legislative action to close the gap, saying that districts providing mobile hotspots can’t get the job done alone.

“We think it is important that we have not just a district effort but a legislative effort to fix this,” Denver Superintendent Susana Cordova said. “And to make sure this is something that becomes a utility. Just like Xcel, just like Denver Water, just like trash pick-up, the internet should be open and available to all of our families.”

Meanwhile, internet provider Comcast announced it was extending an offer that has given some new customers free internet during the pandemic until the end of December, and changed an application question that many said was keeping undocumented families from signing up.

For months, it’s been clear that the state’s digital divide poses a big challenge for students trying to learn remotely. In April, approximately 53,000 students did not have access to devices, a needs assessment conducted by the Colorado Education Initiative found, and approximately 66,000 students did not have access to the internet.

These numbers have likely significantly decreased, as districts have used emergency funds, relief dollars, and philanthropy to buy devices. But new needs have emerged, especially for technology repair, said Holmes.

In Denver, Cordova said the district has enough devices for all of its students, but approximately 7% lack reliable broadband internet. While the district is planning to resume class in person five days a week this fall, it is also planning an all-online option for students — and, officials say, they want to be prepared in case virus cases continue to spike or outbreaks send students home intermittently.

The district is also considering pushing the start of the school year back one week, which would allow more time to check in with each student and ensure their devices and internet are working.

It’s possible that a tweak to Comcast’s application for its Internet Essentials program will lower one hurdle to getting all families connected. The application asks for a Social Security number, then gives an option to select one of any 30 different alternative forms of identification, including a school ID card or utility bill. Undocumented families have said they fear checking that box.

The application now includes additional language. “Next, we need to verify your identity using your birthday and your Social Security number or an alternate ID. We won’t share it, and we won’t perform a credit check,” it says.

After December, the service will resume its $9.95 monthly charge. Comcast said Wednesday that it will also continue waiving its requirement that customers must pay a past-due bill to qualify.

Comcast reaches communities along I-25 and I-70, including Denver, Aurora, Boulder, Longmont, Vail, Aspen, and Colorado Springs.

Correction: This story has been updated to specify that Comcast is extending its offer of free access to its Internet Essentials program, rather than the program itself.

Denver releases progress report on steps to better serve Black students

2020-07-13T21:46:01+00:00

To improve education for Black students, Denver schools will be required to take a close look at their racial gaps: Are Black students overrepresented in special education? Underrepresented in gifted education programs? If so, why — and how will the school address it?

The district now requires these “student data audits” as part of the strategic plans school leaders write each year. The audits were created in response to a mandate from the Denver school board to better serve Black students.

That mandate — known as the Black Excellence Resolution — represents an effort to follow through on the recommendations of a series of studies and task forces over the years that identify persistent unequal treatment of the district’s Black students. At stake: the educational prospects of Denver students who, under the current system, are more likely to be disciplined and less likely to graduate on time than are their white peers.

A recent progress report lays out what steps the district has taken so far, including requiring the student data audits. Some community members are impatient and want the district to do more, faster. District officials say meaningful change in an institution as large as Denver Public Schools takes time, but they are committed to seeing it through.

“This is a very tremendous first step, but not the last,” board Vice President Jennifer Bacon said of the recent progress. “We have a lot of work to do on not only implicit bias, but explicit.”

About 13% of Denver students are Black. A report commissioned by the district in 2016 renewed a focus on inequitable treatment. In 2017, a task force came up with recommendations to address disparities. And in 2019, the school board passed the resolution, cementing the importance of improving how Denver serves its 12,000 Black students.

Though the district has diverse leaders and names equity as a core value, Bacon said these problems have gone unsolved, in part, because most district employees believe they’re already doing the work. It’s a conundrum she refers to as “unchecked liberalism.”

“I’m grateful we don’t have to have conversations that racism is real,” Bacon said, “but we have work to do to check ourselves to see if we’re living up to the expectations we set.”

Former Denver educator Vernon Jones has been critical of the district’s approach.

“If we keep saying we’re an equity district, then we want to see it,” he said — and in ways that are not just cosmetic. “We want to see it in outcomes,” said Jones, who works for FaithBridge, a nonprofit that mobilizes faith leaders to advocate on education issues.

For example, Jones said: Are more Black students reading on grade level? Have math scores gone up? Are Black students still more likely to be identified as needing special education?

“People are tired of just waiting for the right things to be done,” he said.

The work of responding to the resolution and task force recommendations falls to a nine-person team that Bacon and others said needs more support. In addition to limited capacity, the team has pointed to tangible barriers, including a district philosophy of decentralization that allows schools to opt out of certain curriculum or staff training if school leaders prefer an alternative.

Team members, some of whom are Denver Public Schools graduates themselves, said they’re optimistic about the progress thus far and realistic about the work ahead.

“The systems in place have taken decades of buildup,” said Danielle Harris, who oversees culturally responsive education. “We can’t break it down in one day or one bias training.”

Here are some of the steps the district has taken, according to the progress report:

* Launched mandatory implicit bias training for about 1,200 employees who work in the district’s central office, plus another 100 who opted in. The nine-month training, called the Equity Experience, consists of nine modules that employees complete on their own time.

The resolution requires all district employees to be trained on implicit bias, which refers to the unconscious attitudes or stereotypes that people hold. But instead of making the training mandatory for all 15,000 employees at once, the district is taking a phased approach. This fall, principals and other administrators will start the training.

* Committed to taking a hard look at the culture of the district’s central office with help from a Harvard Graduate School of Education program aimed at disrupting racism.

The resolution says the central office will review how it can prioritize Black student success.

* Continued efforts to recruit more Black teachers. For the first time this year, recruiters are conducting phone interviews with every candidate of color who applies to be a teacher.

The task force recommended the district find ways to attract and retain Black teachers. Past efforts have not substantially increased the number; most Denver teachers are white.

* Launched a student mentorship program called the African American Success Network. It began with 30 students who were paired with Black professionals to discuss career aspirations.

The task force recommended the district develop a plan to increase Black students’ access to “high-value learning opportunities,” such as student leadership and magnet programs.

* Created the African American Parent and Family Institute, which hosted in-person events honoring Black student activists and Black literature this past school year, as well as virtual listening sessions with Black families during remote learning.

The task force recommended the district create Black family councils to give voice to the goals, needs, and concerns of Black families, as well as to empower them.

* Begun continually reviewing curriculum to ensure it is culturally relevant. About two-thirds of Denver students are Black or Hispanic. Students and educators have raised concerns that the district’s history curriculum, for example, focuses too much on white stories.

The task force recommended the district ensure its curriculum is responsive to Black students.

The progress report also cites some recent accomplishments, including increased participation by Black high school students in college-level courses and career apprenticeships. Through grants and fundraising, the district also secured $101,500 for a summer program that aims to provide 50 boys of color with “meaningful remote work experiences.”

Black students in Denver are much more likely to be ticketed or arrested at school

2020-06-11T00:52:41+00:00

As Denver school board members make their case for removing police from schools, elected officials and advocates are pointing to strong data that shows Denver’s Black students are disproportionately funneled into the criminal justice system through tickets and arrests at school.

Removing police would lessen the likelihood that students of color end up with a criminal record, supporters say. Equally important, they say, is ensuring students of color feel safe at school given the long history of police brutality against Black men and women.

“What we are trying to address is to help our students not have to continue to internalize that they need to be closely monitored by law enforcement,” said school board Vice President Jennifer Bacon — and “that in an instant, their life may not matter.”

Bacon and fellow board member Tay Anderson announced Friday their plans to propose a resolution that would end Denver Public Schools’ contract with the Denver Police Department to provide school resource officers to work on 18 middle and high school campuses.

The full school board is set to vote Thursday, a quick turnaround that highlights the pressure to address this issue. Denver is verging on a third week of protests sparked by the police killing in Minneapolis of George Floyd, an unarmed black man. The call to remove police from schools is gaining traction nationwide. Locally, other Colorado districts are considering it, too.

“What we saw over the last couple of weeks was our community being very loud and clear and saying, ‘This is the time in which we need to talk about this,’” Bacon said.

A pattern of disproportionality

The data is clear that Black students have disproportionate contact with police at school.

In the 2018-19 school year, the most recent year for which state data is available, Denver Public Schools reported 657 law enforcement referrals, or instances in which an educator called the police or asked a school resource officer to step in. Nearly a third of those instances, 29%, involved Black students. But only 13% of Denver students are Black.

The same pattern exists for Denver students ticketed or arrested by police at school. One in four tickets or arrests in 2018-19 involved Black students, even though only about one in seven students are Black, according to Colorado Department of Criminal Justice data.

That disproportionality does not exist for white or Hispanic students. White students are far less likely than either Black or Hispanic students to be arrested or ticketed.

News articles from 1998, when Denver won a federal grant to hire police as school resource officers, show some school board members expressed concerns about it, at least initially. Bennie Milliner, the only Black member at the time, said he worried students of color might be singled out by police.

“There’s still that tension that exists and will continue to exist,” he said in 1998.

Twenty-two years later, the resolution now on the table says that “to fulfill its responsibility for undoing the systemic racism that Black children and children of color face,” the school board should direct the superintendent to remove all police from schools by June 4, 2021.

Originally, Anderson and Bacon said they wanted police out of schools by Dec. 31. But the final resolution, posted publicly Wednesday afternoon, calls for reducing the number of school resource officers by 25% by Dec. 31, which would eliminate at least four officers.

The resolution also directs the superintendent to “redefine school safety” in Denver Public Schools and clarify the role that law enforcement should play. It says the superintendent and community members should craft a district policy that ensures students will no longer be ticketed, arrested, or referred to law enforcement “unless there are no other available alternatives for addressing imminent threats of serious harm.”

The resolution has support from a majority of the seven school board members. But opponents argue that without school resource officers, who are specially trained to work with youth, the problems the board hopes to eradicate could get worse.

“You take the school resource officers out of DPS and the schools are still going to call [the police] and they’re going to have somebody responding to the school who then might not have that training,” said Stacey Collis, a retired school resource officer from suburban Lakewood and past president of the Colorado Association of School Resource Officers.

“They’re going to see even greater problems than they think they have with the SRO.”

More tickets at schools with SROs

But state data indicates the presence of a school resource officer might increase the likelihood that a student is ticketed or arrested. In Denver, 52% of the arrests and tickets issued in the four school years from 2015-16 to 2018-19 happened at the fewer than 20 schools with school resource officers, according to data crunched by the advocacy organization Padres & Jóvenes Unidos.

“There are many ways in which our public institutions regularly harm our children and youth, but there may be no better of an example of this ... than over-policing our students,” said Elsa Bañuelos, executive director of Padres & Jóvenes Unidos.

Denver Public Schools already has a progressive inter-governmental agreement with the Denver Police Department that says officers should focus on de-escalating incidents and differentiate between discipline problems and crimes. That disparities persist is evidence that the school resource officer program must end, supporters of the resolution say.

Police are much more likely to issue a summons than arrest a student. In 2018-19, there were 679 tickets issued to Denver students and 65 arrests, according to state data. Most of the incidents involved marijuana, assault, and fighting or disorderly conduct. But even a ticket can lead to bigger legal issues if a student doesn’t pay their fine or misses a court date.

Denver Public Schools has its own force of more than 100 armed and unarmed campus security officers who don’t issue tickets or make arrests. The resolution would not remove them.

Chief of Safety Mike Eaton, who oversees the security officers, said he doesn’t think the district should remove school resource officers, who he said work closely with campus security officers. Rather, he said the district should revise what school policing looks like, with particular attention paid to “how do we end systemic racism in that approach.”

He noted that principals help select school resource officers for their schools, and they have chosen officers who reflect the student body. Eight of the current school resource officers are Hispanic, seven are Black, and two are white, he said. One position is vacant.

About 54% of Denver’s 92,000 students are Hispanic, 13% are Black, and 25% are white.

‘A red light in our minds’

Superintendent Susana Cordova said she has heard from school principals about the positive relationships school resource officers develop with students.

“They use words like ‘trust,’ ‘connection,’ ‘role model,’” Cordova said Friday at a press conference. That input is important, she said, and the district must balance “the desperate need for safety resources” with students’ mental health needs.

Research on whether school resource officers make schools safer is limited — and mixed. But studies show most Black students do not feel safer in the presence of police. Studies have also found that adding police to schools can lead to declines in high school graduation rates.

Chalkbeat asked several principals at schools with school resource officers to comment for this story. Most did not respond. Amy Bringedahl, principal at Northfield High School, wrote in an email, “All I will say is that our SRO is a strong Black leader/role model in our school. He has relationships with many students and is often their ‘trusted adult’ in the building.”

Veda Miles, an incoming senior at Northfield High, said she and her classmates have a good relationship with the police officer assigned to their school.

“It shows that not all cops are bad cops,” said Miles, 16. “The one we have is a good cop.”

Still, Miles, who is white, said she’s in favor of ending the school resource officer program.

“I think it’ll help students of color feel more safe there knowing that the police who tend to mistreat them are not going to be involved with our schools,” said Miles, who helped organize a student-led Black Lives Matter protest in downtown Denver Sunday.

Hola Maka, who will be a sophomore at Northfield this fall, agrees. Maka, 14, identifies as Pacific Islander. She also helped organize the protest, which drew a crowd of thousands.

“It can be intimidating to walk on campus and see a bunch of cop cars,” Maka said. “It can set off a red light in our minds. … I’d like for my school to be a second home for students. I don’t know if having lots of security and lots of police on campus would help create that same image.”

Colorado’s K-12 budget: Does COVID-19 suddenly make the unpalatable possible?

2020-05-21T02:54:03+00:00

The prospect of school budget cuts the likes of which have not been seen since the Great Recession is reigniting longstanding debates about the way Colorado funds K-12 education.

As of Wednesday evening, lawmakers on the Joint Budget Committee still had more than $1 billion to go toward filling a $3.3 billion hole caused by the economic impacts of the coronavirus. They’ve already made deep reductions to higher education, transportation, human services, and other departments and walked back a 2018 deal to shore up the state pension system in which most teachers participate.

They saved the cuts to K-12 for the very end of the budget process.

Colorado’s school finance formula directs more money to well-off school districts with high cost of living than to districts serving large numbers of children in poverty, and voter-approved local property taxes exacerbate inequities between districts.

Meanwhile, the legislature’s go-to mechanism for cutting school funding to balance the budget — an across-the-board cut to per-pupil funding — hits rural districts harder than others. Rural districts get more money per student to make up for their small size, but that means each percentage-point reduction costs them more money.

“Depending on the magnitude of necessary reductions, some school districts and charter schools may struggle to continue core operations” if changes aren’t made, analysts warned in a memo laying out options for lawmakers.

The crisis has some education advocates calling on lawmakers to make changes that had previously been politically unpalatable.

Proponents of change often hear “now is not the time,” said Leslie Colwell of the Colorado Children’s Campaign. “And we heard that when times were good. When is the time then? This feels like it has to be the time.”

In a letter sent Wednesday and signed by nearly three dozen school districts and community groups, the Colorado Children’s Campaign called on lawmakers to not reward districts that have high costs of living or that draw extra revenue from local taxes. Both ideas have been discussed on special committees in recent years, but in the face of political opposition, legislation has not moved forward.

The cost-of-living factor is worth almost 20% of the $4.4 billion the state spends on base funding and accounts for three times the amount spent on students in poverty. Local property tax overrides, meanwhile, add up to $1.4 billion statewide. These tax increases, approved by voters, were always intended to supplement state funding, not replace it.

The letter acknowledges this but argues that “extraordinary times” call for a new approach, even if it’s temporary.

“We believe the legislature should play a role in supporting communities that struggle to find adequate funding to meet student needs because of low property wealth and/or inability to raise local funds through mill levy overrides,” the letter says.

Notably absent from the signatures: groups like the Colorado Association of School Boards and the Colorado Rural Alliance that represent school district interests.

Michelle Murphy of the Rural Alliance said the proposed solutions create winners and losers even among rural districts. There isn’t time in an abbreviated legislative session focused on emergency measures to fully understand the impact, she said. The Rural Alliance is instead calling for dedicated funding for rural schools to offset across-the-board cuts.

Similarly, Matt Cook of the Colorado Association of School Boards said his members would be “a little concerned about trying to manipulate the factors.” Even in the best of times, no school district thinks it has enough money.

“Right now, we would encourage them as much as they can to continue to fund the total program,” he said.

The letter also called on the legislature to impose an emergency tax, which would require a two-thirds majority, an idea that the school board association and many other groups support.

It’s not clear just how deep the cuts to K-12 education will go. Colorado’s constitution requires that school funding go up by a rate equal to population plus inflation each year, but to meet other budget needs, lawmakers hold back some school money every year. This amount, known as the budget stabilization factor, has totaled more than $8 billion over the last decade; this year it was $572 million.

Legislative analyst Craig Harper told lawmakers they could hold back as much as $1.17 billion for 2020-21 without violating requirements to maintain school funding as a condition of receiving federal aid.

“My heart skips a beat when I see a $1.17 billion budget stabilization factor,” said state Rep. Julie McCluskie, a Dillon Democrat and member of the budget committee. “I can’t imagine increasing it that much.”

Committee members have already clawed back money from dozens of grant programs, including $60 million from a fund intended to support construction projects in cash-strapped districts. But it’s not enough yet. Education takes up 36% of Colorado’s general fund, and economic forecasts predict the general fund will be 25% smaller next year than this year.

Complicating the discussion is $510 million in federal coronavirus relief money that Gov. Jared Polis gave to K-12 schools in an executive order on Monday. That money can’t be used to balance the budget and comes with restrictions that it must be used by the end of the calendar year for needs associated with the pandemic. But many school districts fear it will leave lawmakers with a cleaner conscious about deeper cuts. However, the federal money is one-time funds, and districts worry state funding won’t recover for years to come.

Harper laid out a number of what he called “break the glass” options to reduce overall school funding without making across-the-board cuts. Those include:

Reducing funding for full-day kindergarten, which was approved just last year, for preschool, or for high school students staying for a fifth year and taking college courses. Kindergarten alone is expected to cost $220 million next year, while maintaining existing preschool spots would cost another $124 million.
Changing factors in the school finance formula. The cost-of-living factor accounts for more than $850 million a year, while students living in poverty account for just $254 million. Reducing the cost-of-living factor just 5% would save the state $68.7 million.
Accounting for local property tax increases in deciding district funding. Once per-pupil funding is set at a certain point, the state backfills whatever amount isn’t generated by districts’ base property taxes. But due to the complicated intersection of constitutional provisions, districts have wildly different base tax rates. Some wealthy districts have low base property taxes, get generous state subsidies, and then collect additional taxes on top of that, while some less wealthy districts have high property tax rates, get low state subsidies, and cannot persuade voters to approve additional taxes.

Reflecting how controversial these ideas are, Harper suggested lawmakers “silence their cellphones” before he presented them this week. Nonetheless, he said he felt an obligation to provide options that would steer cuts away from the neediest students. A legislative analysis found that districts that benefit from the cost-of-living factor often are the same districts that have tax overrides. That means they have local revenue to offset cuts from the state.

Joint Budget Committee members must set the size of the cut to education this week. The rest of the General Assembly will take up the budget next week. That’s also where these ideas will need to gain traction if they’re going to pass.

State Sen. Paul Lundeen, a Monument Republican and longtime advocate for school finance changes, said he’s hopeful there’s an opening for a new conversation.

“We got to a point where we said we needed a paradigm shift,” he said of the previous efforts. “The absence of money has shifted the paradigm.”

‘This is stressful:’ Snapshots of remote learning from parents of children with disabilities

2020-05-20T20:16:12+00:00

Little changed for Nick Skeers when learning went remote in March. Born with a connective tissue disorder that makes his heart and lungs fragile, the 10-year-old fourth-grader has always done school at home. Now instead of his teacher sitting in his kitchen, she’s on the computer.

For another 10-year-old boy, 20 miles away, everything changed. Millie Segura’s son has autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. In school, he’s in a fourth-grade classroom learning alongside peers without disabilities. At home with his parents and a seemingly endless scroll of video instructions and links, Segura said her son struggles to focus.

“He pouts, he cries, he says, ‘No, this is boring! I’m not going to do it!’” said Segura, who didn’t want to use her son’s name in this story. “If we don’t have a teacher right in front of our children, making sure they are engaging, as parents, there is very little we can do.”

The two boys provide a snapshot of the disparate experiences Colorado students with disabilities have had with remote learning. Some students with special needs have done just fine — or even thrived as the technology they use to learn, once unfamiliar to most educators, has become indispensable.

But for far more students with disabilities, remote learning has been a challenge.

School districts must still provide students with special education services even though buildings are closed to in-person learning. In many cases, however, schools aren’t able to provide all the services guaranteed in students’ individualized learning programs, or IEPs. And not all students have equal access to remote learning. Districts are already discussing whether they’ll have to make up lost services over the summer or next year.

As summer school goes virtual, and many Denver metro area districts plan for a mix of in-person and remote learning in the fall, parents of students with special needs worry.

They worry that without the structure of school, the expertise of special educators, and the vital services provided by school therapists, the escalating behaviors they’re seeing will continue. They worry that their child used to be able to add double-digit numbers, but now cannot. They worry both about protecting their family from the virus, and preserving their mental health.

“I want for the school year to be over so my son can have a break,” said Segura, whose son suffers from seizures that worsen under stress. “He’s very stressed out, and so are we.”

We asked parents of students with special needs in the metro area how their children have been served during remote learning. Here are some of their stories.

‘The learning will come next year’

Seventeen-year-old Daniel spends much of his day tinkering with an old Subaru behind his house. Auto mechanics was his favorite class in school. Now that his classes are online, he checks in but is done after five minutes, said his mother, Cristina Gomez.

“He does the five minutes he has to be meeting with the teacher,” Gomez said. “After that, he thinks he’s finished. I say, ‘You need to still be working. Your assignments.’ It just doesn’t happen. … I haven’t seen that much motivation.”

Daniel had a brain tumor when he was a baby. Now a teenager, he has epilepsy, dyslexia, and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Reading and writing are difficult for him, his mother said, and he can get frustrated trying to follow multistep directions.

Gomez has always been a fierce advocate for her son to get the services he needs in school. But with the coronavirus, she said her main goal is making sure her family stays healthy.

“My expectations for learning are very low right now,” Gomez said. “I think if they were higher, it would be hard to meet them … The learning will come next year.”

‘There’s no social stigma’

A visual disability meant Sarah Young’s eighth-grade daughter learned early on to use technology. In school, the girl’s classroom was outfitted with a large computer monitor so she could “blow up” her lessons. Even so, most of the work her teachers assigned was on paper. Young would have to ask them to print a single, enlarged math problem per page.

All of it made Young’s daughter self-conscious. But now that school has gone remote, Young said the teenager can use her giant computer screen at home without worrying.

“Everything is, in a lot of ways, more accessible to her,” said Young, who asked that her daughter’s name not be used in this story. “There’s no social stigma with using her screen.”

Algebra, with its lines and graphs, has been particularly tricky for Young’s daughter, who has trouble with visual processing. But the teacher’s recorded lessons have been a game changer, Young said. Her daughter can pause or rewind the video if she doesn’t understand.

“If she gets a 30-minute lecture in class, at the end of the 30 minutes, she maybe got 10% of it,” Young said. “Then she’s lost for the rest of the week. Now she gets maybe 80% of it.”

Recently, her teacher made a mistake in one of her demonstrations. The teacher asked if any students caught it. Young’s daughter was able to say yes.

“She was so proud,” Young said.

Daniel Llamas works on his father’s truck. He’s also been fixing up a Subaru during remote learning.

‘I am not a teacher’

With just a couple weeks of school to go before summer break, Xiomara Blanco said she had finally found a working routine with her two children, including 11-year-old Julio, who has Down syndrome. But at first, Blanco, whose primary language is Spanish, said that helping her kids while trying to understand their schoolwork in English was almost too much.

On top of that, Julio has been biting his nails and having trouble sleeping, and it’s caused some downstairs neighbors in her apartment building to complain. Blanco often goes to bed at 1 a.m. and wakes up at 3 a.m. worrying about Julio’s health and checking whether he’s asleep.

“With all of these worries, I suddenly started to feel sick,” Blanco said.

So much so that Blanco started teaching her first grader how to dial 911 in case of an emergency, but she said she stopped and realized she just needed to adjust her expectations.

“I had to understand I was going to keep putting in my best effort, but I am not a teacher,” Blanco said. “I am not a speech language therapist.”

Now Blanco has shifted her focus to wellness. Her first grade daughter’s physical education teacher began sending her class daily workout videos, and Blanco has taken the opportunity to make it a family activity. It has benefitted Julio the most, she said.

“It’s really helped his anxiety,” Blanco said.

One day, Julio found his sister’s pink headband and used it to dress up like the physical education teacher. Blanco recorded a video and sent it to the school.

‘He’s been allowed to check out’

For Jodie Buczak, the constant communication from her kids’ schools is overwhelming. Especially stressful are the messages about her seventh grade son Chris, who has autism: He didn’t turn in an assignment. He typed an inappropriate comment in his class chat.

“It’s like, ‘Can you get him to do social studies?’” Buczak said. “I’m like, ‘He can’t stand that class.’” She wants her son to participate, but “I don’t want everything to become a fight.”

Because of his autism, Chris’ thinking is very compartmentalized, Buczak said: At school, he does schoolwork. At home, he does not. It’s been hard to get him to learn remotely.

“I feel like I’m fighting brain chemistry with Chris,” said Buczak, who has two other children as well. “How do I grow Chris’ attention when he didn’t have a ton of it before?”

So she’s doing the best she can. Rather than hover over him and risk a confrontation, she slyly listens “to make sure I can hear the sounds of his classroom.” She makes sure Chris goes out for a daily walk and goes to bed at the same time as always.

But to her knowledge, he’s not completing his weekly classwork.

“He’s been allowed to check out,” Buczek said.

She said she asked Chris’ teachers whether she should hold him back a year. But Buczek said she was told that would do more harm than good, an answer she accepted.

“I don’t like to fight with the school because it’s like, ‘Where am I going to send him?’”

‘We have to survive this the best we can’

The first time Olivia Posthumus logged on to Zoom and saw her friends and teachers — and met their dogs and cats — she was elated. “It’s a good thing you could put it on mute because she’d just laugh,” said her mother Jeanne Posthumus. “But that wore off after about a week.”

Now Olivia, who has Down syndrome and another rare genetic condition, struggles to keep up her stamina as she’s “bombarded with all this screen time,” her mother said. In addition to schoolwork, the eighth grader does virtual sessions with a special education teacher, a paraprofessional, a speech therapist, and a school psychologist.

In school, Olivia is invigorated by her classmates’ energy. At home, she tires easily.

“She works hard in 20-minute increments and then needs a rest,” said her mother. It all depends on the day. “Some days, she does 75% of what we’ve got planned for her. Other days, we’re lucky to get 25%. You hope at the end of the week, it all evens out.”

Although Olivia has been well supported by her teachers, remote learning is far from ideal, her mother said. There have been funny moments, like when Olivia told Alexa to play the “Hamilton” soundtrack while her brother was on a class call. And there have been worrisome ones; whereas Olivia could add and subtract double-digit numbers before, that skill has now slipped.

While most students are likely to be behind next year, such setbacks can be particularly challenging for students with disabilities, whose skills are often hard won.

“This is stressful on everyone, but when you have a child with disabilities, it takes the stress level way up,” Jeanne Posthumus said. “It’s like we have to survive this the best we can.”

Reporter Yesenia Robles contributed to this story.

Nick Skeers participates in remote learning with his teacher (on the computer screen) and his mom Kim Skeers.

Wi-Fi holdup: Social Security question still a barrier, Colorado teachers say

2020-04-29T21:03:14+00:00

Two weeks after Colorado teachers unions and faith leaders called on Comcast to reduce internet barriers to online schooling, the service provider has extended the deadline by which low-income families must sign up for a free internet program.

But union leaders said Comcast has not addressed another issue that is discouraging some families from signing up: asking for a Social Security number. If an applicant doesn’t have one, they can check a box that says, “I don’t have a Social Security number.”

Undocumented families are afraid to do that, educators said. Families are worried the information could be shared with federal immigration authorities, despite the company ensuring union leaders it would not be, said Tiffany Choi, president of the Denver teachers union.

Comcast provided a statement that does not address the issue directly. In the last nine years, a company spokesperson said, Comcast has connected more than 300,000 low-income Coloradans to the internet through its Internet Essentials program.

“We’ve made continuous enhancements and expansions to eligibility during that time, and continue to do so as more individuals and families are dependent upon home internet access for school and work,” spokesperson Leslie Oliver said.

Comcast allows applicants without a Social Security number to submit more than two dozen other types of identification to sign up for Internet Essentials, which is available to families eligible for programs such as free school lunch and Medicaid. Due to the coronavirus pandemic, Comcast is offering two months of service for free. It is usually $10 per month.

Originally, the free internet was available to families who signed up by mid-May. Comcast has extended the deadline to June 30, a step praised by Coloradans for the Common Good, the coalition of labor union and faith leaders that pushed for the change.

But the leaders would also like Comcast to reconfigure its application. Instead of asking applicants to disclose that they don’t have a Social Security number, leaders would like the company to provide a list of acceptable identification and allow applicants to choose one.

Martha Teklehaimanot teaches second grade to Denver students whose native language is Spanish. Although Denver Public Schools transitioned to remote learning on April 7, she said three of her students haven’t been participating because they don’t have the internet at home.

Two-thirds of the 54,000 school-age children who lack internet access in Colorado are Hispanic, according to a recent study by the Colorado State University Futures Center.

The families of two of Teklehaimanot’s students attempted to sign up for Internet Essentials but were scared off by the Social Security number question, she said. Though she’s able to connect with those students by phone and text message, Teklehaimanot said they are falling behind.

“This situation has created a huge dilemma for our students,” she said.

The coalition also called on other internet service providers — including CenturyLink, T-Mobile, and Cricket — to follow Comcast’s lead and set up free internet programs of their own.

The pandemic has been hard on students like me. It’s time to boost mental health support in schools.

2020-04-29T16:35:48+00:00

My name is Amelia Federico, I’m a senior at DSST: Byers High School in Denver, and, like many of you, my life has been turned upside down by the COVID-19 pandemic.

I was hanging out with some friends after school on March 12 when I received the message that we wouldn’t have school again until April 6. At that time, I was honestly excited for a break. As a senior in high school, I was dealing with preparing for AP tests, making decisions about my future, and participating in clubs and extracurriculars. Trying to balance all of that comes with a lot of stress and anxiety. In fact, many students live in a world of consistent pressure and anxiety, which is undoubtedly a factor contributing to the relatively high suicide rates among Colorado teens.

Those three weeks turned out to be much more difficult than I anticipated. But I told myself that I could mentally do three weeks.

The reality now, of schools closed for the rest of my senior year, is even tougher. After 12 years of being a Denver Public Schools student, instead of being in a familiar classroom, surrounded by the community I love for my last class, I will be alone in my living room, saddened to miss the milestones others associate with the end of high school.

Along with processing all of that, I am dealing with the new pressure of supporting my family as best I can. My mom is a single mom, out of work due to the pandemic, and solely responsible for keeping food on the table, a roof over our head, and making sure we are all healthy. I see her stress and anxiety, and it makes me feel helpless. I know I am not the only young person having this experience right now. In Denver, 64% of the district’s students receive free or reduced price lunch, and I’m sure many of those families are experiencing struggles similar to ours. That means thousands of students across the city are experiencing more stress, anxiety, and uncertainty than ever before.

On a positive note, the pandemic has elevated the importance of mental health. Just this week in a survey released by the Colorado Department of Education and the Colorado Education Initiative, district leaders identified emotional support as the top priority for schools across the state. Young people have been pushing this conversation for a long time, and adults are finally catching up.

Adult leaders could learn much from students in conversations about what adequate mental health support looks like during this time and in the future. I know, because over the last two years I have been in constant conversation with other students through my work at Our Turn. Our Turn is a grassroots advocacy organization that helps young people push for policy changes in their school districts.

In 2017, students and community members I work with identified mental health as a core issue. And since then, we’ve been urging Denver Public Schools to ensure that all schools staff at least one full-time mental health counselor, that those counselors reflect the identity of the students they work with, and that all school staff receive trauma-informed training each school year.

These kinds of support are more important than ever. I am worried that, in the fall, students will be expected to go back to school just like normal — the same way we were expected to transition to online learning, even though we weren’t involved in the development of remote learning plans.

Young people deserve to have their voices heard and their years of leadership honored. If we had been heard before this crisis, maybe in addition to having access to math and science online, students would also be able to meet with school-based mental health staff.

In these unprecedented times, I’m watching people come together in meaningful ways. I hope one of the new ways we come together in Denver and Colorado is for teachers, principals, and parents to join students in their call for more mental health support.

Amelia Federico is a senior at DSST: Byers High School in Denver.

With virtual school, this Colorado school psychologist witnessed a student’s transformation

2020-04-27T19:42:02+00:00

After coronavirus sidelined in-person learning this spring, school psychologist Brittany Greiert discovered a new side to a normally reserved boy she’d worked with for years.

He was open and funny during their online chats, quick to share his ideas and fill her in on his academic accomplishments.

“I have learned a whole new way to connect with one of my students,” said Greiert, who works at Boston P-8 School in Aurora.

Now, she plans to use such tech-based strategies even when face-to-face learning resumes.

Greiert, who was recently named School Psychologist of the Year by the Colorado Society of School Psychologists, talked with Chalkbeat about her pivot to remote learning, her efforts to track down hard-to-reach students, and the advice she has for children and adults.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Why did you become a school psychologist?

I always knew that I wanted to be a psychologist, but it wasn’t until I was volunteering at a suicide hotline that I knew that school psychology was the path for me. I spoke to a lot of youth callers, and I was always shocked to hear how many young people didn’t feel that they had anyone they could talk to during their dark moments.

Tell us how you’re doing your job remotely since schools closed because of the pandemic.

I am a member of the administrative team, the mental health team, and the special education team. I have approximately 30 students on my special education caseload whom I provide mental health services to during the school year. Remotely, I am doing video chats, phone calls, or messages on Google Hangouts with my students, and also reaching out to their families weekly to see how everyone is doing.

I have developed a specific home program for each of my students so that they can continue to work on their social emotional goals. I hold office hours daily so that anyone from our school community can reach out with mental health concerns. Additionally, I am on the district crisis team and have provided crisis counseling to students during the current school closure.

Is there any student on your special education caseload that you’ve had a hard time reaching or not been able to reach at all? How did you handle this?

Yes, there have been challenges with a few students, but we continue to problem solve with those families. We’ve tried various methods of contact such as texting through platforms such as TalkingPoints, which provides translation from English to other languages, making phone calls via Google Hangouts, and sending emails. We also collaborate with other staff members in the building who may have had contact with families. We’ve reached almost all of our families at this point.

Tell us about a recent interaction with a student or fellow staff member that gave you hope that we’ll get through this turmoil.

There is one student I have worked with for five years who receives special education services for an autism spectrum disorder. This student has always been rather reserved and it has been difficult to get him to open up and talk when I have worked with him individually or in small groups.

Since moving to remote learning, my check-ins with this student have been through the Google Hangouts chat function and I feel like I am talking with a whole new student. He is willing to share his thoughts, ideas, humor, and big personality through messaging. He messages me every day to tell me when he has finished his math or literacy lesson and tells me how proud he is of himself. I have had more in-depth conversations with this student remotely than I have ever had face-to-face.

When I recently did a video chat with this student he froze up and did not want to respond or speak on the video. Once I told him that he could use the chat function to type his responses to me, we have been able to talk through his worries, things he is looking forward to, and things he is proud of. I have seen him work incredibly hard to reach out and form social connections using technology. I am so excited to use some of the new technological resources once we are back to face-to-face learning to help my students feel confident and successful.

What advice would you give to students to help them cope during this period? What about parents?

For my students, I would tell them there is no right or wrong way to feel. There might be days you feel happy, bored, angry, sad, or overwhelmed and all of those feelings are OK to have. Think about things that have helped you feel better in the past — listening to music, drawing, writing in a journal, playing with a pet — and try using those coping skills when you’re having a hard time.

To parents I would say to give yourself grace, kindness, and love. There is a lot to navigate emotionally, physically, financially, educationally, and health-wise. Take everything one day at a time and know that we are all in this together.

What is the hardest part of your job since schools have closed this spring?

Special education has been incredibly difficult to navigate through remote learning. There are so many federal and state laws and district policies that were not written with a national or state shutdown in mind.

Questions are arising across Colorado and the nation about the validity of remote assessment when conducting special education evaluations, how timelines are impacted, how to provide equitable remote services to students with disabilities, how to provide compensatory services for missed services when school resumes. The list goes on and on.

You spend your days trying to help students and staff. How do you wind down after a stressful day — especially now?

I do not try to set lofty expectations of myself. I don’t expect to come out of this with a brand new workout routine, having learned a new language, or having read 20 new books. I try to take each day as it comes and cherish the little moments — whether that is taking a quiet walk with my dog or laughing with my family.

I have a 6-month-old daughter at home and I wasn’t expecting to get to spend so much time with her during her first year. I’ve been trying to pause and find ways to appreciate the rareness of a forced slowdown and to focus my energy and attention on parts of my life that I used to not notice, or let pass by in a whirlwind as I rushed to the next thing.

Remove internet barriers for undocumented families, Colorado teachers unions urge

2020-04-13T23:55:11+00:00

Colorado teachers unions and faith leaders are calling on internet provider Comcast to reduce barriers to internet access as schools struggle to reach all of their students with remote learning.

Several Denver principals last week said internet connectivity is one of their biggest challenges as the state’s largest district launched online learning. Around the metro area, suburban districts that have been doing remote learning for several weeks still can’t account for 10% to 15% of their students. The numbers are much higher for some schools. At least one high-poverty elementary school reported that fewer than half of its students have logged on.

Lack of internet access is likely one reason why. Partial results from a state survey found that at least 64,000 Colorado students don’t have internet access at home.

Comcast has made its low-cost program, called Internet Essentials, free for two months to families that qualify for programs such as food stamps or subsidized school lunches. But some families reported being denied service if they had outstanding bills with the internet provider.

Comcast has temporarily changed that rule, allowing for more access, but the teachers unions have identified another barrier: Undocumented families may not have the identification required to sign up for free internet service or may not feel comfortable providing it.

“We want to work with you to ensure equity of access for all of our students,” said a letter that the advocacy group Coloradans for the Common Good sent to Comcast executives Monday. “We hope to meet with you as soon as possible to discuss potential solutions.”

The letter was signed by faith leaders and the president of the Colorado Education Association, as well as the presidents of several local teachers unions, including Denver and Jefferson County.

Comcast did not respond to requests from Chalkbeat for comment.

To sign up for Internet Essentials, Comcast asks for a Social Security number. If a person doesn’t have one, Comcast instructs that person to take a picture of themselves holding their identification or to bring that identification to a company store.

Emilio Ramos, a social worker who works at two Denver elementary schools, said he’s heard from families where the parents are undocumented and don’t have a Social Security number.

He said parents are afraid that if they admit they’re undocumented and also provide their photo and personal information, that information could be flagged in Comcast’s system and shared with the government, making them a target for arrest or deportation.

“They’re scared,” Ramos said.

He’s also heard from families who were able to sign up but are now being told the wait time to get connected ranges from three to five weeks. One Denver elementary school principal told the school board she’d heard the same thing. Only six weeks of school remain.

As of Friday, Denver Public Schools officials said the district had distributed 700 internet hotspot devices to families. Documents show the district has purchased an additional 4,000 hotspot devices but not all of them have arrived yet.

The district estimates more than 7,000 of its 92,000 students don’t have internet access.

Denver school board President Carrie Olson, a former teacher, acknowledged at a board meeting Friday that internet connectivity has been a struggle.

“When I was sitting here, I got a text from one of my former students who’s a teacher … saying, ‘Where are the hotspots?’” Olson said. “We’re on that, and we understand that’s really something we’ll keep working on.”

Denver schools have provided families with a range of options for connecting to the internet, including maps of free mobile hotspots located around the city. But Ramos said accessing the mobile hotspots often requires a family to walk or drive to a parking lot and sit outside — which can be challenging on days that are too hot or cold, or when it’s snowing or raining.

He’s worried that unequal access to the internet and online learning will exacerbate the trauma experienced by students who are already struggling with hardships at home.

“We really want to make a routine for these kids as much as possible and some kind of normalcy,” Ramos said. For students living through trauma, he said, “school is that.”

How Denver families can donate unused school lunch money to feed those in need

2020-04-01T22:38:23+00:00

With schools closed for at least the next month, Denver families can donate unused lunch money already in their virtual accounts to provide meals to families in need.

The idea originated with a parent who contacted the Denver Public Schools Foundation to see how she could help. The parent, who wants to remain anonymous, mentioned that she had lunch money in her children’s “My School Bucks” account that they wouldn’t use while schools are closed to help stop the spread of the new coronavirus, the foundation said.

The foundation loved the idea. Now, other families can donate their unused lunch money by filling out this form.

The money goes to the foundation’s Food Security Fund, which has been paying for meals for adults in need during the week and on weekends. The adult meals are distributed at the same locations where the district is giving out free meals for children under 18.

The Food Security Fund was started in mid-March and has raised more than $500,000 from more than 1,100 donors, said Ashley Muramoto, communications director for the foundation, which supports Denver Public Schools. About two-thirds of the district’s 92,000 students are from low-income families.

Verónica Figoli, the president and CEO of the foundation, said she has already donated the lunch money from her two children’s accounts.

“It’s times like these where we must come together — whatever that may look like — to ensure we can make it across the finish line,” Figoli said in a statement.

Denver schools prepare for switch to online learning in two weeks

2020-03-24T01:50:40+00:00

Colorado’s largest school district is spending this week gearing up for online learning to start April 7, when students would have returned from spring break.

While other districts immediately rolled out online learning plans when they announced their initial closures earlier this month, Denver called its closure an extended spring break and said it would plan for remote learning if school closures extended longer than the original end of spring break. Last week, Colorado Gov. Jared Polis closed all schools statewide until at least April 17 and said it’s “increasingly unlikely” that in-person classes resume this school year.

Tamara Acevedo, deputy superintendent of academics for Denver Public Schools, said the district is trying to develop a plan that can serve all students.

“We’re working to create a plan that has equity as the primary focus,” she said.

Exactly what that will look like is still taking shape. District administrators are talking to counterparts in other districts with experience with online learning and with principals and teachers.

Denver administrators have been meeting virtually with principals and surveying parents about their access to internet and technology at home. The technology survey, available here, is open until noon Tuesday. Not all families have filled out the survey, and Acevedo said not all families will be able to.

“No information is still information,” she said.

The district has ordered 9,000 Chromebooks and plans to distribute those along with other laptops it has in its classrooms to families that don’t have laptops or tablets at home. The district serves 92,000 students. The district is encouraging families without internet to take advantage of free hotspots from Xfinity and also has mobile hotspots that it can make available to some families.

Wednesday through Friday, schools will distribute laptops to families that need them. Denver’s stay-at-home order, issued Monday by Mayor Michael Hancock, classifies educational institutions facilitating distance learning as an essential business that can continue to operate, provided people working there maintain a safe distance. It also allows school-based food distribution to continue.

Also this week: The district will hold virtual trainings with teachers to learn how to use online learning platforms and how to teach content online in an age-appropriate way. In accordance with Denver’s decentralized approach, school principals and even individual teachers will be able to choose whether to use district-developed materials and lesson plans or develop their own or use a hybrid approach.

Teachers will have another work day on Monday, April 6, to finalize plans.

Plans for how to best serve students with disabilities are “ongoing,” Acevedo said. New guidance issued Monday by the U.S. Department of Education said that districts have to make an effort to serve those students but should still move forward with distance learning plans even if they’re imperfect.

“We need schools to educate all students out of principle, rather than educate no students out of fear,” Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said in a statement.

Acevedo said the district is asking for patience in the weeks ahead.

“We have to be flexible in this new environment because remote learning has not been the major source by which we’ve done learning, as a nation,” she said. “It’s been great in terms of the outpouring from the community. Principals have been forwarding their thinking. Districts that have already done this have shared what they’ve done. But we’ll just need to continue to learn.”

IPads, packets, and hippopotamus poop: How Jeffco families navigated the first days of remote learning

2020-03-19T01:38:54+00:00

After watching an online video about hippopotamuses, Xiomara Blanco’s first grade daughter was assigned to record a video of herself explaining what she learned about the massive animal.

But with limited English, she hadn’t understood much of what she heard. With Mom’s attempt to translate, she did learn the weight of the hippopotamus’ poop.

But say that on camera? “I can’t talk about that,” the girl told her mom. “That’s inappropriate.”

That’s part of how the first day of remote learning went in Blanco’s household doing remote learning through Jeffco Public Schools.

Blanco also has a fifth grader with Down syndrome who required a lot of help. Lunch was at 2 p.m. instead of noon. And Blanco didn’t end up in bed until 1:30 a.m. She appreciates that the district is trying to continue educating students, and said she understands that it’s a big adjustment, but she worries about being capable of helping her children from home.

“My husband got home and told me to relax, take it easy,” Blanco said. “But the level of stress is very high.”

Late Wednesday, Gov. Jared Polis ordered all schools closed until April 17, extending previously announced closures in most school districts. The governor encouraged districts to continue student learning during that time.

Jeffco Public Schools, Colorado’s second-largest district with about 84,000 students, had the first and most ambitious remote learning plan among large districts in the state. Other districts have said they are working on plans for remote learning. After Wednesday’s news of the extended closure, it’s more likely many will have to roll one out. Jeffco parents, teachers, and district officials say learning from home can work, despite how difficult it might be to start.

In Jeffco, the district announced its plan on Thursday to do remote learning. By Friday, teachers were giving students practice runs through the software they’d be using, and making sure all students went home with a device. The district is also working to give out hotspots to students who have no other way to access the internet.

Monday was a planning day for teachers to get their lessons ready, and by Tuesday, the district was learning virtually.

“That’s a Herculean lift in itself,” said Jeffco Superintendent Jason Glass. “I’ve been really pleased and proud.”

The district was not able to provide initial attendance figures, but Glass said reports are that many schools, including those in higher poverty neighborhoods, had more than 90% of students engaged.

But that’s not to say there haven’t been challenges. Glass said the district is still working on reaching all students. He said the district will make it happen. For any students not able to receive services, “At some point we’re going to have to come back around and make up for it somehow.”

Blanco’s son, who has Down Syndrome, did receive a virtual speech therapy session on Tuesday, but as her son navigated using the platform, and after he gave his therapist a tour of his home, Blanco said she worried the therapy only lasted some 15 minutes.

Jessica Shymkiw, who has four high schoolers with autism, has yet to hear details about how her children will continue receiving services. And she has not been able to get one of her sons to do any work from home.

“He was already struggling in high school,” Shymkiw said. “Here at home he refuses to do any work. This is like his safe space for him from schoolwork.”

Mandy Babb also had a stressful day. By 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, she said that she was ready for a full glass of wine.

“It was just super stressful,” said Babb, the mother of two girls.

Babb has two daughters, one in second grade and one in sixth grade at Lumberg Elementary in Jeffco.

Tuesday the girls got to work by 9 a.m. They set up small desks in their mom’s home office and worked on their school-issued iPads. Babb, who is launching her own business, anticipated that she wouldn’t get much work done, and so spent the day making jewelry, between helping her daughters.

Babb’s second grader was “self-sufficient” and “cheerful.” She worked on a platform called Seesaw, which Babb said was intuitive and easy for her daughter to navigate. The sixth grader had more technical difficulties, working on Google Classroom, and dealing with an older iPad that kept disconnecting from the internet.

The pair also spent time off screens, working on packets teachers sent home with students.

Mandy Babb’s daughters work from home during Jeffco Public School’s first day doing remote learning.

The girls communicated with their teachers through a chat feature. Babb said when she was trying to help her older daughter reach her teacher to troubleshoot, a lot of students were filling the class channel with selfies.

Glass said the district did not mandate whether teachers should offer live lessons, virtual group work, or individual assignments.

“We want to allow room for a lot of experimentation,” Glass said. “What we’ve asked is for our professionals to step up and take it on and figure this out. If we had tried to say this is how it needs to go, it would have been much more difficult.”

Plus, he added: “I don’t think anyone knows how to do this at this scale, so you need your professionals sharing their learning. I know my staff is learning and getting better.”

Alicia Asmus, a sixth- and seventh-grade science teacher in Jeffco, said the day went smoothly, but noted that she’s trying to help her students ease into the changes.

She prepared a video of instructions for students to watch first thing in the morning, because “the personal connections are still important.” Then she had assignments for students due in the evening — per guidance from her school for students who may have problems getting internet access or who had to manage other responsibilities at home.

She spent much of the day fielding questions and technical problems from students. Things like, “Am I doing this right?” or “I can’t get this website to work.”

“There were not a whole lot of content questions, which is kind of what I was aiming for,” Asmus said. “I didn’t want them overwhelmed.”

Generally the remote learning for teachers has meant less classroom management, she said, but has required more conversations with students about their responsibility for doing their work.

“I definitely think other districts can do it,” Asmus said. “There are so many resources out there right now.”

Kallie Leyba, a first grade teacher who is president of the AFT Colorado union in Douglas County, said in a press conference on Tuesday that all districts need to try remote learning.

“Remote teaching and learning is not a substitute for daily classroom instruction,” Leyba said. “The value is elsewhere.”

“Educators across the metro area and the country are providing structure, predictability, safety and security and a sense of normalcy for students,” Leyba said. “The presence of their teachers in students’ lives is as valuable remotely during a pandemic as it is everyday in person.”

Babb and other Jeffco parents agreed, but some wondered if the virtual communication would prove enough as closures stretch on longer.

“We’ve never not had face-to-face contact with our teachers,” Babb said, “For my older daughter and personally, that was a big adjustment.”

MAPA: Lugares donde puedes recibir comida gratis para tus hijos, mientras están cerradas las escuelas

2020-03-18T19:40:00+00:00

Después del cierre de escuelas, los distritos escolares de Colorado han implementado planes para seguir alimentando a los miles de niños que dependen de las comidas escolares.

Las escuelas y los sitios comunitarios tendrán estaciones de autoservicio donde las personas pueden recoger un almuerzo y un desayuno para cada niño.

En algunos casos, los distritos escolares también distribuyen cajas de comida para toda la familia.

La Fundación de Escuelas Públicas de Denver también está recaudando fondos, aquí, para dar comida a los adultos y para repartir bolsas de comida para los fines de semana.

Si el cierre de las escuelas se prolonga más, la distribución de alimentos en la mayoría de los casos continuará también.

Sitios de distribución de comida en la área metropolitano de Denver

Horarios y tipos de alimento varia.

Instrucciones

Abra el mapa y haga clic sobre el botón de búsqueda.
Busque tu dirección de domicilio para encontrar un sitio cercano. Horarios y tipos de alimento varia.
Seleccione el sitio preferido y haga clic en el butón de direcciones.
Encuentre las direcciones al sitio preferido en Google Maps.

Instrucciones para uso en celular

No tengo Google Drive y Google Maps instalados en mi celular.

Abra el mapa y váyase a su barrio.
Seleccione al sitio para ver el horario y tipo de comida.
Haga clic sobre el butón de direcciones para ir al Google Maps.

Tengo Google Drive y Google Maps instalados en mi celular.

Abra el mapa y haga clic en la barra de búsqueda.
Entregue tu dirección de domicilio para encontrar los sitios más cercanos.
Haga clic sobre el sitio preferido para ver el horario y tipo de comida. Haga clic sobre el butón de direcciones para ir al Google Maps.

Nota: Este mapa fue actualizado 5/20/2020 4 p.m. MT .

Denver charter network STRIVE Prep wins $1.4 million grant focused on students with disabilities

2020-03-09T22:45:45+00:00

Denver’s second-largest charter school network has won a $1.4 million grant to improve education for students with disabilities. The effort builds upon a yearslong commitment by the STRIVE Prep network to better serve students with special needs.

STRIVE Prep was founded in Denver in 2006, and now operates 11 schools in the city, serving more than 3,800 students. About 15% of its students have disabilities, which is higher than the district average — an uncommon occurrence for Colorado charter schools.

The $1.4 million, three-year grant comes from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. (The foundation also supports Chalkbeat.) It’s part of a pilot program focused on how charter schools can better serve students with disabilities who are black, Latino, and from low-income families.

STRIVE is one of 10 charter management organizations across the country participating in the pilot. Nearly all STRIVE students are students of color, and 89% qualify for subsidized lunches. Other large networks in the pilot include the Noble Network in Chicago; Uncommon Schools in New York, New Jersey, and Massachusetts; and Green Dot Public Schools in Los Angeles.

STRIVE will use its grant funding to improve special education at two of its schools in southwest Denver: STRIVE Prep – Federal middle school and STRIVE Prep – SMART high school.

The network said both schools will focus on improving co-teaching practices, which is when a special education teacher teaches a lesson alongside a classroom teacher. Co-teaching is considered a best practice because it allows students with disabilities to learn alongside their peers with support, rather than be pulled out of the classroom for special lessons.

The network will also start a program at SMART for students with disabilities ages 18 to 21.

“Students with significant cognitive disabilities are often overlooked and don’t develop the postsecondary employment and life skills needed to be independent,” STRIVE Senior Director of Student Services Marianne Sammons said in a statement.

“By expanding our programming to offer special education services through the age of 21, they’ll be able to become more productive members of society and live more meaningful lives.”

Denver Public Schools expects its charter schools to offer special education “center-based programs” if asked by the district. STRIVE has had such programs for years; next year, it will have eight center-based programs across its schools, according to a network spokesperson.

Six of the programs, including the two at Federal and SMART, serve students with intellectual disabilities and those with multiple disabilities. Another program is for students with emotional and behavioral needs, while yet another is for students with profound multiple disabilities.

“STRIVE Prep has long been proud to be a leader among special education services in the charter sector,” founder Chris Gibbons said in a statement. “This pilot initiative provides the opportunity for our team to take this work to the next level.”

In compromise on ABA therapy, Colorado bill would require districts to set written policies

2020-03-04T02:35:02+00:00

School districts would have to craft written policies spelling out whether specialized behavior therapists are allowed in classrooms under legislation that passed the House Education Committee Tuesday.

The bill is much less than what parents of children with autism had hoped for, but they said they’re prepared to start educating local school board members on the benefits of allowing applied behavior analysis therapists to work with students in the classroom.

“Our kids have a lot of different pieces that they need to be supported,” said parent Sandra Mikesell, referring to the puzzle pieces in a heart used as a symbol of autism. “We’re excited to move forward, and we’re looking forward to engaging with school boards.”

Mikesell’s son gets ABA therapy in school from an outside provider, the result of a long battle with the Cherry Creek school district. Her hope is that eventually it’s easier for other parents to get the same services.

Applied behavior analysis therapy is frequently recommended for children with autism. It can help them learn how to communicate and interact with others, gain basic life skills, and, critically, manage the frustration that can lead to angry outbursts. Medicaid and many private insurance companies cover the therapy, but it’s not common for school districts to provide it.

Children often need many hours a week of services, which makes it hard to schedule if therapy isn’t provided at school, and parents say therapy is more effective if the clinician is working alongside the student at school, putting those skills into practice. Rather than distract from teaching, the therapist could be a benefit to the teacher, they argue. And with insurance covering the cost, it wouldn’t cost districts money.

The bill originally would have required schools to allow private ABA therapists into the classroom, provided they underwent background checks and carried their own liability insurance.

But school districts and the state organization that represents directors of special education were opposed. They said it impinged on local control and that school districts need to have the final say in what services are educationally necessary. They worried about having a provider in the classroom who doesn’t answer to the principal.

In the face of that opposition, state Rep. Meg Froelich, a Greenwood Village Democrat and the bill’s sponsor, amended it to instead require that districts adopt a written policy on whether to allow private therapists into classrooms. School boards would also have to hold a hearing on the policy, creating an avenue for parents to lobby for change.

Several Republicans on the committee preferred the original bill as better meeting student needs and respecting parents’ role. State Rep. Colin Larson, a Littleton Republican, said it “gutted” the bill. However, the committee voted 8-4 to adopt the amendment.

At that point, the committee voted unanimously to recommend the amended bill. It goes next to the full House and then to the Senate.

“I think passing the bill puts conversations in motion,” state Rep. Barbara McLachlan, chair of the House Education Committee and a Durango Democrat, said to parents who filled the committee room. “You can take it to your school board. Tell your school boards the stories that you told us. If kids are first, which they should be for school boards, this will pass.”

Parents of students with autism want behavior therapists allowed in Colorado classrooms

2020-03-02T00:56:58+00:00

David Quinlan’s 9-year-old son, who has autism, has experienced great progress in how he communicates and copes thanks to 30 to 35 hours a week of applied behavior analysis therapy.

But the only way Quinlan can fit that much specialized therapy into the week is to pull his son out of his Cherry Creek School District classroom halfway through the day, every day. Even so, he doesn’t get home until well after 6 p.m.

“If therapy happened in school, his day would look a lot more like a normal kid,” Quinlan said. “He could go to karate or swimming after school and be home in time for a normal dinner.”

Quinlan and other parents of children with autism are pushing for legislation that would require all school districts to allow applied behavior analysis therapists into the classroom. Parents say ABA therapists can be more effective when they work with children in the classroom and can be an asset to general education teachers.

But school districts are pushing back, arguing that they need to retain authority over who comes into the classroom and over deciding what services children need to be successful at school. The Colorado Association of School Executives, the Colorado Association of School Boards, the Colorado Rural Alliance, and the Consortium of Directors of Special Education all oppose the bill.

So does the organization that oversees the Medicaid Student Health Services program in Colorado. Its director is worried the legislation could open the door to other private providers in the classroom and undermine a funding model that has paid for school nurses, health aides, and medical supplies that benefit all Colorado students.

Faced with so much opposition, bill sponsor state Rep. Meg Froelich, a Greenwood Village Democrat, is planning to significantly amend the bill when it’s set to be heard Tuesday by the House Education Committee. Instead of requiring that therapists be allowed into the classroom, it would require school districts to set a written policy on whether to allow them.

It’s a concession to the principle of local control for school boards — and to political reality, Froelich said.

One parent called the change “heartbreaking,” even as she said she would still support the modified bill.

“My hope is that it will still move us forward,” said Maureen Elliott, who said she was once told she would have to choose between school and therapy for her son, who has autism caused by tuberous sclerosis complex. “Maybe an inch and not the mile we hoped for. If we have a written policy, at least that’s something we can lean on.”

Elliott’s son J.R. gets 24 hours a week of behavioral therapy and has experienced major regressions when he hasn’t had access to it, she said. Beyond the scheduling problems, J.R. needs more help during the school day, she said. Transitions are particularly hard for him, as they are for many children with autism.

J.R. at Special Olympics

Applied behavior analysis therapy is frequently recommended for children with autism. It can help them learn how to communicate and interact with others, gain basic life skills, and, critically, manage the frustration that can lead to angry outbursts. ABA therapists often work alongside children with autism in preschools, helping them apply their developing social skills in context.

But most Colorado school districts don’t allow outside providers, including ABA therapists, into classrooms. Many parents say their children go over a cliff in terms of support when they enter kindergarten.

Froelich said the fact that Medicaid and private insurance covers ABA therapy made it seem like a no-brainer to admit them into the classroom. Her original bill focuses on practical concerns, such as requiring outside providers to undergo background checks and carry liability insurance.

“When these parents first came to me, I said, ‘There are a whole host of things we wish our schools could do, but they’re chronically underfunded,’” Froelich said. “But this therapy is already covered by Medicaid. There is an opportunity here to integrate this without adding to the school budget.”

But school districts still oppose it.

Lucinda Hundley, head of the special education directors group, said the teams that develop educational plans for children with disabilities — and not individual parents — need to retain the authority to decide which services are offered in school. If ABA therapy isn’t one of those, parents can pursue that approach on their own time.

“The district was not party to that decision, and the district may not agree that the child needs those services during the school day,” she said.

Districts also vary in their ability to accommodate outside providers, she said. And even though ABA therapy is covered by Medicaid, lower-income parents are less likely to know how to obtain a prescription for the services, creating inequities among students.

Kimberly Erickson, executive director of The Consortium, the group that administers the Colorado School Health Services Program, said allowing private providers into the classroom threatens to undermine a system that has drawn extra federal dollars for school nurses and other healthcare providers for more than two decades.

Schools can bill Medicaid for certain services. That money is then reinvested in programs that support healthy schools, including hiring more school nurses and developing suicide prevention programs.

But if a private provider bills for a service, “that money doesn’t benefit all kids,” Erickson said. “It only benefits the one child.”

The Consortium expects that schools soon will be able to get Medicaid reimbursement for ABA therapists employed by districts, potentially increasing the number of districts that provide behavior therapy themselves.

Erickson has broader concerns. If private ABA therapists are allowed into the classroom, what’s to stop other providers from joining them?

Denver Public Schools has allowed some private providers, both ABA therapists and others, into the classroom on a case-by-case basis. Robert Frantum-Allen, the district’s special education director, said that wherever students receive services, they make more progress when there is strong communication and coordination between teachers, parents, and outside providers. In some cases, it makes sense to allow a specialist into the classroom. Written agreements governing those relationships establish clear roles for everyone involved.

“We have to maintain the integrity of what we do in school, which is teach, but at the same time, we need to coordinate to meet student needs,” he said.

Robin Koncilja’s 6-year-old son receives ABA therapy in his northeast Denver elementary school through such an agreement. Koncilja calls her case a “success story” that shows what’s possible when districts work with families.

“It’s giving these kids the tools they need to learn,” she said. “We wouldn’t have a blind child in school without Braille. A child with severe behaviors needs their therapist to participate and thrive.”

Jack Robinson, the Colorado attorney who argued the landmark Endrew F. case, which raised the standard schools must meet in educating students with disabilities, said school districts have long made a distinction between educational needs and medical needs, but that distinction often isn’t cut-and-dried, particularly for children with autism. Education includes both academic material and functional skills. Behavior therapy helps children with autism, as well as those with other conditions, get more out of the school day.

“I do think there is a strong argument under the Americans with Disabilities Act that if this is a medical necessity, you have to provide it during school hours, just like a child with insulin,” he said.

For parents, making these therapists accepted in the classroom isn’t just about what their children experience in school today. It’s about those children reaching their full potential as adults.

“I still hold public school as a primary goal for him,” Quinlan said. “If he has any chance of success beyond school, he’ll need to integrate with society at large. The more he can integrate into the public school setting, the more that sets him up for success.”

A Denver school bus driver called police on a 6-year-old girl with special needs

2020-02-28T04:53:06+00:00

The Denver school district said it is responding to an incident on a school bus in which district transportation personnel restrained a 6-year-old student Wednesday and called police.

The student has special needs. In a video taken by the girl’s mother when she arrived at the scene, the girl can be heard crying and screaming.

“Come on, honey,” the mother, Kristin Stark, says on the video. “Mommy’s here.”

“I’m not going to let you on the bus,” says a Denver Public Schools campus safety officer standing next to the bus door. “She can walk out to us.”

“Cecilia, you gotta come to me,” Stark says. “They won’t let me on the bus.”

Stark posted the video to social media.

“As you can see on the video, my daughter was absolutely terrified and hysterical when I got to her,” she wrote on Facebook. “And no one would allow me to help her gather her belongings from the bus, nor would they help her.”

This is how #denverpublicschools bus drivers handle a special needs kid (6 years old) who was having difficulties. I have watched surveillance from the bus and because my daughter was whining and trying to exit her seat, the bus staff felt it neccessary to call 911. Instead of trying to diffuse the situation, they pointed and scolded her. They both threaten her and tell her "the police are coming to get you". It wasn't until they threatened my child and had 3 adults standing over her, scolding her like a naughty dog that her behaviors got extreme. Even worse, one of the people who responded (I believe he was from the bus company) held her face down on the bus floor with hands behind her back until police arrived. It was 40 minutes about until I could get to her as I do not have a car. Share this video because the way the driver and aide handled this is unacceptable and absolutely disgusting. This is a special needs bus and the drivers and aides can't figure out how to deal with special needs children and they NEED better training. As you can see on the video, my daughter was absolutely terrified and hysterical when I got to her. And no one would allow me to help her gather her belongings from the bus, nor would they help her. If you are an ADULT and afraid of a 6 year old child then perhaps you shouldn't be a bus driver in the first place. Please share this with everyone you can.
Posted by Kristin Stark on Wednesday, February 26, 2020

Denver Public Schools said in a statement Thursday that its staff had reviewed video footage from a security camera inside the bus. The statement says the bus driver called 911 after bus staff “were unable to get the student back into a safety vest.”

While bus staff were waiting for police to arrive, at least one employee from the district’s transportation department showed up to help.

“After efforts to de-escalate the behavior of the student were unsuccessful, the transportation employee used a physical restraint with the student,” the district statement says.

The district said it is turning the bus security camera footage over to Denver police “for further investigation regarding the actions taken by the transportation employee.”

Stark has not seen the recording from the bus security camera. But she said her daughter told her she became upset when another student kicked her on his way off the bus.

Her daughter also said that an adult, who Stark assumed was a campus safety officer, held her face down on the floor of the bus with her arms behind her and his knee on her back. According to Stark, her daughter said, “He was holding me down and I couldn’t breathe.”

A district spokesperson confirmed it was a transportation employee, not a campus safety officer, who restrained the girl. There were no other students on the bus at the time.

By law, only armed campus safety officers are allowed to hold students face down on the ground in a “prone restraint” — and only under certain circumstances. Campus safety officers must be trained in restraint techniques and must have made a referral to law enforcement. Prone restraints can be dangerous because they can restrict a child’s ability to breathe.

Stark said her daughter has been diagnosed with oppositional defiant disorder and PTSD. She said she was waiting at home for her daughter when she got a call from the school district’s transportation department. The caller said Stark’s daughter was having behavioral issues on the bus, that the driver had pulled over at a certain intersection, and that Stark would have to pick her up there. The caller also said the police were on their way.

“I was really confused why they couldn’t deal with it and they were calling the police,” Stark said.

School districts are under increasing scrutiny for using police to deal with safety and discipline issues. Advocates say it can put children in what’s known as the school-to-prison pipeline.

In a recent incident in Florida, body camera footage shows a 6-year-old crying and saying “Help me!” as officers arrest her on suspicion of misdemeanor battery after a tantrum at school. In Pueblo in southern Colorado, school board members have asked hard questions about tickets issued for classroom misbehavior. Denver Public Schools banned the use of handcuffs on elementary school students last year after a family spoke out about their 7-year-old being handcuffed at school.

Stark doesn’t have a car, so she had to call a family member for a ride to where her daughter’s bus was pulled over. She estimates it was 40 minutes before she got there. When Stark arrived, she saw several Denver police officers, campus safety officers, and bus staff standing outside.

Stark said she gathered her daughter as quickly as she could and left. The incident was traumatizing, Stark said, and she didn’t want to prolong it.

“I felt so sick to my stomach,” Stark said. “I was worried about them hurting her.”

Stark said the incident has left her daughter shaken, and afraid of the police.

“She’s had traumas in her life, and this just adds to it,” Stark said.

The staff at her daughter’s school have been supportive, Stark said. On Thursday, she said they told her they’d be providing a special car service for her daughter so she won’t have to ride the bus.

While that’s getting set up, Stark said the school offered to pay for Uber service.

Behind closed doors: When it comes to seclusion and restraint, Colorado schools ‘are investigating themselves’

2020-02-20T13:00:39+00:00

Nearly every day, Brenna Wann saw staff members take young students, sometimes kicking and screaming, to the “quiet room” of her Colorado elementary school.

“They get in there, and then they’re mad they’re in there,” said Wann, who left her job as a classroom aide for students with emotional disabilities in early February. “You watch them, and they’re like a caged animal in there. They’re pacing back and forth. If they see you in the window, they’ll come and attack the door and want to be let out.”

Shutting a student in a room, called seclusion, is an allowable form of restraint in Colorado for students who display violent or dangerous behavior. State rules say it should only be used “in an emergency and with extreme caution.” The same applies to physical restraint, which means using physical force to restrict a student’s movement for more than five minutes.

A Chalkbeat investigation found that weak laws and oversight have contributed to wide variations in how Colorado’s 10 largest school districts report restraint and seclusion, making it impossible to get a full picture of an increasingly controversial practice that could harm students.

Many affected students have disabilities. Advocates and others, including the U.S. Department of Education, have raised concerns about whether seclusion and restraint are even effective at curbing problematic student behavior.

Citing open records law, Chalkbeat requested copies of the districts’ state-mandated annual reviews that are meant to ensure they are “properly administering” restraint and seclusion.

Some were several pages long and full of details, such as color-coded pie charts showing the age, ethnicity, and disability status of the students restrained and secluded. Other reviews were just a few sentences with no data at all. One of the largest districts hadn’t yet completed a review for the school year that ended nine months ago. Two of the 10 districts refused to release their reviews publicly, citing student confidentiality, though one of those later released some data.

No state agency collects the reports, meaning there is little oversight.

“Essentially, the districts are investigating themselves,” said Alison Butler, the director of legal services for Disability Law Colorado, the state’s federally designated advocacy agency for people with disabilities. “They’re giving themselves their own report card and nobody else sees it.”

Anecdotal evidence points to the practices being more common than district data indicate. The federal government has raised similar concerns. A recent audit of federal restraint and seclusion data by the U.S. Government Accountability Office noted the likelihood of a “pervasive pattern of underreporting of restraint and seclusion in U.S. public schools.”

Wann, who left her job after a particularly troubling seclusion incident, suspects that was happening at the school where she worked, Cherry Drive Elementary in Thornton. In her four months there, she said she wasn’t asked to write a single report. As far as procedure, Wann said, “the only thing they told me was to call for backup.”

A spokesman for Thornton-based Adams 12 Five Star Schools said the district is investigating Wann’s claims. Only teachers and administrators, not aides like Wann, write reports, he said.

“We take the concerns raised seriously, and we’re responding to them and investigating,” said Joe Ferdani, the district’s chief communications officer. “If the outcome indicates the opportunity for refinement in any of our processes, we’ll certainly do that.”

Last year, Adams 12 reported 121 seclusions among its 39,000 students, according to the district’s written review. That number stands in stark contrast to the near-daily seclusions Wann said she saw happen this year at a single elementary school.

“A good day,” she said, “is when it wouldn’t happen.”

‘We were never called’

State rules say schools may use restraint and seclusion only when a student’s behavior poses a “serious, probable, imminent” threat of bodily injury to themselves or others. That includes situations in which a student causes a threat by abusing or destroying property.

Chalkbeat interviewed officials from several Colorado school districts about when they use restraint and seclusion. All of them chose their words carefully, emphasizing that restraint and seclusion are used as a last resort when students are “escalated.”

That could look like a student kicking, biting, or throwing punches at staff or classmates, they said. Some students will tip over desks or throw chairs. Others will run from the classroom or hurt themselves by banging their head on a wall, for example.

Restraint and seclusion should never be used as a form of discipline, state rules say, or to gain compliance. But advocates of reform say that’s sometimes exactly how they are used.

“A lot of times, it starts with a student refusing to comply with an adult directive,” said Pam Bisceglia, executive director of Advocacy Denver, a civil rights organization that serves people with disabilities. “The adults don’t always have the patience, the tools, or the training to really help de-escalate the situation. It’s kind of like, ‘No, you are going to do it, you are going to do it,’ pushing the kiddo’s buttons until it ends up in physical force.”

The annual reviews produced by Colorado school districts don’t include information about what preceded incidents of restraint and seclusion, making it impossible to conclude from those reviews alone whether districts are following state rules or not. A joint investigation by ProPublica Illinois and the Chicago Tribune found thousands of incidents in that state in which students were secluded despite no documented safety threat. In response, the Illinois State Board of Education just voted to prohibit the use of locked seclusion rooms in schools.

In 2017, Colorado lawmakers passed the bill that mandated annual reviews. It aimed to do three things: collect better data on the use of restraint and seclusion in schools, establish a process for families to complain about its misuse, and limit a particularly dangerous kind of restraint, called prone restraint, where a student is held face-down on the ground.

That part of the bill struck a chord with lawmakers. Across the United States, and here in Colorado, children have stopped breathing and died from being held in prone restraints.

But the data collection part of the bill was important, too — and on that issue, advocates said they didn’t get everything they wanted. They had long heard anecdotal stories from parents who were never told their children were being restrained or secluded at school.

One mother told lawmakers that her son was restrained five times at school, but administrators only informed her of one instance. She learned about the others when she requested a copy of her son’s records to figure out why he was “not thriving” in school.

“None of this was ever reported to us,” the parent, Laura Ayres, said. That included incidents in which the school nurse had monitored and documented her son’s ability to breathe while he was being held in a physical restraint. “We were never called, except for that one time.”

State Rep. Susan Lontine, the Denver Democrat who sponsored the bill, wanted more state oversight and detailed reporting by districts, with those reports to be posted on the state education department’s website. But she encountered pushback related to concerns about the staff time needed to collect and review the reports, and about student confidentiality in small districts. As such, the final bill did not include those requirements.

That decision set the stage for today’s hit-or-miss reporting.

“The department can only collect data that the legislature requires us to collect, statutorily,” said Colorado Department of Education spokesman Jeremy Meyer. “The legislature hasn’t required the state to collect restraint and seclusion data from districts.”

Inconsistent reporting

With no watchdog, the reporting by districts is all over the place.

Chalkbeat requested the annual written reviews for the 2017-18 and 2018-19 school years from Colorado’s 10 largest school districts, which educate more than half of the state’s students.

Some districts report hundreds of incidents of restraint and seclusion per year. Others report far fewer. Some differentiate between physical restraint and seclusion, while others lump them together. And while some districts track all instances of physical restraint, others only count physical restraints that meet the legal definition of lasting five minutes or more.

Often, the same students are restrained by adults or blocked in rooms again and again. Some districts report how many students are affected by these practices and some do not.

District	Total number of restraints 2018-19	Restraints less than 5 minutes	Restraints longer than 5 minutes	Total number of seclusions in 2018-19	Total district K-12 enrollment
Denver Public Schools	295	248	47	The district banned seclusion	91,998
Jeffco Public Schools	Annual report not completed				84,623
Douglas County School District	352	The district does not have a breakdown for how many of the restraints were less than 5 minutes and how many were longer than 5 minutes		79	67,591
Cherry Creek School District	51	The district does not track restraints less than 5 minutes	51	313*	55,791
Aurora Public Schools	District refused to release report, citing student confidentiality				39,892
Adams 12 Five Star Schools	63	45	18	121	39,282
St. Vrain Valley School District	No data included in annual report				32,639
Boulder Valley School District	27**	22	4	The district does not track which incidents are restraint and which are seclusion	31,169
Poudre School District	17	The district did not provide data on restraints less than 5 minutes	17	101	30,463
Colorado Springs School District 11	24	8	16	The district banned seclusion	26,395

* 113 of these were restraint + seclusion
** For one incident, the time was noted as “not specified”
Graphic credit: Sam Park/Chalkbeat

Douglas County School District, the state’s third-largest district, recorded among the highest numbers: 352 incidents of physical restraint and 79 incidents of seclusion in a district of about 67,500 students. But Douglas County officials said they’re meticulous about documentation; the district’s restraint count includes all physical restraints, even if they only lasted five seconds.

“It’s important for us to be transparent about what’s happening with children in schools,” said Nancy Ingalls, who oversees special education for the district.

Colorado Springs School District 11, the state’s tenth-largest, posted among the lowest numbers: just 24 incidents of restraint for 26,400 students and no incidents of seclusion. The district banned seclusion in 2018, though officials said it hadn’t been used for some time.

Instead, District 11 uses what it calls “retreat”: Students can be put in a room to calm down, but they cannot be alone with the door shut; an adult must be with them at all times.

Denver Public Schools, the state’s largest district, has a similar policy. It banned seclusion in 2019 in favor of “monitored seclusion,” which means an adult must be present in the room.

The policies for the other eight large districts allow seclusion. Cherry Creek School District, the state’s fourth-largest district, reported the most incidents of seclusion last school year: 313 for about 55,800 students. More than a third of those incidents involved a combination of physical restraint and seclusion, according to the district’s annual review.

Tony Poole, the district’s assistant superintendent of special populations, said secluding a student in what the district calls “time-out rooms” or other spaces can be less traumatic than physically restraining a student, especially if the student might be triggered by being touched. As soon as the student is calm, the door is opened and the student is let out.

“It’s not stuffing kids in a closet,” Poole said. “These kids, at times, have a full classroom to themselves.” That’s because the district counts it as a seclusion if school staff evacuate other students from a classroom to give the agitated student space to calm down.

Other large districts are opaque when it comes to restraint and seclusion.

Jeffco Public Schools, Colorado’s second-largest district, hasn’t reported anything for 2018-19. The district said it expects to produce its report in March, 10 months after the school year ended. In the 2017-18 school year, it reported 38 incidents of restraint and 220 incidents of seclusion.

The fifth-largest district, Aurora Public Schools, and the ninth-largest, Poudre School District, refused to release their annual reviews in response to open records requests. Both districts said their reviews contain confidential information about students that can’t be shared publicly. Chalkbeat asked if the districts could redact sensitive information, but they refused.

Poudre School District later released a tally of how many students were restrained and secluded.

Even though the St. Vrain Valley School District, the state’s seventh-largest district, wrote reports for both 2017-18 and 2018-19, they contain no data. The takeaway from the 2018-19 report, which is just seven sentences long, is that the district is doing everything right.

The youngest students

From the reports that do contain data, one thing is clear: Restraint and seclusion is most often happening to young students — 5-, 6-, 7-, 8- and 9-year-olds — with disabilities.

District leaders offered several explanations: Young students are still getting accustomed to school, and haven’t yet learned how to manage big feelings. Schools are also seeing an increase in students with emotional and behavioral disabilities, sometimes as a result of medical conditions and sometimes as a result of trauma.

Young students are also small enough for school staff to handle. When middle and high school students have explosive behaviors, teachers often rely on school-based police officers to respond, said Ashley Toomey, a special education coordinator in the Adams 12 district.

Officials in every district, whether they used restraint and seclusion a lot or a little, pointed to the same strategy for reducing it: de-escalation techniques that nip students’ behavior in the bud before it becomes violent or dangerous. The company that trains many Colorado school district staff emphasizes that prevention is the key to reducing restraint and seclusion.

But it’s not easy to do. Judy Gudvangen, the special education director for District 11, which reported the fewest incidents of the 10 largest districts last year, said all special education staff there are trained in de-escalation. Schools are grouped into clusters, and each cluster is supported by a team that includes several behavior specialists, instructional coaches, psychologists, nurses, and others who can respond to difficult student behavior.

If a student is struggling, Gudvangen said, the cluster team will visit the school, observe the student, figure out what is triggering the disruptive behavior, tailor de-escalation techniques for that student, and teach the student’s teachers and aides how to do them.

“I can’t say restraints never happen,” she said. “But we do it in as limited a way as possible.”

There’s a reason for that: Parents whose students have been restrained or secluded report that the experiences can be traumatic, and even dangerous, for their children.

Dawn Howard’s granddaughter, a 6-year-old kindergartener in District 11, is frequently put in “holds” to calm her down. (Howard doesn’t know how many of these “holds” constitute restraint because she doesn’t know how many last five minutes or more.)

Howard said she said she understands the reason for the holds. Her granddaughter’s behavior can be challenging. After a recent incident, Howard showed up to find every desk, every chair, every pencil and eraser thrown around her granddaughter’s classroom, she said.

“It took me an hour, with help, to put the room back together,” Howard said.

Howard said her granddaughter doesn’t seem to mind the holds. She has only been upset about them a few times, including once when she said an aide twisted her arm and hurt her.

But Howard is growing concerned that the holds might be doing emotional harm. Her granddaughter spent much of her infancy in a car seat while her mother used drugs, Howard said. She imagines her granddaughter strapped in, unable to move, crying for a bottle or to be held. Howard said she wonders if being squeezed tightly during a hold is surfacing that trauma.

“What if that’s taking her back to that place in her brain?” Howard said.

‘This was not OK’

The incident that led to Wann quitting her job as an aide at Thornton’s Cherry Drive Elementary happened in late January.

She was in the quiet room with a student who had gone there voluntarily when another boy came in. The boy was agitated. Wann doesn’t know why, but she said he started slamming the door to the quiet room over and over again. He was yelling and cursing, she said, and as she tried to calm him, he took off his shoes and threw them at her, then darted into the hall.

He ran around outside before ending up in a foyer between two sets of front doors. Wann and another staff member were with him, but he wasn’t responding to de-escalation techniques. When he started spitting at them, Wann said she and the other staff member left the foyer to stand sentry outside the doors. The boy, she said, was blocked in the foyer alone.

“In the meantime, the half-day kindergarteners are being picked up,” Wann said. “So you’ve got all these parents and grandparents watching us as we’re blocking this kid in the front entryway.”

Wann estimates he was in there, barefoot and fuming, for more than half an hour.

The incident itself was troubling, Wann said, but even more troubling that no one asked for her account of what happened.

“I’m in the thick of it,” she said. “Shouldn’t I be writing the incident report?”

District officials said a report was completed for this incident. Toomey, the special education coordinator for Adams 12, explained the reporting process in general: When a student is restrained or secluded, a teacher or administrator will write an incident report. It will include a description of what triggered the student’s behavior, the de-escalation techniques that were tried, how long the student was restrained or secluded, and the student’s reaction.

She said the school gives the reports to parents within five days. They’re also turned in to the district’s behavior specialists, who review them for trends or to identify training needs.

If an aide was involved in an incident of restraint or seclusion, Toomey said the teacher and the aide will often fill out the report together. If that’s not possible, she said, the teacher will write the report and then circle back with the aide to make sure all the facts are correct.

But Wann said that didn’t happen in this case. The incident in the foyer also changed the way Wann views seclusion. In the days afterward, she apologized to one of her students who was frequently put in the quiet room. Wann said she herself had sometimes blocked him in.

“I said, ‘This was not OK. What I did to you was not OK,’” Wann said. “He looked at me like I was a superhero almost, like, ‘Really? Oh my gosh.’

“These kids,” she said, “just deserve better.”

More poverty, fewer federal dollars: Suburban Denver schools face hard choices about who gets cut off

2020-02-14T21:46:26+00:00

As poverty grows along Denver’s borders, some suburban schools are finding they have fewer resources to serve a changing crop of students.

School districts are seeing areas of concentrated poverty with more schools needing extra resources to address the challenges students face. At the same time, districts are receiving fewer federal dollars meant to help schools provide those services to students from low-income families. Districts can either spread out funds more widely, or narrow the focus to fewer schools and leave some students behind.

Large districts like Aurora, Jeffco, and Cherry Creek are among those grappling with how to serve more schools with higher percentages of students living in poverty.

“It’s a tough place to be in,” said Linda Reyes-Quinonez, Title I director for Jeffco Public Schools, who oversees about $8.7 million in these federal dollars for Colorado’s second-largest district. “Definitely the demographics in Jeffco have changed over the years.”

Through the Title I program, the federal government gives school districts money to help address the effects of poverty.

Schools often pay for family liaisons, social workers, paraprofessionals, more teachers, or coaches for teachers, all to help address achievement gaps, mobility, and higher mental health needs that often come with a higher concentration of poverty in a community.

But the flow of Title I money isn’t matching up with district needs, partly because the federal government calculates poverty based on census counts of all children living in an area, not on how many students actually show up at schools. And children can enroll in private schools or cross boundary lines for school. Many schools are seeing declining enrollment as families move out, but in some cases, the students who remain are more likely to come from low-income families. Also, Congress in some years has cut funding for Title I.

The Denver school district has escaped the Title I funding squeeze because fewer of its schools qualify for Title I money. But many surrounding school districts face hard choices.

While the federal government calculates how much money each district gets, it’s up to each district to set a bar for which schools will receive the money — often based on subsidized lunch counts. In Aurora, the district is planning to reduce the number of schools that qualify for Title I money next fall, to focus on fewer schools.

Currently, the district directs Title I funds to schools with at least 70% of students who qualify for free lunch. This year, 31 schools in Aurora are receiving some Title I money. Nine additional schools would have met that 70% mark for next year, but instead the district plans to bump up the threshold to 75%. That would still add two schools to the list.

Local board members reluctantly suggested they would support such a move, but lamented the difficult choice.

Aurora board member Debbie Gerkin called it a terrible decision to have to make.

“This impacts instruction for kids,” Gerkin said. “When you’re losing a teacher, that’s a tremendous loss. I’m having trouble honestly wrapping my head around what would be the best course of action for students.”

In Aurora, the demographic changes are more drastic than elsewhere in the metro area. Districtwide, student enrollment was essentially flat from last year, but the district lost 4,263 students who aren’t eligible for subsidized lunch at the same time that it gained 4,459 students who do qualify.

In 2014, approximately one-third of Aurora students were in schools that had concentrations of 70% or more students who qualify for free lunch. Now, almost one-half of district students attend schools with such high need.

One of the schools that would have qualified for extra funds next year if the threshold didn’t change is Aurora Central High School, one of the district’s lowest-performing schools. This year, the school enrolled just 27 more students than last, but there were significant changes in the approximately 2,000-student population.

The number of students who qualify for free lunch went up by almost 300. The number of students not eligible for subsidized lunch was cut nearly in half from 667 to 390.

Aurora district officials in response are changing how they spend their local budget. For next fall, the district is proposing to give more per-student money to all schools, and to increase the extra dollars it gives for “at-risk students.”

The district would increase the school allocation for each student who qualifies for subsidized lunch from $821 to $1,261, and would start including students who qualify for reduced-price lunch.

“We’re significantly prioritizing in a way that we can control allocating at least $400 million to schools in a different way to better prioritize at-risk kids,” said Brett Johnson, the district’s chief financial officer.

He said the district has more control over local funds. Using them will offset some of the loss of federal Title I dollars, and school principals will not notice much difference, district officials said. They did not allow any of the affected principals to speak with Chalkbeat.

In Jeffco, the district provides a full-time family engagement liaison to each Title I school. Next year each of those positions will be cut back to four days per week, unless schools choose to use money from other parts of their budget to maintain the full-time help.

In the Jeffco district the change has been gradual. In 10 years, the number of schools with a high concentration of poverty has grown from 22 to 32. Next year, the district will add one more school to its list of those receiving Title I funds.

Reyes said she is bracing for more cuts in the near future. She said the district may also have to consider focusing on fewer schools.

At Eiber Elementary, tucked away in central Lakewood, Principal Stacy Bedell said that the resources she adds to her school with Title I money help address student needs.

The school has far fewer students meeting expectations in math or literacy than the district or state average, but Eiber students have higher growth scores — reflecting progress from year to year — than the district and state averages.

Although the school is surrounded by half-million-dollar suburban homes, the school also serves children from affordable housing complexes nearby. This year, 87% of the school’s students qualify for subsidized lunch. Even with a drop in enrollment, the school’s percentage of students qualifying for subsidized lunch stayed steady.

For years now, the school has qualified for additional dollars because of that high concentration of poverty, but Bedell said her Title I budget has decreased over time.

Before, she said it helped pay for free full-day kindergarten, before the district or state funded it. She also used it to hire reading and math specialists. This year she’s down to one reading interventionist, and none for math.

“We’re starting to feel the stretch,” Bedell said. “Some kids aren’t making the kind of movement we know they could.”

And Bedell said she is already looking at how she will find a way to pay for her family engagement liaison, Cynthia Saunders, to stay on full time in the next school year.

Saunders helps keep parents engaged, and also helps them when they need resources for housing, food or clothing.

“Engagement looks different than it did 20 years ago,” Bedell said. “Our workforce is not 8 to 5. We don’t get the same kind of turnout like when we have a family event, but people will come if we need something.”

Part of that is Saunders’ doing. When the school needs volunteers to help serve breakfast or to organize donated clothing in the school’s closet, or a teacher needs help in the classroom, Saunders picks up the phone, and always finds parents to come in, Bedell said.

All of the “extra” staff that she pays for with Title I money are important, Bedell said. Just as much as she needs Saunders, she needs the mental health clinician she pays for through the Jefferson Center for Mental Health, and the social workers and specialists who help teachers work with small groups of students.

“I could use two full-time mental health people all the time, every day,” Bedell said. “I could probably use two additional ones. And some days it’s overwhelming even for teachers that I could use mental health people for them, too.”

In the Cherry Creek School District, the threshold for awarding Title I dollars has gone up to 46% — lower than in many districts, but up from 40% about five years ago. This year the district is serving 13 schools with Title I money, including one that just qualified this year.

“We have more schools that are reaching the threshold where they probably should be served but we’re facing difficult choices,” said Mike Giles, assistant superintendent of performance improvement.

District officials say they notice a higher need even in schools with 40% to 46% of students who qualify for subsidized lunch. Often schools there use Title I money to hire instructional coaches, who are helping close achievement gaps between students from low-income families and their more affluent peers. The district is also helping one school use Title I money to put on an annual cultural fair to better engage with families.

The Title I schools also see higher needs for social and emotional help, including for a higher number of students impacted by trauma, officials said.

“The bigger question is why,” said Brien Hodges, director of Title I and Connect for Success Grant for the Cherry Creek district. “Why is the federal government continuing to cut this funding when the need continues to grow?”

In contrast, in the Adams 12 district north of Denver, the number of schools with higher needs has also been increasing, but the district was able this year to move the bar in the opposite direction from other districts — to help more schools. In part, it’s because Adams 12’s federal funding has shrunk less than other districts’.

“We felt like the title funds should be serving the broadest number of students,” said Tracy Dorland, deputy superintendent for Adams 12. “The principals who have started receiving funds have told us it’s been extremely helpful.”

Tracie Stauffer, principal of Leroy Elementary in Northglenn, is one of those.

“At Leroy we have a lot of kids with trauma; it could be what one would consider minor to major trauma where school is not their No. 1 priority,” Stauffer said. Students there often are starting elementary school with little exposure to academics or reading, she said.

“There’s a big gap for us to fill,” Stauffer said. “We have to have clever people to make sure we can engage them.”

Leroy, like many of the new Title I schools around the metro area, has had a decrease in enrollment. This year, the school has 393 students, down from 414 last year. But the number of students who qualify for free or reduced-price lunch is now at 286, up from 264 last year, while the students who are not eligible are at 107, down from 150 last year.

Now that the school is labeled Title I because of the change the district made, Stauffer has been able to add more staff resources, including an assistant principal who has helped roll out restorative practices, which try to guide students to reflect and change their bad behavior.

“We had a lot of behavior problems,” Stauffer said. “It was mostly students who couldn’t handle these big emotions.”

Disciplinary referrals are already down, she said.

The school now also has more instructional coaches who can help improve teachers’ practices, and a family engagement liaison who helped put together Thanksgiving meal baskets for about 30 families.

“It helps to build that trust,” Stauffer said. “Because of that, we had several families reach out that have been in crisis. They know they have a person now.”

This Colorado bill bans discrimination against ethnic hairstyles. In schools, change means going beyond the dress code.

2020-02-09T22:49:25+00:00

Update: The bill passed the Senate on Feb. 28 and now heads to the governor’s desk for his signature.

Milani Cook remembers sitting between her mother’s legs as a little girl, wincing at each tug as her mother ran a comb through her hair. When it was all over, Milani was so proud of the afro she saw in the mirror.

But when she went to school, her white classmates would reach out to touch it. She felt like a pet dog, and she would return home with her hair and her spirit deflated. In middle school, insults joined the unwanted touching. She looked like a sheep, classmates told her. Did she have a mop on her head?

“Fascination,” she said, “turned to discrimination.”

Eventually Cook, now 15 and a student at Grandview High School in the Cherry Creek district in suburban Denver, started straightening her hair to avoid such comments, doing long-term damage to it in the process.

“I think about what would have happened if my school and community had protected me from all those years of humiliation,” she wrote in testimony to Colorado lawmakers.

A bill making its way through the Colorado legislature would extend existing laws prohibiting discrimination based on race and ethnicity to explicitly cover hairstyles — including the locks, twists, braids, and afros worn by many black people. The protections would apply to employees on the job and to students in school, and school districts and charter schools would be required to prevent bullying based on hair just as they are required to prevent bullying based on race, religion, and disability status.

“Schools need to protect our young people and educational professionals against bullying or termination based on hairstyle,” said state Rep. Leslie Herod, a Denver Democrat and the bill’s primary sponsor.

Three other states already have adopted what is known as a Crown Act. The acronym stands for Create a Respectful and Open Workplace for Natural Hair, but the name more broadly speaks to the importance of hair in many cultures. Colorado is one of 13 states considering legislation this year, according to a coalition tracking the effort.

Highly publicized incidents — including a New Jersey wrestler who was made to cut off his locks to compete in a tournament and a Texas student whose school won’t allow him to walk at graduation unless he does the same — have spurred a national push to extend discrimination laws to apply to hair. Corporations such as Dove, the personal care brand, have joined in support.

Colorado hasn’t been immune. Last year, a mother said her 11-year-old daughter was kicked off her Denver cheerleading team due to her natural hair. (The team’s director said the mother threatened staff.) And state Rep. Janet Buckner, an Aurora Democrat, said her own granddaughters felt pressure to have the same kind of tight ponytail as the white girls on their gymnastics team.

“I do not want my granddaughters to lose their self-confidence because other people are not comfortable with their natural hairstyles,” Buckner said at a recent committee hearing.

Buckner joined Herod, state Rep. Dominique Jackson, and state Sen. Rhonda Fields, all black women and Democrats, in sponsoring the Colorado Crown Act. They launched the bill with a “community hearing” before the formal committee meeting that featured such prominent figures as dancer Cleo Parker Robinson and Reynelda Muse, Denver’s first black television anchor, who described facing pressure to straighten their hair even at the heights of their careers.

The Colorado Crown Act does not currently face any organized opposition, but Republicans on the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee voted against it.

“Where does a business-environment look end and racism begin?” asked state Rep. Shane Sandridge, a Republican from El Paso County, who compared workplace rules around hair to requirements that people in the financial services sector wear a white shirt and tie.

With Democrats controlling all levers of state government, partisan opposition will not stop the bill from becoming law.

It’s not clear how many Colorado schools have prohibitions against natural hair in their dress codes. No one testified against the bill at the committee hearing, and the organizations that represent Colorado school districts and charter schools have said they have not heard any concerns from their members.

But as stories like Milani Cook’s make clear, hair discrimination in schools is not simply a matter of what is or isn’t banned in dress codes. While her teachers would remind her classmates to keep their hands to themselves, she felt those early incidents could have been taken much more seriously. If the legislation passes, she hopes teachers and school leaders will do more to protect black children from harassment.

FIRST PERSON: My school policed our black male students’ hair. The viral forced-haircut video showed me how wrong we were.

Analise Harris, a former Denver Public Schools teacher who founded an organization called Curls on the Block to help black girls learn to love and care for their natural hair, said this, too, needs to be a matter of policy, not something left to chance.

“We need to make sure we’re providing spaces that are culturally responsive,” said Harris, who has taught elementary, middle, and high school. “For youth, they are curious. It’s a normal curiosity. But teachers need to use that opportunity to say, ‘This is where we learn about boundaries and personal space.’ Because generally, the curiosity is not coming from the black kids touching the white kids’ hair.”

Harris said educators can also take proactive steps to make discrimination less likely. For example, teachers can make sure the images they use in their classroom include people with a variety of hairstyles and incorporate the ways that black hair has been policed and regulated in their U.S. history lessons, she said. At various points, black women have been forced to shave their hair or been required by law to cover their heads.

Unwanted touching and bullying about hair does not only affect black children. Nikhil Mankekar, the chair of Boulder’s Human Relations Commission, is Sikh and wears his hair long and his beard untrimmed as part of a practice called kesh. He told lawmakers that Sikh children in the United States frequently have their hair yanked in school, and some experience persistent bullying or even have their hair forcibly cut. Native American boys who wear their hair long have also experienced bullying and pressure to cut it.

The bill does not explicitly address another styling issue that primarily affects black youth: bandanas and durags. Many school dress codes ban these types of head-coverings, with the justification being that they’re associated with gang membership.

Milani Cook, a student at Grandview High School, shows off her natural hair.

Harris recalled an incident in a Denver school in which a girl ended up suspended because she didn’t want to take off a pink bandana that violated school dress code. Underneath the bandana, her hair wasn’t finished.

“I don’t know which gang is the pink bandana gang,” Harris quipped. Such incidents become part of the school-to-prison pipeline, with hair becoming one more area in which black students receive disproportionate discipline, Harris said.

Back in 2016, a 14-year-old Denver girl was forcibly dragged from a restroom at Northfield High School, handcuffed, and charged with assault and resisting arrest in an incident that started with being told to remove a purple bandana. After a community outcry, charges were dropped.

“What it really associates with is people who wear their hair natural and have to tie it down,” Cook said. “And I find it interesting that something that African American people wear is associated with gangs. I definitely think that’s another change I would make.”

Cook has regained her confidence in her hair, but her past experiences still shape the decisions she makes on a daily basis.

“I still don’t wear it out that much at school,” she said. “I wear it out more on the weekends. Just in case.”

‘No other way’: How these Denver schools include students with disabilities, and why more could follow

2020-02-07T00:08:31+00:00

Principal Blake Hammond slips into the back of a quiet fifth-grade classroom.

“Second row in,” he whispers. “He’s one of our kids.”

The boy is sitting next to an aide, a blank worksheet on his desk. The teacher is in the middle of a writing lesson. “What’s the difference,” she asks the class, “between revising and editing?”

The boy in the second row stands up. He walks to the front of the classroom and stops in front of the board so that his head and shoulders are blocking his classmates’ view. He’s there to fish around in a small blue bucket filled with sharpened No. 2 pencils. The pencils, pointed upward like flowers in a flower pot, rattle against the sides of the bucket.

Class continues. Students don’t complain that they can’t see the board. The teacher doesn’t tell the boy to sit down. Raised voices, the principal whispers, are a trigger for the boy, who before coming to Denver’s Green Valley Elementary was in a separate program for students with emotional disabilities. After about a minute and a half of softly jangling the pencils, the boy picks one. He calmly returns to his seat — and with his new pencil, begins his worksheet.

This is what inclusive practices look like at a Denver elementary school that is educating students with disabilities in general education classrooms, as opposed to separate special education classrooms, nearly all of the time. Denver Public Schools wants to move all of its schools in the same direction.

A districtwide goal

In June, the school board passed a resolution committing the district to becoming “a model … in the nation” for inclusive practices. The resolution was inspired by a task force of parents, educators, and advocates. Their overarching recommendation: Stop segregating students with disabilities when research shows including them benefits all students.

But Denver, like most districts, has a long way to go to get there. Only about 65% of the more than 10,000 Denver students identified as having a disability are included in the general education classroom more than 80% of the time, according to district data.

The district uses what it calls “center programs” to serve students with significant cognitive and emotional disabilities. The centers are separate classrooms, staffed by special education teachers and aides, where students do most of their learning. They may join their peers for lunch or recess, or for non-academic subjects like art. If they’re strong in math, they might go to the general education classroom for math lessons, but return to the center for reading.

A growing chorus of voices in Denver wants to blow up that model. District officials want to improve startlingly low test scores for students with disabilities. A majority of parents of students with disabilities said in a survey they want their child to spend more time in the general education classroom.

“If they’re just visiting classrooms once in a while for the projects people think they can handle, they will always be just outsiders looking in,” said Taryn Omran, whose 6-year-old daughter Maayan has Down syndrome and attends Willow Elementary, an exemplar for inclusive practices.

There was no public opposition to the resolution calling for Denver to become a national model for inclusion. But principals at schools experienced with it say some teachers initially worried if they’d be able to serve all students, especially those whose behavior could be disruptive.

“They were unaware and uneasy about, ‘How am I going to support a student of this severe need?’” said Hammond of Green Valley Elementary. “We had a conversation with staff the next year to say, ‘This is where we’re moving. If you want to be on board, stay with us. If it’s not something you’re interested in, there are other opportunities out there we can help you find.’”

Now, three years in, Hammond said the staff is committed. That was driven home recently, he said, when he heard a second-grade teacher say about one of her students with significant disabilities, “That’s my baby.” Hammond said it brought tears to his eyes.

“What a world we would be in if every person thought about kids as, ‘That’s my baby,’” he said. “If you take that mindset into the work that we do, there is no other way but inclusion.”

The ‘why’ and the ‘how’

Special Education Director Robert Frantum-Allen is tasked with shepherding the change at the district level. He is a former Denver teacher of the deaf and hard of hearing, and he has a disability — dyslexia — himself. He thinks most educators believe in inclusion, at least in theory.

“I think the community is compelled to understand the ‘why,’” Frantum-Allen said. “Where they struggle is ‘how.’ How do I do this when we have high-stakes testing?…How do we have diverse learners in classrooms and be able to meet the rigorous standards out there?”

Rather than starting with a mandate that all schools adopt inclusive practices immediately, Frantum-Allen is focusing this year on changing educators’ mindsets.

Over the summer, the district trained all principals on the basics of inclusive practices. Principals also completed a self-evaluation and chose one or two goals to work toward. This semester, principals will read a book on inclusive practices and discuss it.

“Some schools might perceive that they can’t serve these kids,” Frantum-Allen said. In those cases, the student is transferred from their neighborhood school to a school with a center program, which might require a long bus ride and separate the student from siblings.

“We want the attitude or belief to be, ‘We’re going to try everything we can to keep them at this school before we make an attempt to move them,’” Frantum-Allen said.

Exemplar schools

A handful of schools are already doing that. They include Green Valley and Willow, both in northeast Denver. (Willow was formerly called High Tech Elementary.) Rather than having a center program that serves students with one type of disability, such as autism, the schools take a “cross-categorical” approach to serve students with a range of disabilities. Every student is rostered to a general education classroom, where they spend as much of their day as possible.

“It’s an expectation they participate in everything,” said Hammond.

Green Valley made the switch to inclusive practices after the elementary school, the city’s biggest and perennially bursting at the seams, ran out of room for its center program. The school didn’t want to lose those students, so it began exploring what it would take to keep them.

By contrast, Willow was fully inclusive from the start. It opened in 2014 to serve a growing neighborhood, and its founding principal, Amy Gile, is a former special education teacher. She knew how isolating special education could be, and she didn’t want that for her school.

“In my previous experience, we’d have a mindset of, ‘We will include students with significant disabilities when they show us they’re ready for that,’” Gile said. “It seemed to me to perpetuate some of the isolation. … We’ve reached a place where that’s not happening.”

Willow has two classrooms that in a typical school would be set aside for center programming. But they’re not used that way. One is full of gym and play equipment, including a trampoline, a giant swing, and kid-sized tents filled with stuffed animals. Any student, whether they have a disability or not, can go there with an adult if they need a break.

The other is used by teachers to meet with students in small groups. The school has an innovative practice called “walk to read,” wherein every student, across grade levels, gets up and walks to a small group for instruction based on their academic level. The idea is to reduce the stigma of students with disabilities being the ones to leave the classroom for extra help.

Willow aims to further reduce that stigma by having special education teachers co-teach math lessons alongside classroom teachers, rather than focus on helping a single student.

“I’ve been in places in the past where it’s like, ‘You’re Amy’s teacher. You’re here for Amy,’” said Janis Dickman, who started at Willow as a special education teacher and is now the school’s director of culture. When a special education teacher shows up under the co-teaching model, she said, “it’s like ‘You’re here because it’s math time and you teach math.’”

‘He’s going to be OK’

Parents of students with disabilities appreciate Willow’s approach. Sharon Alvarez’s son Maurice has been at Willow since it opened. Alvarez adopted Maurice out of foster care when he was 3, and she said he’s always struggled with anger and impulse control.

He went to a different Denver public school for preschool, but Alvarez said that school told her it wouldn’t be able to handle Maurice in the more academic setting of kindergarten. A district administrator told Alvarez about Willow, and because the school was still under construction, Alvarez met Gile at a Starbucks. Gile, she said, told her she’d love to have Maurice.

And Maurice has thrived there, Alvarez said. While he still struggles with impulse control, he’s improving all the time. He has teachers he connects with, and friends who don’t ostracize him.

“He was a child that most people would have never let in their school because he’d be so out of control,” Alvarez said. At Willow, she said, “they’d just call me and we’d work through it. I’d be so upset, thinking they’re going to kick him out. They’ve never done that.

“They’ve always made me feel that he’s going to be OK.”

Childhood trauma isn’t new, but the job this district created to address it is — meet Melisa Sandoval

2020-02-05T23:32:31+00:00

There’s a lot Melisa Sandoval wants educators to know about childhood trauma.

But perhaps the most important thing is this: It’s not a life sentence.

The brain can heal from trauma with the right relationships and environment, said Sandoval, the director of social emotional learning and student agency for the 9,000-student Westminster School District in suburban Denver.

“There’s hope,” she said.

While Sandoval estimates that more than two-thirds of district students have experienced at least one significant “adverse childhood experience,” such as abuse, neglect or the death of a parent, she doesn’t want teachers getting overwhelmed by the numbers.

That’s why part of her job — a new position created last summer — is to give teachers the tools to address trauma and teach social and emotional skills. This can mean helping students improve communication, exercise self control, and learn how to solve conflicts.

Sandoval, a former therapist, mental health interventionist, and assistant principal in the district, recently became the first person to earn a new Trauma-Skilled Specialist certification from the National Dropout Prevention Center.

She talked to Chalkbeat about building a trauma leadership team, the advice she has for parents, and how she relaxes from the pressures of the job.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Can you tell me about your own background and how that influenced what you’re doing now?
I grew up with parents who were educators. My mom had her own child care center in New Mexico, so I was a preschool teacher for awhile. I started out in art education at the Denver Art Museum and then I went to Jefferson County Public Schools and became an art teacher there.

What I found was that I just connected with those students who would come in in tears or they had a problem at home or something was bothering them. I found myself spending a lot of time with them one on one and I wanted to spend more time. I went back to school and got a masters in counseling psychology and counselor education in 2006.

Tell me a little bit about your new job.
Adult social and emotional learning has been a big emphasis this year because really, it starts with us. We can’t expect our students to learn social-emotional skills unless we are educating ourselves, practicing social-emotional skills, and we know what we’re looking for.

One of my first projects was forming a trauma leadership team. I didn’t think I was actually going to have to go through a selection process, but the number of people who wanted to be on the team was astounding. I wound up with a team of 11 leaders. We’ve developed a series of [training] modules about trauma. We’ve received a really positive response from the teachers.

What we know about trauma is you can’t just walk into a room and see which student is traumatized. We need to make sure we’re infusing universal practices for everyone and making sure we have supports in place for any student who might be impacted by trauma.

What kinds of trauma are students experiencing?
What we see in our kids is more what we’d call developmental trauma. It’s essentially ongoing adverse experiences that happen to a person while their brain is developing. So, physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, severe neglect, losing a loved one, especially in a traumatic way. Our goal is not to stop and label everybody with trauma. It’s more to make sure we’re providing support for people who might have experienced it.

What advice would you give to parents of adolescents?
Be involved and keep the communication lines open. Don’t be afraid to talk about issues. Be aware of how your child is doing in school and what they’re doing on social media. Familiarizing yourself with different social media apps is important. Social media can be a positive and a negative. You can have that sense of belonging and community, which we know they need. But then there might be the cyberbullying side of things.

What do you do if teachers are unenthusiastic about trauma-informed practices or social-emotional learning?
In true mental health fashion, you meet them where they are. Is there some resistance? Sure. Some people feel like, “I went into education to just do math or just do reading and they should go see the counselor if they have an emotional problem.” One thing we have to consider with that model is that pulling a kid out of their environment is taking away that sense of belonging and community, which is exactly what the research shows kids need in order for the brain to heal from trauma.

What are the biggest misconceptions about trauma among educators?
Sometimes, there are people who say, “Because this person has trauma does that mean we can’t hold them accountable for their behaviors?” That’s one of the things we talk about in our professional development: How do you balance nurturing with accountability when you’re using a discipline system or a classroom management system?

On the other hand, I think there’s also the misconception that behaviors are always within someone’s control. I think that’s a slippery slope. You have to have an understanding of the person and the behavior to be able to make that assessment.

Another misconception is that trauma is new. Trauma’s not new. Recently, we’ve been talking so much about trauma-informed practice, which is great, but trauma has existed since the beginning of time.

What’s the best piece of advice you’ve received about working in mental health?
You can’t feed the birds unless your own bird feeder is full. That’s something that really resonates with me with trauma because you have to make sure you’re taking care of yourself to make sure you’re effectively taking care of someone else.

How do you make sure your “bird feeder” is full?
I do a lot of meditation, walking around our lake, and photography. I love to photograph wildlife.

What are you reading for enjoyment?
I just finished “Becoming” by Michelle Obama. I’m listening to an audio book called “The Art of Communicating” by Thich Nhat Hanh. It’s all about what you put into your body, but it has nothing to do with food.

Here’s why cold toes and hungry bellies matter to this Colorado STEM teacher

2020-02-03T21:14:22+00:00

Here, in a feature we call How I Teach, we ask educators who’ve been recognized for their work how they approach their jobs. You can see other pieces in the series here.

Rachel Calus makes an effort to notice the little things in her fourth grade classroom. She pays attention to the students who lack the right footwear for a snowy walk to school or don’t have the proper paperwork to receive free lunches. She knows children can’t learn if their basic needs aren’t met.

“They don’t always say something, so I have to be aware,” said Calus, who teaches at STEM Launch K-8 school in the Denver suburb of Thornton.

Calus is one of four Colorado teachers to receive the “2019 Best Should Teach” award from the school of education at the University of Colorado Boulder. She talked to Chalkbeat about her decision to pursue education instead of architecture, why “math monsters” figure into her lessons, and how she got to the bottom of a student’s language struggles.

This interview has been condensed and lightly edited.

Was there a moment when you decided to become a teacher?
When I was young I always thought I wanted to be a teacher, but I was encouraged to pursue other things. I had a fifth grade teacher that convinced me to become an architect. When I started my bachelor’s degree I was enrolled in the architecture program. I only made it a year before I figured it wasn’t for me.

I finished with a degree in psychology, thinking I wanted to be a child counselor. I spent a couple years after college working with nonprofit groups and eventually ended up at a child care center. I fell in love! While I was working as the assistant in the kindergarten room I made the choice to go back to school. I took classes at night to get my teaching license and master’s degree in education.

How do you get to know your students?
I start by sharing things I like to do. We talk about weekend plans and the shows we watch. You can learn a lot about a student by hearing about their after-school activities. I try to make sure I stay current on the things they watch and play. While I am not an expert on Minecraft and Fortnite, I learn by asking questions and taking in interest. Once you find that connection with kids they feel comfortable and are willing to talk more.

Tell us about a favorite lesson to teach. Where did the idea come from?
My favorite lesson to teach is about partial products, which is a method for breaking up multi-digit multiplication problems into smaller pieces. In order to teach the partial products algorithm, we created what we call the math monster. Because there are so many steps, it is easy for kids to mess up.

So, I connect each piece of the problem to a part of the monster. The horns tell us how many parts on each side. The ears tell us how many combinations there are. It becomes a way for them to check their work. When people come in to watch us, they always giggle to hear us talking about horns and ears when we are multiplying.

What’s something happening in the community that affects what goes on inside your class?
I teach in a community where a majority of the students come from low-income families. I worry about their basic needs as well as their academics. I watch for kids who don’t bring a snack. I ask them if they ate breakfast. I make sure they get lunch. While most of our kids receive free and reduced-price lunches, there are always a few that don’t have the correct paperwork turned in. When they get the negative lunch balance statements, I always make sure they get something in the account even if I have to put it in myself.

I pay attention to clothes and shoes. A lot of students walk to school and during the cold winter months, don’t always have what they need to stay warm. Cold wet toes or a hungry belly would keep any kid from learning. They don’t always say something, so I have to be aware.

Tell us about a memorable time — good or bad — when contact with a student’s family changed your perspective or approach.
A couple years ago, I had a student who I was concerned about academically. He was new to our building and our district so we had very little information on him. He had been born in the U.S. and had been continuously enrolled in school. He was making progress but was still really struggling with the English language.

After talking with his parents at fall conferences I learned that his previous education had been mostly in Spanish. It explained why his English proficiency was so low. With this information we were able to change our approach. We are an English-only school, but we were able to pull on the educational background he had from his Spanish-language school. We were able to make connections for him a lot faster. His growth increased and his speed of language acquisition was impressive.

What was your biggest misconception that you initially brought to teaching?
I knew I would become invested in the students I teach, but I had no idea how impactful that would be. I spend more time at home thinking about the well-being of my students and my families than I do lesson planning. After 14 years of teaching I still have students and families I keep in touch with.

What are you reading for enjoyment?
I just finished reading “Sabrina and Corina” by Kali Fajardo-Anstine.

What’s the best advice you’ve received about teaching?
The best advice I received was to treat your custodial staff with the utmost respect. They are the backbone of your building and they are there when you need them the most.

Denver students: ‘You cannot teach American history without teaching African American history’

2020-01-27T23:49:56+00:00

Inspired by what they learned and frustrated they hadn’t been taught it in school, Denver students who visited the national African American history museum last fall are pushing the school district to include more black history in its U.S. history curriculum.

“After experiencing the D.C. trip, I can now say it’s unacceptable for any black student to have to travel over 1,000 miles away in order to be enlightened in the way that I have,” said Kaliah Yizer, a freshman at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Early College in far northeast Denver.

“Growing up, my grandma always reminded me that closed mouths don’t get fed,” freshman Dahni Austin told the district’s school board last week. “We want to learn more about other African Americans who have made a change or stood up for what they believe in.”

It’s wrong, students said, that the black history taught in schools is centered around oppression, with minimal attention paid to the contributions and strength of African Americans. Junior Alana Mitchell said it’s sad she knew Christopher Columbus sailed the ocean blue in 1492, but didn’t know until going to the museum how young Martin Luther King, Jr. was when he died.

“It’s unfair that hundreds of schools in Denver provide the kids of white descent with every inch and minute of their history, but we have almost no recollection of black history,” said sophomore Savoy Proctor. “Please help us become stronger as a unit and wiser as individual kings and queens.”

Denver Public Schools officials were quick to agree. This latest criticism comes on the heels of similar concerns about the way the middle school curriculum treats Native American history.

“The one thing that motivates me to be up here is to be sure students are seen and heard,” said school board Vice President Jennifer Bacon, who has pushed the district to improve education for its 12,000 black students. “We will partner together to fix our curriculum.”

Some changes are already underway, sparked by a recent district audit of high school history curriculum that found it lacking in diverse narratives, said Tamara Acevedo, deputy superintendent of academics. And she promised that there are more to come.

The teachers at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Early College aren’t waiting. They testified that they’re already making major changes to their history curriculum, adding units on the cultural and political history of Africa, American slave rebellions, Marcus Garvey, Tulsa’s Black Wall Street, and Hurricane Katrina’s impact on communities of color, to name a few.

“Our students, as you’ve heard, asked for change,” ninth-grade geography teacher Lindsey Kartchner said. “Our idea of what was good enough in teaching black history was not.”

But black history, the students said, should not be “supplemental” — an add-on to a curriculum that has long focused on white stories. Acevedo said the district doesn’t see it that way.

“The work we’re doing to put in texts and resources that do tell a more complete story and a story that’s important, we don’t see that as supplemental,” she said. “It’s a required part of the curriculum,” and she said the district is coming up with new language to make that clear.

Still, the students and educators at Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Early College are pushing for the type of fundamental change that will make such advocacy unnecessary in the future.

“You cannot teach American history without teaching African American history,” said senior Zyeria Turner-Johnson, whose yearn for knowledge about her past helped inspire the trip to the National Museum of African American History and Culture in October.

“I saw how much my ancestors fought for me to be where I am today and I’m going to continue the fight,” junior Jenelle Nangah, who went on the trip, told the school board last week. “Now my question for you is: Are you fighting with or against us?”

Students and staff from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Early College visited Washington, D.C. in October 2019.

Five takeaways from Colorado’s 2019-20 student census

2020-01-24T02:15:53+00:00

Colorado’s public school enrollment nudged up this year — propelled by changes in full-day kindergarten, according to official numbers released Thursday.

Statewide enrollment this year grew by less than 0.2%, with 913,223 students enrolled this year — 1,687 more than in 2018-19. It’s a slightly bigger increase than last year.

Much of that is due to more students enrolled in full-day kindergarten, an expected development with the state making it free this year for all students.

Thursday’s data also show that 11.6% of public school students, or 106,238 students, were identified as students with special needs. That’s an increase of 4,157 students compared with the previous school year. Across districts, that change was mixed.

Slightly more students have been identified as homeless, and fewer are getting home-schooled.

Here are some of the bigger takeaways:

Several districts are losing students.

Among larger and Front Range districts, Adams 14 suffered the biggest percentage decline in students. This school year, Adams 14 enrolled just over 6,600 students, or 6.4% fewer than the previous year when it had more than 7,000. The district has been losing students for years. Since the fall of 2014, Adams 14 has had a nearly 13% drop in enrollment.

Some of the other districts that had big enrollment losses this year include Sheridan, Littleton, Pueblo City 60, Westminster, and Adams 12.

Some of the districts, including Adams 14 and Pueblo City 60, have had to answer recently to the State Board of Education for low academic performance. At the same time, neighboring districts like Mapleton, which border Adams 14, and Pueblo 70, which borders Pueblo 60, have increased enrollment. Colorado law allow families to enroll in districts outside of where they live. Mapleton was actively recruiting Adams 14 students last year.

As expected, full-day kindergarten enrollment spiked.

The number of Colorado students enrolled in full-day kindergarten jumped by nearly 12,000 students this year, from about 50,000 to nearly 62,000. The 24% increase was no surprise given Gov. Jared Polis’ successful effort last spring to get the legislature to pay for free full-day kindergarten statewide.

Three districts each added more than 1,000 full-day kindergarten students this year, including Cherry Creek with 2,958 more; Douglas County with 1,286 more; and Boulder County with 1,257 more. Several other districts added more than 500 new full-day students, including Adams 12, Littleton, St. Vrain, Jeffco, and Mesa County Valley District 51.

The number of half-day kindergarten slots shrunk accordingly, with only 2,000 Colorado kindergarteners now attending half-day classes, down from more than 13,000 last year.

The number of students who are identified as learning English as a second language decreased significantly.

This year data shows districts identified 13.5% of students as English language learners. They total 123,248, a drop of 2,229 students from last year.

Looking at district level data, Denver schools may have contributed to a significant portion of that decrease. The Denver district has 28,753 English learners this year — a decrease of 1,415 from last year’s 30,168.

Nadia Madan Morrow, Denver’s executive director of English language acquisition, said that anecdotally district officials believe Denver’s cost of living is driving away immigrant students and families.

That may be a factor in why some of Denver’s neighbors — Aurora, Cherry Creek and District 27J in Brighton — saw increases in the number of English learners.

In one case, though, Madan Morrow said a Denver school that served a large population of immigrants from Nepal learned that much of that community has moved to Wyoming.

The high cost of living also means that refugee resettlement agencies are looking elsewhere to place their clients, she said. Another factor is that new federal policies and politics may be decreasing the number of immigrants, she said.

Statewide, the number of students in poverty is holding steady, but some districts are seeing big changes.

This year, 371,804, or 40.7% of all public school students qualified for subsidized lunch, a measure of poverty. That’s an increase of 478 students, or 0.1 percentage points.

But some districts saw big swings. In Aurora, for example, the number of students who qualify for subsidized meals jumped to 29,800, or 74% of all its students, up from 67% in 2018-19. No other large or metropolitan area district had such a drastic change. Westminster had a drop of 3 percentage points in the number of students who qualify, and so did Greeley.

In Denver, this year’s change wasn’t as big. The proportion of students who qualify for free and reduced price lunch dropped from 65% to 64%. The city has seen the largest decline in the metro area since 2014, when 70% of all students qualified for subsidized meals.

In the same period, the Adams 14 district also had a big change, but in the opposite direction. It went from 72% of students qualifying for subsidized lunch to 83% this year.

Online enrollment grew this year — though some observers worry.

About 22,500 students are enrolled in online education programs this year, a nearly 6% bump over last year’s online enrollment of 21,200. More than half of the increase — about 800 students — came from GOAL Academy, a charter high school that offers online programming to nearly 5,000 students from around Colorado. The school is authorized through District 49 in the Colorado Springs area.

Despite continued growth in the online sector, some education leaders are wary of the trend. A 2018 report from the Denver-based advocacy group A Plus Colorado found that students in online schools do worse even than students in low-performing brick-and-mortar schools, and that when districts open online schools, it pulls down their overall performance.

While a 2016 Education Week story labeled GOAL Academy a “virtual mess,” its state rating improved in 2019 — from the second-highest “improvement” rating to the highest “performance” rating.

Denver school board mandates all-gender restrooms in schools and district facilities

2020-01-24T00:47:26+00:00

Each school in Denver must now have at least one all-gender restroom, after the school board unanimously passed a resolution Thursday mandating the practice.

“It is time for us to lead with bold actions,” said Tay Anderson, the school board member who pushed for the resolution. He added that Colorado’s other school districts “are now going to have to follow what we are doing today in Denver.”

All Denver Public Schools buildings already have restrooms labeled “family restroom” or “unisex,” according to Jennifer Song Koeppe, the district’s director of planning, design, and construction. Per the resolution, the district would designate one of those restrooms as all-gender and put up new signage, she said.

All-gender restrooms was a promise Anderson made while campaigning for the board. He was elected in November to an at-large seat, with backing from the Denver teachers union. Anderson is a Denver Public Schools graduate who until recently worked as a restorative practices coordinator at Denver’s North High School. He left that job to serve on the board.

The other school board members resoundingly supported the resolution.

“Our purpose as schools is not only to help students master reading and writing and science and art, but that students know who they are as leaders and their place in the world,” said school board Vice President Jennifer Bacon.

This is not the first time the board has stood in support of the LGBTQ community. In 2018, the board unanimously adopted a resolution in support of transgender students and teachers, in particular, in response to actions by the Trump administration.

The resolution passed Thursday also says the district affirms students’ and teachers’ right to be open about their sexual orientation or gender identity and speak about their family lives. It also says the district will continue to honor students’ gender identity at school.

“The district will work to support adults important to the child on greater acceptance,” it says, “however, the district will not wait for such adult acceptance or require parents’ or guardians’ consent before honoring the student’s self-reported gender identity and gender expression.”

Read the full resolution here.

Aurora students want bus passes to put more college classes and internships within reach

2020-01-23T00:57:47+00:00

Chantelle Lewis, a 12th grade student in Aurora, has a clear goal of what she wants to pursue as a career. She wants to be a medical lawyer.

But in the last two years, she’s had one big thing on her mind when she considers what opportunities to take and which ones to skip: transportation.

“I take the bus everywhere,” Lewis said. “Sometimes it can get expensive.”

Lewis was one of six students who asked the Aurora school board this week to pay for bus passes for high school students who take part in internships, or who take classes at the Community College of Aurora.

Free monthly bus passes would eliminate a barrier so more students can access these opportunities, they say.

“For me it would mean I would have more access,” Lewis said. “I wouldn’t have any trouble getting to where I need to go and I would be able to take more classes rather than limiting myself to the ones offered at the Lowry campus.”

The Lowry campus is closer for her, and therefore cheaper and easier to get to. Without a bus pass, she estimates she spends at least $15 per week on rides to classes. Soon it could be more as she expects to start an internship at UC Health.

It may be good timing for the request, as the district is looking at changes in transportation. The district is soliciting feedback from Aurora parents in a survey about the minimum walking distances it sets for students to qualify for school transportation.

And as part of the district’s work on a new facilities master plan, officials have also said they may consider changes to transportation that could make more school options viable for more students.

Board members thanked the students for their presentation Tuesday night and said they will discuss bus passes.

The students told the board that in the spring and fall of 2019, the Donnell-Kay Foundation experimented with paying for monthly bus passes for students. The foundation paid for 87 bus passes for students doing internships, at a cost of $2,800.

Students shared stories from classmates who said that without the bus pass they would have to walk 45 minutes per day, or in another case, pay up to $70 per week for Uber rides.

Aurora district officials said this semester there are 219 students enrolled in concurrent-enrollment classes at a community college and 63 enrolled in the district’s internship program through Pickens.

Several students and the Donnell-Kay Foundation have also advocated for more affordable transportation, by appealing to Denver and to RTD. In 2018, they successfully lobbied to lower student bus fares and the cost of monthly passes. (Donnell-Kay is a financial supporter of Chalkbeat.)

Student Ariana Rodriguez said that transportation was still a problem because of limited service in her neighborhood.

“I was considering to be a part of the executive internship program, but one of the reasons I did not fully commit to that program was because of the transportation,” Rodriguez said. “In Vista Peak we don’t even have a bus route over there. If there was no bus route to the internship that I wanted to be a part of, I couldn’t even consider it.”

Kerry Smith, the coordinator of the executive internship program, said it’s the first time she heard from a student who was not participating in the program because of transportation.

Smith said she is upfront with students when they apply, and in presentations she gives at schools throughout the district, about the fact that transportation to each internship is not provided.

Still, she says, she works hard to recruit partners who will hire interns in locations near bus routes, and close to Aurora schools.

“We make every attempt to place you in an internship where you aren’t traveling for an hour,” Smith said. “Usually they figure it out.”

Jordan Stewart, another student who also spoke to the board, said that a bus pass still makes things easier.

“I didn’t have my car for the full year, so it was hard to get from Pickens to CCA to back home,” Stewart said. “For me If I had a bus pass, it would have made it a lot easier for me to want to keep doing CCA classes and things like that.”

He and other students said they were thankful for the opportunities the district is already providing.

But he added, “We’re just asking for a little more help to keep pursuing these opportunities.”

Disrespected and excluded as a teen, this transgender teacher wants a different high school experience for today’s students

2020-01-06T19:35:32+00:00

Here, in a feature we call How I Teach, we ask educators who’ve been recognized for their work how they approach their jobs. You can see other pieces in the series here.

High school was rough for Sam Long, a transgender man who started his transition as a teen. He received little support from fellow classmates or teachers — and was even excluded from overnight field trips. The experience was miserable, but ultimately pushed him to pursue a career in education.

“I dreamed of giving a better high school experience to other marginalized students,” said Long, who teaches biology and chemistry at Standley Lake High School in the Denver suburb of Westminster.

Long is part of a new state commission charged with recommending how Colorado educators can include the contributions of minorities in history and civics classes. He talked about incorporating his Asian-American and LGBTQ identities into that work, tweaking conventional biology lessons to be more inclusive, and the impact of funding shortfalls on his students.

This interview has been condensed and lightly edited.

Was there a moment when you decided to become a teacher?

I started my transition as a teenager, and the staff and students in my school were not kind or understanding. I was called by the wrong name and pronouns frequently, I had no safe place to use the restroom, and I was excluded from overnight field trips where student rooming was arranged by gender. But I stuck it out and got my diploma because I knew that a transgender person without a high school education had very limited opportunities in society. Shortly after graduating from high school, I took an interest in a career in teaching. I dreamed of giving a better high school experience to other marginalized students.

How do you get to know your students?

When I introduce myself to students on the first day of school, I talk about a few identities that are important to me – I am a transgender man and a Chinese-American-Canadian. I explain that this is a classroom where we respect all identities and learn together. This communicates to all students that it’s an option to share things about yourself. Then I have my students fill out a survey about themselves. I ask them about the name and pronouns they want to use at school, their academic and extracurricular interests, and access to transportation and Internet at home. This gives me at least a couple of talking points for starting conversations with each student.

How do you go about developing biology curriculum that affirms LGBTQ+ identities in lessons about reproduction, sex, and gender? How do students respond to this content?

In developing gender-inclusive biology curriculum, I often ask the question, “Who is included or excluded by the typical way of teaching?”

As a first lesson on genetics, a typical biology textbook might say, “We get half of our DNA from our mom and half from our dad.” But I know that this is an overgeneralization and if I teach it like that, I will be leaving out students who are adopted or have same-sex parents or transgender parents. So I put that same sentence in my slideshow, “We get half of our DNA from our mom and half from our dad” and ask students if this is true for everyone. At first glance, students say that it’s definitely true, but it doesn’t take them long to realize that it excludes some people. After this, we establish norms of language. We typically use “biological parent” to refer to the two individuals who contribute egg and sperm to an offspring, with the caveat that these are not always the same people that you might consider your parents in a social context. We also talk about the difference between biological sex and gender identity.

As we continue with the genetics unit, we rarely use the terms “mom and dad.” We say that the zygote receives DNA from an egg cell and a sperm cell. This choice of vocabulary is based on scientific research and is more rigorous than using “mom and dad.” Our use of this language is continuous throughout this unit and the next unit on inheritance.

This way of teaching conveys rigorous, accurate science without marginalizing students who don’t fit into the typical model of heterosexual, cisgender — those whose gender identity matches with the sex they were assigned at birth — reproduction. Furthermore, all students find these lessons engaging because they get a more complete understanding of the complex world around them. Diversity is never boring.

What do you hope to accomplish as a member of the Governor’s Commission on History, Culture, Social Contributions, and Civil Government in Education?

The purpose of the commission is to make recommendations to include the history, culture, and social contributions of minorities in the teaching of history and civics. In this case, minorities includes American Indians, Latinos, African Americans, Asian Americans, and the LGBT individuals within these groups.

As a member of the commission, I hope to create resources that make this kind of curriculum accessible to all Colorado teachers. As someone who lives life at the intersection of being an Asian American and an LGBT individual, I hope to highlight intersectionality in my work with the commission. For example, many of the community leaders involved in early LGBT-rights demonstrations like Stonewall and Compton’s Cafeteria were people of color. Also, some of the earliest anti-crossdressing laws in the United States were created in part to target Chinese immigrants.

What’s something happening in the community that affects what goes on inside your class?

My students are directly affected by a lack of funding for education in the state and in Jefferson County School District. Our classroom is cramped and has furniture from the 1980s. This restricts my ability to incorporate movement and to teach in ways other than lecturing. The quality of my lesson planning is impacted by the need to cover classes for other teachers — we have a substitute teacher shortage due to low pay relative to other school districts in the area.

Tell us about a memorable time — good or bad — when contact with a student’s family changed your perspective or approach.

I had a student who failed most of her ninth grade classes and ended up in my class again the following year. The second time around, her attendance, attitude, and class work were noticeably improved. On parent-teacher conference night, she brought her mom to my desk to hear about her progress. At first, I wanted to say, “Your daughter is doing fine in my class now,” and move on to the parents of students who needed more intervention. But I realized that this was perhaps a rare opportunity for the mom to hear something positive about her daughter after a very rough period. I took the time to recount a few of the daughter’s specific successes to the mom. I said that I was proud of her and I offered to help find an extracurricular program aligned with the student’s interests, which were art and health care. Every student deserves to celebrate their success and explore their interests.

What part of your job is most difficult?

Currently, my biggest challenge is managing my time. We can always do more or do better – build stronger relationships with students, be more involved in schoolwide initiatives, give more detailed grading feedback, make a lesson more engaging and effective. I feel that with effort I can improve in any one of these, but I need to balance my efforts.

What was your biggest misconception that you initially brought to teaching?

I used to think that teaching was all about the content – in my case, science content knowledge. I learned that teaching is also about people, and I have come to enjoy working with people.

What are you reading for enjoyment?

“Would You Convict?: Seventeen Cases That Challenged the Law” by Paul H. Robinson

What’s the best advice you’ve received about teaching?

A more experienced teacher once told me, “You can do anything, but you can’t do everything.” I regularly repeat this advice to myself when I am facing many priorities and deadlines.

Our top stories of 2019 — and what to look for in 2020

2019-12-20T22:51:05+00:00

From the Denver teachers strike to a school safety panic that closed hundreds of Front Range schools to the launch of free full-day kindergarten statewide, Colorado education news made headlines last year.

Other top stories of the year include the closely watched election that “flipped” the Denver school to a union-backed majority, the thorny takeover of the struggling Adams 14 school district by an external manager, and the passage of new laws and policies on student discipline.

As we head into 2020, we thought we’d take a moment to round up our top stories of 2019 and let you know what to expect next year. If you’d like to share a story idea or comment with us, reach out at co.tips@chalkbeat.org.

Full-day kindergarten

Free full-day kindergarten is coming. Here’s what Colorado parents need to know.

This has been a dream of education advocates and cash-strapped parents for decades. With a new governor who campaigned on expanding kindergarten and a strong economy bringing in more revenue, lawmakers finally took the plunge and funded full-day kindergarten for Colorado students.

What’s next: More than 90% of eligible students enrolled in kindergarten this fall, more than state officials predicted. Education advocates hope to see big payoffs from this investment, with more children reading at grade level and even graduating high school on time. The next big push: Free preschool for more Colorado 4-year-olds.

Denver teachers strike

How a once-promising merit pay system led Denver teachers to the brink of a strike

Teachers in Colorado’s largest school district went on strike for three days in February, the first teacher strike in Denver in 25 years. The dispute was not only about higher pay but also about widespread dissatisfaction with a merit pay system that advocates had hoped would transform the teaching profession. By the end of that strike, teachers won both raises and significant changes to the ProComp system.

What’s next: Viewed narrowly, what remains to be seen is whether the new pay structure caused more teachers to return to the district this year than in years past and to stay on the job long-term. The strike also set the stage for a union-backed majority to win control of the Denver school board, potentially setting in motion much bigger changes.

A historic school board election

Why the Denver school board ‘flipped’ and what might happen next

Carried by momentum from February’s teachers strike and a broader backlash against the status quo, candidates opposed to the policies that made Denver Public Schools a national exemplar for education reform took control the school board for the first time.

What’s next: With a former teacher as president and a majority of members backed by the teachers union, the Denver school board will tackle several complicated issues in 2020. One of the biggest? How to “reimagine” the district’s controversial school rating system.

School safety

‘Nothing makes me feel safe.’ How Colorado educators and parents are processing yet another school shooting.

A school shooting in May at STEM School Highlands Ranch took the life of Kendrick Castillo injured eight others, and sent shockwaves through the Denver metro area. The attack took place less than a month after hundreds of schools shut down due to reports that a troubled young woman obsessed with the Columbine had made unspecified threats to schools. Both events revived long-running conversations about school safety, gun control, and mental health but provided no easy answers.

What’s next: State lawmakers are expected to take up a host of school safety related bills, and school districts continue to revise safety procedures. But changes are likely to be incremental. Statistically speaking, schools will remain very safe places, but teachers, students, and parents will continue to live with a gnawing fear in the background.

Early literacy

Concerned about reading instruction, state cracks down on teacher prep programs, starting with Colorado’s largest

Last February, Colorado’s education department released a scathing review of the University of Northern Colorado teacher prep program, criticizing it for offering reading courses that don’t match up with literacy research. The review came amid ongoing concern about Colorado’s low reading proficiency rates. State leaders also updated the state’s 2012 landmark reading law — the READ Act — with tougher rules, launched a multimillion dollar external audit of how schools and districts spend READ Act money, and authorized a pilot program for dyslexia screening.

What’s next: Consultants will dig into how schools and districts are using about $40 million a year meant to boost third-grade reading proficiency. In addition, the state will continue to scrutinize courses on reading instruction in teacher prep programs. Fort Lewis College in Durango is up next. And the University of Northern Colorado will have to prove it has complied with five state conditions, in order to keep its reauthorization.

Adams 14 in turnaround

Adams 14 defends bilingual model as the district’s new plan for English learners

In the Commerce City-based district of Adams 14, a private company is managing the school district as a last resort imposed by the state to try to improve education. It’s a first for Colorado. The district serves more English language learners than any other in the state, as a share of its student population, and turnaround efforts include yet another plan for how to teach them. That plan raised some concerns from parents who favored the previous approach, which was put on hold.

What’s next: The state is keeping a close eye on what MGT Consulting, the private company, is doing to improve Adams 14 schools. The district also has new locally elected board members to whom MGT is also accountable. Helping English language learners will be essential if test scores are to improve, but it’s just one of many initiatives being pursued by the external manager.

Student discipline

From dozens of suspensions to one: How this Colorado school stopped removing young children

After years of effort, state lawmakers limited out-of-school suspensions and expulsions for students in preschool through second grade. Even before the law changed, one Jeffco elementary that previously had some of the district’s highest early childhood suspension numbers radically changed how it approaches discipline, providing lessons for other schools undertaking this work.

What’s next: Expect to see more districts and schools examine their discipline practices in the early grades to ensure compliance with the new law. Plus, with state data showing out-of-school suspension numbers by grade, it will be easy to see which districts and schools have — and have not — curbed the use of suspensions.

Handcuffed in Denver in fifth grade: ‘Whenever I shut my eyes, I saw the cuffs’

Eleven-year-old Jake DiProfio was handcuffed at school four times this year. The experience left him with nightmares, scars on his wrists, and a visceral fear of police. Faced with stories like Jake’s and others, including the handcuffing of the 7-year-old son of a parent activist, the Denver school board banned the use of handcuffs in elementary schools this year. Data shows that black students and students with disabilities are far more likely to be handcuffed at school.

What’s next: As part of a new policy that bans the use of handcuffs on elementary school students, Denver Public Schools is more closely tracking how many times its school safety officers use handcuffs and on whom. The first “trimester transparency report” was filed in November, and the district will produce two more before the end of the school year.

Changing demographics

Aurora lists campuses that could become magnet schools, or could be ‘repurposed’

Rising rents are pushing families out of some parts of Aurora, while developers plan new subdivisions in the city’s eastern edge. As population shifts leave some schools half-empty and others crowded, Aurora is looking at a new facilities master plan. As part of that process, the Aurora school district released a list of schools for potential “repurposing.”

What’s next: Teams of educators and community members have been formed in each region of the district, with recommendations expected in two regions this spring. First, representatives of each region will determine focus areas for their schools. With that as a guide, the recommendations could include merging schools, closing schools, finding other uses for school buildings, as well as suggestions for creating future schools in growing areas.

Student mental health

‘It’s OK to not be OK’: How one high school saved lives with a 34-question survey

Staff at Cañon City High School in southern Colorado use a 34-question mental health survey to pinpoint teens who need help. In the first year of the program, district staff identified a dozen high-risk students and immediately referred them to community-based mental health crisis teams for formal evaluations. Some of those students had concrete plans to kill themselves.

What’s next: Identifying and supporting students with mental health issues continues to be a massive issue in Colorado. State lawmakers are considering several proposals for the 2020 legislative session that would address youth mental health. They include bills to allow schools to excuse “mental health” sick days, reorganize the Safe2Tell anonymous tip line, expand mental health training for teachers, and require insurance companies to cover annual mental health check-ups.

Chalkbeat reporters Melanie Asmar and Yesenia Robles contributed to this roundup.

Helping kids by texting their parents? Here’s what experts say about this exploding strategy.

2019-12-17T20:18:54+00:00

Texting programs aimed at parents of young children have proliferated over the last several years as smart phones have become ubiquitous and health and education groups look for new ways to get kids on track early.

They have names like Bright By Text, Vroom, Ready4K, Text4baby and Text2LiveHealthy. Some are open to all parents of young children, providing tips on activities that promote talking, reading, and learning. Others are more tightly focused, for instance targeting low-income parents whose children attend certain schools.

There’s evidence that such interventions can provide valuable nudges that help change behavior in parents and thus change the experiences their young children have. A 2014 study co-authored by the Stanford University researcher who later spun Ready4K into a commercial product, found that offering advice for parents via text on building early literacy skills increased the number of home literacy activities parents did with their children, upped parental involvement at school, and led to literacy gains among preschoolers.

Denver parent Bridget Gillogley, who has a 14-month-old daughter named Rory, signed up for Bright By Text a few months ago on the advice of a friend. Although she works as an early childhood special educator and knows a lot about child development, she said the text message tips suggest quick, easy activities she wouldn’t always think to pluck from her professional repertoire. For example, when she got a text message about creating different kinds of lines with a drawing utensil, she and Rory tried it out with crayons and paper, a stick in the sandbox and their fingers in shaving cream.

The messages give “you these little ideas on ways to engage with your child and things to look for.” Gillogley said. “What I really, really like about it is it’s not a huge commitment.”

The ease of text messaging is also a boon for program creators. Such interventions are far cheaper, less labor intensive, and easier to scale than common early childhood programs such as home visiting or parenting classes.

Experts say well-designed text message programs can make a meaningful difference for some children and families. Still, they’re no cure-all.

Ariel Kalil, a professor of public policy at the University of Chicago who has studied text messaging interventions, said, “You’re not going to text a family out of a violent neighborhood.”

Another researcher, Ben Castleman, said the low cost of texting campaigns can be alluring, but shouldn’t overshadow hard questions about whether they work.

“The inexpensiveness can be a distraction from whether these campaigns are effective when we scale them,” said Castleman, a professor at the University of Virginia who’s studied text messaging interventions that boost college enrollment and completion

We talked to researchers who’ve studied this strategy and the organizations that run texting programs to find out how and when texting is effective and the caveats that come with it.

Combating “behavior bottlenecks”

Kalil’s team recently studied the use of text messages to encourage Chicago Head Start parents to get their children to school every day. The intervention, called “Show Up to Grow Up” increased daily attendance and reduced chronic absenteeism among participants. Some of the texts provided personalized information, such as how many days a child had been absent in recent weeks or what they’d learn in class on a given day if they showed up. Others offered planning tips such as putting the child’s shoes by the door the night before to make it easier to get out of the house.

Kalil said purveyors of text messaging programs need to understand parents’ behavior bottlenecks — the things that prevent them from doing the things they aspire to do. The problem could be as simple as procrastination or disorganization.

“If you can understand what is standing in the way of a parent knowing and wanting to do something,” text message interventions can be effective, she said.

One size doesn’t fit all

A recent study that compared a 25-week literacy-themed texting program with a health-themed texting program — both aimed at parents of preschoolers in Virginia — showed that the two had different benefits for different children. Researchers found that children with higher literacy skills at the start of preschool gained more from parent texts about reading stories, learning letters, and writing words, and that children with lower literacy skills saw bigger literacy gains when their parents received texts about nutrition, sleep habits, and other health topics.

Sonia Cabell, a professor at Florida State University and the study’s lead author, said, “Our cautionary note basically was, one size might not fit all and we need to have more research to help understand this better.”

She said she’s interested in finding out whether folding language and literacy texts into health and well-being texts would be more broadly effective.

Personalize it

This personalization push has increasingly led texting programs to customize messages to parents based on their language, location, and the age and needs of their child.

Personalization takes lots of forms — from something as simple as using the child’s name in messages to providing specific data about a child’s school attendance or performance.

The Denver-based nonprofit Bright By Text has begun sending parents text messages on community events like library storytimes, flu clinics, or free children’s museum days. It’s all based on the ZIP code they entered when they first signed up.

Subscribers — parents who are expecting and those with children up to age 8 — usually get one community event message a week and at least a couple more with brain development, health, and early learning tips based on their child’s age. Both types of texts come from a raft of partner organizations, including the city of Denver, which puts special emphasis on community resources in six high-poverty neighborhoods.

Bright By Text, which is free to any parent or caregiver, has more than 70,000 subscribers nationwide, with localized event texts now available in about half the states.

Jared Wigdor, vice president and chief development officer for Bright By Text, said 20% to 40% of Colorado subscribers click the links in local event texts — the organization’s most popular kind of message.

Ready4K, a texting program now run by the San Francisco Bay Area company ParentPowered, is experimenting with a new personalized program that uses a child’s developmental screening to send families messages specific to their child’s needs as well as links to referrals and services.

Rebecca Honig, director of content at ParentPowered, called the personalized version of the program, which is rolling out now in one region of California, “our next great frontier.”

More than 200,000 parents of children up to fourth grade already get Ready4K messages about learning activities through its traditional program, which tailors the messages based on the child’s age. Preschools, schools or school districts in all 50 states pay ParentPowered so their families can receive texts.

The 2014 study from Stanford researchers, one of whom later became the CEO of ParentPowered, found the traditional program leads to two to three months of learning gains by the time children enter kindergarten. A 2018 study by the CEO and three Stanford researchers found that texts personalized based on a child’s skills leads to four to five months of learning gains.

Layering with other interventions

While some text messaging programs are designed as stand-alone products, others supplement traditional interventions. One example, Text2LiveHealthy, is a two-year-old Colorado program aimed at low-income preschool parents. The program, funded by the federal food subsidy program SNAP, is meant to increase consumption of fruits and vegetables, reduce consumption of sugary drinks, and increase physical activity among children.

It builds on nutrition and exercise lessons incorporated into preschool classrooms, parent newsletters, family fun events, and a six-week parenting class. The text message program now has 3,000 subscribers in 11 Colorado counties. It includes three texts a week, including one on a local resource, such as a farmers market or free summer meals for children.

Jini Puma, associate director of the Rocky Mountain Prevention Research Center, said the six-week parenting class represents the “Cadillac” version of the program, but that it was a big ask for parents with multiple jobs or other conflicts.

Texting, she said, is “super effective to use in this way, where it’s part of a multilevel intervention.”

Breaking down barriers to access

In theory, text messaging is accessible to almost everyone. A 2019 Pew Research Center report found that 96% of Americans have a cell phone, with the proportion jumping to 99% for people ages 18 to 49.

But those who design text messaging programs to boost school readiness or child health say language and cultural relevance matter, too. Text2LiveHealthy translators not only convert text messages into Spanish, but also tweak the content to better adapt to a Hispanic audience.

For example, an English text that provides a recipe for a holiday apple walnut salad is matched with a Spanish text that recommends using vegetable or canola oil in place of lard when making tamales for the holidays.

Puma said one-third of the program’s 3,000 subscribers receive the texts in Spanish. Based on the results of parent surveys asking if recipients made a positive change based on a texted tip, the program is even more effective for Spanish-speaking participants.

At ParentPowered, besides translating and adapting Ready4K texts for Spanish and Arabic-speaking parents, program leaders don’t include links in most of their texts. The idea is to ensure that parents without data plans or internet access can get the same information as everyone else right on their phone’s text message screen.

Kalil, of the University of Chicago, said text messaging services that provide school readiness tips or other expertise to parents of young children are so inexpensive, they’re easy to offer to any interested parents. Still, she said, program designers must find ways to reach low-income populations who stand to benefit most from the content.

“What would be unfortunate is if only high-income parents responded and in doing so you increased inequality,” she said.

What happened when Denver student journalists wrote about racist taunts at soccer games

2019-12-06T23:34:53+00:00

Denver student journalists writing about racist taunts at high school boys’ soccer games sparked a change that could help prevent similar incidents in the future.

On Tuesday, students and staff from Bruce Randolph School and DSST: Byers met to draft a “fan policy” that will be read aloud before each school’s sports games. It says fans should be “positive role models,” and that antagonistic or hateful behavior won’t be tolerated.

The meeting happened after two student journalists at Bruce Randolph wrote a story about several incidents of racism and taunting, including one at a November boys’ soccer playoff game between their school and DSST: Byers, a Denver charter school.

According to the story, a fan yelled, “Don’t worry, at the end of the game, Trump will round up these boys!” More than 90 percent of students at Bruce Randolph identify as Latino or Hispanic. President Trump has overseen a crackdown on immigrants without legal status, and promised to build a wall between the United States and Mexico.

It wasn’t the first time racist comments were directed toward Bruce Randolph students at sports games, nor are they the only Denver athletes who have experienced racism.

A few days after the story was published in mid-November, the principal at Bruce Randolph told the student journalists to take it off the website of the school newspaper, called The Paw Print. The reason, Principal Melissa Boyd said in an email to Chalkbeat, was “to help our students make their story better.” She said it was the first time she’d ever pulled a story.

“Because I was out of town, I never saw a final copy of the piece and was not able to approve it,” Boyd said in the email. “Also, there has been a lot of efforts made related to the resolution of this issue that were not included in the story.”

The DSST: Byers principal credits the students’ story for catalyzing those efforts.

“It helped highlight the impact of that incident and the depth of that impact and got all parties to a point to say, ‘Yep, we need to address this now and we need to do something concrete about it,’” said Elin Curry, principal at DSST: Byers.

Gisselle Tarango is one of two students who wrote the story. She was at Tuesday’s meeting where the fan policy was drafted and said it was helpful for her and the Bruce Randolph athletes to hear from the DSST: Byers athletes that they too were disappointed in how the fan acted.

“I felt like that meeting was really helpful because that way, we had the two points of view and how both teams felt,” said Tarango, a 17-year-old senior.

Afterward, Tarango said her principal told her that if she revised her original story to include the details of the meeting and the new fan policy, the principal would read and re-publish it. In her email to Chalkbeat, Boyd said the students “are in the process of finalizing their story right now, and it will be back on The Paw Print website soon.”

Tarango is happy about that possibility. In her two years writing for the newspaper, she said this was the first story she felt had the potential to improve student life.

Tarango said she knew the story was potentially controversial, but she decided to write it anyway. She had been at the games where this year’s incidents occurred. She and her co-author emailed the principals at the opposing schools for comment, including Curry.

“Even though we knew it was going to bring a lot of problems, I felt like the right thing was for people to know the world we live in,” Tarango said.

Curry said she was proud of Tarango for contacting her, and for writing the story. DSST: Byers officials already knew about the Trump comment and were discussing how to address it, she said. “When Gisselle reached out, it was like, ‘Yep, this is terrible and super disappointing, and we want to do whatever we can to move forward,’” Curry said.

“There was never a moment where I was upset about the article being published,” Curry added. “That is good journalism. It is about somebody telling their story.”

Tarango said she’s hoping to have the revisions done this week. And she already has an idea for her next story. The topic? Good sportsmanship.

Denver to change curriculum that educators said ‘eliminates the Native American perspective’

2019-12-03T23:56:29+00:00

Until very recently, Denver’s eighth-grade social studies curriculum asked students to identify the challenges faced by settlers as they moved West in the 1800s — but not those faced by the Native Americans whose land they took.

Denver Public Schools officials are now revising that curriculum. Tamara Acevedo, deputy superintendent of academics, said in a statement that the district has removed that particular “performance task” and is re-writing it.

“It is imperative that our curriculum reflects our students and our core value of equity,” she said. “It is also imperative that we receive feedback from our community and appreciate when people raise concerns as we must all work on tackling historical patterns of inequity.”

The changes come after a Denver high school principal, who is a member of the Klamath tribe of Oregon, expressed horror with the curriculum — and frustration that it hadn’t yet been changed. Stacy Parrish, principal at Northeast Early College in the Montbello neighborhood, said she first told the district her concerns about the eighth-grade social studies curriculum a year ago, after a candidate for a job at her school taught a lesson from it as part of an interview.

Parrish repeated those concerns at a Nov. 21 meeting of the Denver school board.

During public comment, Parrish told the board she was horrified to learn “that genocide, slaughter and the cultural annihilation of millions of Native Americans could also be [couched] as positive social, geographic, and economic motivations.”

“As a Native employee, I keep feeling erased,” Parrish told Chalkbeat in an interview.

Even the title of the social studies unit, “Expanding Nation,” is triggering, she said.

“The nation was already here,” Parrish said. “As you get into the unit, it’s very indicative of how far behind the times we are with what we mean when we say ‘equity.’ … It really eliminates the Native American perspective, which should be at the forefront of how we’re teaching this.”

For example, the curriculum suggests that teachers who want to “add rigor and relevance” to the unit could ask students to write about whether the settlers’ actions were justified.

Carol Tisdale, the early college coordinator at Northeast Early College, also addressed the school board. She recalled how as a first-year middle school social studies teacher 20 years ago, she had to find ways to supplement the Euro-centric curriculum she was given.

“I was appalled to learn that the myths and untruths that I was taught in the ’80s, that I was given in the 2000s to teach from, was still being taught today,” Tisdale said. “I really urge you to look at our curriculum, to challenge the entire DPS team, to do what we say we value and to recognize the ugly truths of our history, both in the past and the present.”

Denver’s eighth-grade social studies curriculum was selected by a group of Denver educators, with community members invited to give feedback, Acevedo said. Called “American History: Beginnings Through Reconstruction,” it comes from a national textbook publisher, though Acevedo said the “performance tasks” were designed by a team of Denver teachers.

“Recently, we were given feedback regarding a performance task,” Acevedo said. “This performance task has been removed and is being rewritten to address the feedback.”

In addition, Acevedo said the entire eighth-grade U.S. history curriculum is undergoing a review by “a diverse team of teachers” and the district’s new culturally responsive education department. The high school history curriculum was audited by the same team this past summer, she said, with revisions to be completed by next school year. Also under review, Acevedo said: the internal process of reviewing curriculum, with an eye toward equity.

Superintendent Susana Cordova has made equity a cornerstone of her approach, with a particular focus on improving education for the black and Latino students who make up the majority of Denver’s 92,000 students. Fewer than 1% of Denver students identify as Native American. Both Native American students and staff have said they feel overlooked.

“It’s not my job to be the face of the race to point this out to the curriculum writers in the district,” Parrish said. “I need people employed in our district to recognize this.”

Across borders, through detention, and into Colorado classrooms: The journey of solo children

2019-11-22T00:40:04+00:00

At 15, he made the long, frightening trek across Central America and the U.S.-Mexico border with a smuggler. Then he continued on an even longer journey, in search of his father in Colorado.

But what sent William into despair, and depression that pushed him to cut himself, happened in a U.S. holding center for migrant children: a long detention, a bout with tuberculosis, and the fear of never seeing his family again.

Every year hundreds of children are arriving in Colorado schools with uniquely challenging stories after crossing the border into the U.S. without their parents.

William — who asked that we withhold his real name, out of fear of jeopardizing his quest for citizenship — was one of the earlier unaccompanied minors arriving in the United States after fleeing life-threatening conditions at home.

School districts don’t keep track of whether their students are unaccompanied minors, and teachers say they would only learn about such a background if a student chooses to share it.

Chalkbeat took a look at the numbers of unaccompanied children who are resettling in Colorado and who these children are, as part of a Migrahack event organized by the Colorado Media Project and the University of Denver. Migrahack brings together journalists, community partners, web developers, and designers to use data to tell a fuller story about immigration in our community.

Some unaccompanied minors have one or two of their parents living in the U.S., but are considered unaccompanied if they crossed the border without a parent or legal guardian.

In the past year, the number of children getting released to a parent, relative, or other sponsor here in Colorado has more than doubled, with the majority being released to homes in Arapahoe County. According to U.S. Department of Health and Human Services data, 182 children were released to homes in Arapahoe County from October 2018 to September 2019.

Video produced by Yesenia Robles, Kaley LaQuea, Hannah Brown, Jessie Kriebel.

William, who is now 21, arrived in Westminster as a 15-year-old after a long journey north across borders.

After his uncle ousted a marijuana operation in his hometown in Guatemala, threats were made on William’s life. His mother worried that one day he would vanish on his way home from school, so she sent him with a smuggler to meet up with his dad who was in Colorado.

William’s group was caught just after crossing into the U.S. He says he was scared, unsure what was going to happen next.

“Everyone was crying,” William said. “An agent asked me how old I was. When I told him I was 15, they said everything was going to be fine for me.”

But it took a while.

First, he was held for processing in a cold, smelly room, he said, while they located his dad and started his paperwork. Then, he was transported to a temporary facility. It had concrete floors, a shared toilet, and wire cages. Some of the children said the food was drugged. He saw some with blisters on their wrists from the handcuffs. Toddlers were crying, he said, and children had to share a single blanket.

After two days, much of which William said he doesn’t remember, he was flown to Chicago, to stay in a better equipped holding center while the government tried to verify whether his dad was really his dad, and whether his home would be suitable for William.

At that center, William was required to take classes and was allowed some recreation time outside.

“We had classes to learn English, and supposedly to learn how to read,” William said. “They taught us that we shouldn’t ever touch a white person because, they would say, ‘you don’t want to get arrested.’”

A few days in, William got sick. The doctors told him it was tuberculosis and started him on treatment. William fell into a depression. He worried that he would never see his family. Some of the other children had been there for months.

“I started cutting myself,” he said. When a counselor from the facility found out, she had him call his dad to tell him.

His dad asked him to stop, and William said he did. After about a month at that facility, one day officials suddenly told him to pack up his things and wait for a ride — at 2 a.m. He was picked up, transported to the airport, and after a flight where the anticipation filled him with nausea, he reunited with his dad in Colorado.

He enrolled in school when classes were well into the second semester.

“It was terrible,” William said. “I didn’t understand anything. I had to take a history class with all the other kids and math and science, but I didn’t know what I was doing. I was just going to class just to go.”

He recalls being told to sit next to another student who spoke Spanish, who the teacher hoped would guide him. But William was ashamed and afraid, and struggled for more than a year to get adjusted in school.

Some school districts, including Westminster, have classes for new immigrant students, which could include unaccompanied minors, to get extra support for learning the English language. Some districts programs also group newcomers with other students with similar backgrounds.

But in many districts any teacher may be responsible for helping these students.

High school teacher Leticia Guzman Ingram works with newcomer students at her school in Basalt, teaching them English and culture for two hours a day. She has worked with students who are unaccompanied minors, and encourages other teachers to build relationships with all of their students, to get to know their background so they can connect students to whatever resources they need.

“It’s so important to get to know them and to see where they come from,” Guzman Ingram said. “All of us have different struggles. But we need to understand there are challenges and there’s also strengths.”

In her class with newcomers, Guzman Ingram takes students into the community to practice their English. They go to the supermarket, and students must ask questions in English to locate things they might need to shop for.

“It’s all so they can feel safe in their community,” she said.

Home visits are another key that Guzman Ingram advocates for in teaching newcomers and other students.

She recalls a time when she did a home visit for a student that was falling asleep in class and missing homework assignments.

“I was ready to lecture this mom, but when I found her, I was so lucky, she told me her story first,” Guzman Ingram said. It turns out the student had picked up a job, working until 2 a.m.

“I couldn’t believe it, this student I thought was lazy was actually such a hard worker,” Guzman Ingram said. “My whole mindset changed.”

She changed how she supported him in school, and talked to his other teachers too.

“If I didn’t hear his story, I think I would have given up and maybe brushed him off,” she said. Instead, the student graduated and is now an electrician, making more money than many teachers, Guzman Ingram said.

William said he eventually found educators he felt safe with in Westminster and who helped him. One of his favorite classes was choir, because singing made it easy to learn English, he said. Now, having graduated, William is in college, hoping to earn a degree in computer science, and maybe a second one in math.

It’s only recently that he entered into counseling, to address the trauma from his trip across the border.

He considers himself lucky. His younger brother recently made the same trip and joined him in Colorado, but William knows his brother went through more difficulties. His brother couldn’t cope in school, and has dropped out. Their dad has since gone back to Guatemala.

William wishes teachers understood students like him and his brother, and were more patient.

“It’s not easy to start a new life in a new country,” he said. “Sometimes you just want to be treated as equal. We’re the same as everyone, we’re not bad people. And we are here because we had no choice. It’s not something we want.”

Clarification: After initially providing incorrect information, the Westminster school district has said it does have a newcomer program. This story has been updated to reflect that.

Colorado has spent hundreds of millions to help kids read. Now, it will spend up to $5.2 million to find out why it’s not working.

2019-11-20T19:00:39+00:00

Colorado’s education department will spend up to $5.2 million over six years on a consultant charged with determining why the state’s 2012 landmark reading law failed to produce significant gains for struggling readers.

The unusual external audit, to be conducted by the nonprofit WestEd, will dig into how the state’s schools are using about $40 million a year meant to boost third-grade reading proficiency. The review could last up to six and a half years.

A state law passed last spring mandated the external evaluation and other steps intended to improve the 2012 law, known as the READ Act. The recent legislation came in the wake of ongoing criticism from lawmakers, parents and literacy advocates about the law’s effectiveness.

Despite hundreds of millions of dollars spent on reading intervention since the READ Act’s inception, just over 41% of Colorado third graders met or exceeded grade-level standards on the state’s 2019 literacy test. The percentage wasn’t much different — 38.2% — in 2015.

The act requires schools to identify struggling readers in kindergarten through third grade and draw on state-approved approaches to help them improve.

The planned evaluation marks a shift toward greater oversight of how districts are helping struggling readers and a new focus on ensuring the state’s money isn’t wasted.

The San Francisco-based WestEd will be paid up to $735,000 for the first five months of work, with the possibility of $750,000 a year for six additional years of work. Education department officials said contract details, including the exact amount WestEd will be paid, will be finalized in December. WestEd will start the evaluation in February 2020, with an initial report due by June 30, 2021.

Floyd Cobb, the state education department’s executive director of teaching and learning, said state officials have always maintained a list of allowable uses for READ Act dollars and asked districts to report broad information about their planned use of the funds. But the state didn’t have the authority to delve into districts’ budget details.

“In the past, there wasn’t any language that outlined that authority,” Cobb said.

“The department does not have data regarding how the [districts or schools] actually used those READ Act per-pupil funds,” state officials wrote in response to a question from WestEd.

But now WestEd will be able to ask districts directly how they used READ Act funding. This authority is so new that state officials advised WestEd that its staff will have to work with districts to figure out how to collect and format the information.

Cobb said the external evaluation “will give a clear picture of how districts are using the funds and will allow for us to understand better which methods are proving to be more successful.”

The READ Act was the only school reform legislation of its era that came with significant state funding. The lion’s share of the money — about $26 million this school year — is allocated to districts based on the number of students identified with serious reading struggles. These dollars are earmarked for expenses such as tutoring, summer school, literacy coaches, or reading intervention programs.

With around $835 allocated for every student with serious reading struggles in 2018-19, the per-pupil allocations range from $3.3 million for large districts like Denver to $5,000 for tiny districts like Haxtun.

A smaller pot of READ Act money goes toward three-year early literacy grants awarded to schools so they can revamp reading instruction for all students in kindergarten through third grade.

Cobb said he wasn’t aware of any other programs administered by the education department that have been targeted for an external evaluation as the READ Act is now.

“The READ Act is unique in the sense that there is a tremendous amount of state appropriation that is allocated to a very specific group of students,” he said. “That’s likely why there’s a different attention focused on it.”

That group consists of about 40,000 students in kindergarten through third grade — about 15.5% of statewide enrollment in that grade range. All are on special improvement plans required by the READ Act because they are reading below grade level.

In addition to mandating the external READ Act evaluation, the 2019 law allocates more money to early literacy grants and requires districts to submit more information about their approach to reading instruction and their use of READ Act dollars to the state. It also calls for a public information campaign about the importance of learning to read by third grade and, starting in the 2021-22 school year, requires all K-3 teachers in districts that receive READ Act money to have completed training on proven approaches to teaching reading.

‘It’s huge for us’: More than a dozen Colorado districts approve school tax measures

2019-11-07T00:40:51+00:00

Officials in the Poudre School District plan to bump salaries for first-year teachers by around $4,000. Greeley-Evans District 6 leaders will rebuild a crumbling high school and expand a K-8 school that’s wildly overcrowded. And Pueblo District 60 officials will rebuild two district high schools — both of which have major foundation damage.

These are among the projects that will be funded by new property taxes approved by voters in 14 Colorado school districts Tuesday. Such successes, including in typically tax averse communities like Greeley and Pueblo, come as voters statewide rejected Proposition CC, a ballot initiative that would have earmarked more money for education and transportation.

While education leaders were disappointed by the failure of Proposition CC, which they say would have helped financially strapped schools, no one was particularly shocked. Two other statewide tax measures for education also have failed in recent years — Amendment 73 in 2018 and Amendment 66 in 2013.

Proposition CC asked voters to let the state keep all revenue from existing taxes instead of returning a portion to taxpayers as required under current law.

Tracie Rainey, executive director of the Colorado School Finance Project, said many voters are confused about how state tax refunds work, a fact that allowed opponents of the ballot issue to “cast clouds of doubt” about the measure’s impact.

“Any time something’s confusing, I think people have a tendency to vote no or not vote,” she said.

Statewide, 19 of 31 local education tax measures passed Tuesday, according to a list maintained by the Colorado School Finance Project. A dozen were bond measures, which pay for capital costs such as school construction or renovation. The other seven successful measures were for mill levy overrides, a type of property tax increase that provides schools with money for ongoing expenses such as teacher salaries.

The overall success rate for school tax measures this year was about 60%, a bit lower than in the previous two years. (Extremely close votes on a failing measure in Weld RE-5J and a winning measure in the Fowler district could change the final outcome slightly.)

A couple districts, including Eaton and Platte Valley in northern Colorado, passed both bonds and mill levy overrides. In addition, the 2,700-student Steamboat Springs district passed three tax measures: An $80 million bond for a new pre-K-8 school and other projects, a tax levy to cover operations costs at the new school, and another levy to boost teacher salaries.

As is the case every year, a number of school tax measures failed Tuesday. Several were in rural districts, including Cheyenne County RE-5, Calhan, Strasburg and Bennett. But there were also a couple notable losses for larger districts, including in the 22,000-student Mesa County Valley District 51, based in Grand Junction, and the 7,000-student Lewis-Palmer district in El Paso County. Mesa County voters rejected a $180 million bond to replace one high school and improve others, while Lewis-Palmer voters rejected a $29 million bond to build a new elementary school.

Perhaps one of the biggest tax success stories Tuesday was in northern Colorado’s Greeley-Evans district, which has not typically had an easy time getting local tax measures passed. This year, voters there approved a $395 million bond package, the largest of any district in the state.

“It’s huge for us,” said district spokeswoman Theresa Myers. “We haven’t had a bond issue since 2003, so the needs are real.”

While a recent assessment by an outside company put the district’s facility needs at $1 billion, she said the bond will make a significant dent in the laundry list of problems that need addressing.

She said Greeley West High School, which is slated to be replaced under the bond, is in such bad shape that during the recent snowstorm chunks of its ceiling were falling down because of the leaking roof.

“It’ll be a relief to get kids out of that building,” she said.

The situation in two of Pueblo’s four high schools is similarly dire.

District spokesman Dalton Sprouse said the walls in one “are cracking so much you can actually see daylight through them.”

While the community doesn’t easily approve tax increases, he said the campaign committee did a good job demonstrating the extent of the district’s needs — a 12-part series by the local newspaper, the Pueblo Chieftain, also helped.

Sprouse said the last time district voters approved a bond issue was 2002.

In the 30,000-student Poudre School District, based in Fort Collins, voters are usually amenable to school ballot issues, so voters’ support Tuesday wasn’t surprising. But the district’s plans for the money — increasing teacher salaries, hiring counselors and social workers, and improving safety — speaks to the priorities of many local and state education leaders right now.

District spokeswoman Madeline Noblett said at $38,731, Poudre’s starting teacher salaries have fallen behind those in neighboring districts, including Thompson and Greeley-Evans, both of which passed mill levy overrides to boost pay in the past two years. She said the district’s goal — with details subject to upcoming union negotiations — is to make starting salaries comparable to those in the St. Vrain school district, where teachers start at $43,500 a year.

‘Keep the story going’: How community volunteers nudge elementary students to take on racism

2019-10-31T21:11:48+00:00

No food, no pets, no cameras, no radios.

“You can only bring what you can carry,” Bob Harada told the fifth graders, standing at the front of their sunny classroom inside Boulder’s Flatirons Elementary School.

He wasn’t talking about an upcoming camping trip. He was painting a picture of the tough choices made by Japanese Americans — including his own parents — who were forced by the U.S. government to leave their homes for faraway internment camps during World War II.

Harada was one of a dozen volunteers who visited the school on a recent Friday as part of a program called Reading to End Racism. Run by YWCA Boulder County, the idea is to use storytelling to raise awareness about racism and discrimination, and encourage students to do something about it. Citing the current social and political climate, including a local incident earlier this month in which a white woman yelled racial slurs at a black college student, leaders say the program is as timely as ever.

“A lot of times kids feel like they don’t have the power to do anything and we’re coming in here to tell them you have the permission to do what’s right,” said Shiquita Yarbrough, the YWCA’s manager of community engagement and equity.

“By us coming into elementary schools, it’s giving the kids enough time to work on those skills because it’s not something that will change overnight,” she said.

While Reading to End Racism has been around in some form for years — an oral history dates the project’s inception to the 1990s — it’s expanding its reach this school year to 17 Boulder Valley schools, up from eight to 10 previously. The program visits participating schools once annually, with guest readers visiting every classroom to read and discuss a children’s book.

There are 250 books in the program’s library, some historical accounts of racism or oppression, and other more general stories about kindness and friendship. Titles include “Harvesting Hope,” about the life Cesar Chavez; “Of Thee I Sing,” Barack Obama’s tribute to 13 famous Americans; “Hidden Figures,” about the contributions of four black female mathematicians during the space race; and “Coolies,” about Chinese-American brothers who helped build the railroad.

Guest reader James Johnson brought two books to Stephanie Crawford’s first grade classroom: “Mr. Happy” and “Mr. Grumpy.” The books, which feature characters that are basically colorful shapes with faces, didn’t delve into racism, or any -ism for that matter.

But they did give Johnson a chance to introduce some new words — ally, ostracize and intervention.

“If I’m your ally, what does that mean?” he asked the children gathered on the rug in front of him.

They guessed “working together,” “being a friend,” being “a good teammate,” and standing up to a bully.

“Ally means a lot of things, he said genially. “It’s very important.”

Earlier that morning, Avi Edwards also talked about being an ally during her visit to a third- and fourth-grade classroom to discuss LGBTQ issues. There, she read, “Red, A Crayon’s Story,” about a blue crayon that the other crayons assume is red because of his red label.

Edwards, who described her own daughter’s struggle to come out as a lesbian years earlier, asked the children to talk about a time they saw someone, or were themselves, mistreated because of a difference.

Lots of students offered up examples — a girl said her brother accused her of acting “too much like a guy” and a boy recounted being pushed down and called a nerd for the way he threw a football.

Edwards asked the children how they can intervene when they see someone being mistreated.

“First check on them,” one girl suggested, “but then you can tell the person who’s doing that to stop.”

On the other side of the school, Harada read excerpts from a children’s history book on Japanese American internment camps. He mixed in details from his parents’ story, recounting how they were first housed in horse stables and then relocated on a train with blackened windows to a camp in southern Arizona.

They lived there in a tar paper shed for three years, he said. The constant blowing desert dust was why his mother stuck with her daily dusting habit even after they were freed and the family moved to Minnesota.

Harada asked the fifth graders lots of questions during his presentation. How would they feel if they suddenly had to sell all their possessions for next to nothing at a garage sale? How would they like to live in a space the size of one corner of their classroom?

And, of course, what would they bring with them if they were sent off to internment camps?

Lots said clothes. One said a soccer ball. Others said bolt cutters, sunscreen, and an air mattress.

Harada, a retired banker, began volunteering with Reading to End Racism about six years ago after hearing about the program through his church.

“I just feel it’s a good opportunity for me being Japanese American to talk about a subject that’s both personal, but also a good example of how racism really affects people,” he said. “I think it’s important to keep the story going.”

Adams 14 defends bilingual model as the district’s new plan for English learners

2019-10-28T22:17:42+00:00

Adams 14 leaders are trying to reassure families, staff, and community members who raised concerns about a new plan for educating English learners in the district.

English language learners make up more than half of the district’s 7,000 students — the highest rate in the state. How Adams 14 teaches these students is one of the most critical issues facing the district. Earlier this year, the State Board of Education ordered an external manager to take over most district operations after years of low performance, and finding the right approach will be key to improving student test scores and the state’s rating of the district.

District leaders and the external manager will need to win community trust as they roll out yet another new program. Many families and teachers had previously embraced a biliteracy program that the former superintendent abruptly paused.

The new plan will replace the former biliteracy model with bilingual programs at four of the district’s seven elementary schools. The new plan is awaiting final approval but has received positive feedback from the federal government, according to district officials.

Adams 14 school board members received only a summary version of the plan, but it was enough to spark several questions, including from board member and parent Laura Martinez, who has children in the biliteracy program. Her second-grader is already fluent in English, and is outperforming other students in English literacy while still reading at grade level in Spanish, she said.

“How are we going to be able to attract more students If we’re offering something that as a parent is not really eye-catching?” Martinez said. “Something I don’t feel might be the best approach.”

Bilingual education differs from biliteracy because of how biliteracy mixes the two languages. Biliteracy combines literacy instruction in both English and Spanish, so that students can gain English fluency but also transfer reading skills between the languages. Being biliterate means being able to fluently read and write at a high level in both languages. Being bilingual often describes understanding or speaking two languages, and bilingual education can include various approaches.

Tonia Lopez, the district’s manager of the department of language, culture, and equity, assured the board that the new bilingual model will be an improvement and offer more Spanish instruction than previous approaches.

“We’re building on to it,” Lopez said.

In 2014 Adams 14 signed an agreement with the federal Department of Education to improve the education of English language learners after the department determined it was violating the civil rights of those students. Pushback the district now is getting from families speaks to that history of broken trust with the community.

Although there are parts of the plan that may appeal to families and teachers, there’s also a discomfort in the fact that the district is yet again rolling out something new, with no guarantee that this time they will see it through.

For instance, this year’s third graders who have gone through the biliteracy program will not be able to continue on that track — nor can they join bilingual programming next year, meaning they will have no way to build on the foundation they’ve received. The district will end biliteracy instruction after this school year and roll out new bilingual classes two grade levels at a time, starting with kindergarten and first grade this year.

The plan does include some programming in middle and high schools. Board member Harvest Thomas urged a better continuum leading to a clear path to a seal of biliteracy, a special designation on the high school diploma that recognizes fluency in two languages.

District officials say they want to make sure this plan doesn’t sit on a shelf to be discarded by the next district leader.

“It’s at the forefront of everyone’s mind,” said the district’s attorney, Jon Fero. “There are a lot of steps being taken, but it starts and ends with the board of education.”

But the Adams 14 board will not vote on this plan and was given only a summary document that omitted many details at a recent board meeting. And by December, up to four new members may replace the current board.

Don Rangel, the acting superintendent and project manager for MGT Consulting, the district’s external manager, also said it’s on his mind.

The district has to be committed, he said. “We understand Adams 14 is no longer interested in having plans on paper.”

To explain the need for a new plan, Fero called the district’s last plan for biliteracy a draft that “wasn’t even complete.” The district’s former director of English language development said that while the federal government never followed up to finalize it, the district didn’t view the plan as just a draft, and was implementing it in earnest.

Under the new plan, Adams 14 is piloting the new bilingual model in kindergarten and first grade at four schools this fall.

If it’s successful, the program will expand gradually through fifth grade at those four schools. It will be open to English learners from around the district, with transportation provided.

For English learners who choose to stay at the other three elementary schools, students will spend their day in English classrooms where teachers will be trained to help them access the content in English. Students will also get 45 minutes in English language development in both models, as required by law.

MGT hired Darlene LeDoux, a longtime bilingual administrator from Denver, to observe, coach, and monitor the program.

The district also will look into creating a dual language magnet school. Dual language programs usually split Spanish and English instruction during the day, but are offered to both native-English speakers and non-English speakers, so all students are learning a language at the same time.

For years, English-speaking families in the district have asked for bilingual programming, saying that it may help their children better integrate with the community’s large Hispanic population and learn a skill that might help them in the future.

Lopez, the district’s language, culture, and equity manager, counts herself in that group.

“I lost that part of my culture,” Lopez said. “It’s something I hoped the biliteracy program would turn into when my kids got into kindergarten, so it’s something I value.”

In response to feedback, district leaders said they edited the plan to add more details about the bilingual model, calling it “an enhancement of the biliteracy approach” that “builds on the foundational strategies of the Spanish literacy block.”

Kathy Escamilla, a researcher at the University of Colorado Boulder’s BUENO Center who had been working on the district’s biliteracy program, disagrees with how Adams 14 is now describing the biliteracy program as just a two-hour literacy class in Spanish.

“It was two hours in Spanish and two hours in English, and the two languages were connected,” Escamilla said.

She added that giving students more instruction in their native Spanish language doesn’t by itself necessarily translate into good results. Still, she said a bilingual model can work.

“If they do something with love and with consistency and if they invest in their teachers so that they retain teachers, there are a lot of programs that will probably work for them,” Escamilla said.

Adams 14 school board members also pressed the district about how teachers are trained, and what curriculum they will use.

So far, the district will only be providing bilingual teachers with Spanish curriculum for language arts and math classes, even though teachers will have to teach other courses in Spanish.

Lopez said that in elementary school, science and social studies content is integrated with language arts instruction. But she said they will be listening in case teachers say they need more resources in Spanish.

Teachers participating in the bilingual pilot this year were allowed to see parts of the plan, but not the whole thing.

“I do like the model but give us the training we need in order for us to be successful,” said Virginia Valverde, a bilingual kindergarten teacher. She said she has received only about three days of training.

Although district leaders say they engaged with parents, teachers, and the community through an advisory committee in 2018, those in that group say that the communication wasn’t clear, the group was suggesting a dual-language model, and the district never followed up.

“The problem with this district is they propose something and they don’t really let anybody know until it’s actually pushed through,” Valverde said.

Attorney Fero said the plan is largely written to comply with the law and there are parts that can’t be changed, regardless of feedback.

“It doesn’t make sense to give every teacher the current draft of the plan,” Fero said. “So much of it is non-negotiable.”

Lopez said that she knows the district could have communicated better, and said there are plans to do better in the future.

Board member Dominick Moreno urged the district not focus only on legal compliance.

“To me that’s the bare minimum,” Moreno said. “We are really uniquely positioned. We should take the opportunity to really be leaders in this area.”

With rising youth suicide rates, a traveling play aims to help Colorado teens talk about mental health

2019-10-28T22:03:11+00:00

Andre is smart and popular, a star high school athlete with a pretty girlfriend. But he’s also a stressed-out perfectionist who can’t square his outward image with his relentless fear of failing.

“Man, what are you complaining about? Everybody says you got it,” he tells himself in the mirror.

But with the help of an unpopular “emo” girl named Syd who talks candidly about her own struggles with anxiety, Andre starts to open up about his feelings and consider getting help.

The teens are characters in “Ghosted,” a play recently staged for 275 ninth-graders in the gymnasium at Greeley West High School in northern Colorado. The traveling performance will visit more than a dozen high schools across the state this year as part of a two-day workshop meant to raise awareness about mental health, suicide, and resources that can help students cope. Sponsored by Kaiser Permanente Colorado, the production comes as Colorado and the nation face rising youth suicide rates and educators continue to grapple with the question, “How can we help?”

The state’s youth suicide rate is 20.4 per 100,000 adolescents aged 15-19, nearly twice the national average of 10.5. Just last week, a 17-year-old student from Arapahoe High School in the Littleton district took her own life, the ninth reported youth suicide among the school’s students since 2013.

Colorado has also been plagued in recent years by multiple suicides among children who haven’t yet reached their teen years, including a Denver fourth-grader in 2018, an Aurora fifth-grader the year before, and two Fort Collins sixth-graders in 2015.

“Ghosted” is among a host of current efforts that aim to reduce those numbers. Some Colorado schools are hiring new mental health staff, offering mental health screenings, or emphasizing social and emotional skills to help students deal with frustration and stress.

Besides following Andre and Syd, “Ghosted” depicts the experience of Liam, an angry teen reacting to turmoil at home, and Kayla, Andre’s worried girlfriend. While much of the play takes place outside the school counselor’s office, adult characters never actually appear.

Instead, the teens talk through their feelings together — using dialogue, including some curse words, that feels mostly true to life. Besides dishing out the kind of cutting insults and sarcastic retorts familiar to any parent or teacher of a teenager, the characters also share moments of self-reflection and empathy.

Perhaps the best barometer of whether the play hit home came after the performance during a 20-minute conversation between the actors, two facilitators and the students who filled the gym bleachers. When a facilitator asked students to stand if they thought the play accurately represented high school life, at least half the group rose. One-third stood up when asked if they had friends or knew of people who had been through experiences like those portrayed by the cast.

Adiana Youngblood was one of the students who stood in response to both questions. The 14-year-old said she liked the subtle way the play covered “anxiety, depression, all those emotions people don’t feel comfortable talking about.”

The message that “it’s better to let it out than keep it in,” is an important one for students, she said.

A competitive dancer, Youngblood knows what it’s like to live with mental health issues, having been diagnosed with both depression and anxiety.

“With the anxiety, it’s sometimes hard to go to school and function without having … that feeling of ‘Oh my gosh I can’t do this, I can’t do this.’” she said. “It’s scary.”

Besides soliciting ideas from students about who they could turn to during a crisis and what activities might help them cope with stress, facilitators handed out wallet cards with suicide prevention information after the play.

There was additional discussion the next day — when “Ghosted” facilitators visited the classrooms of students who’d attended the play to lead smaller mental health workshops.

The idea behind the next-day sessions, like the post-play chat, was to start an ongoing conversation about mental health.

“It’s not just a show that stands on its own,” said Brian Harper, director of “Ghosted.” “We make sure students have a chance to react to it.”

That’s one of the elements that makes the play different from other dramatizations that take on teen suicide, including the controversial Netflix drama, “13 Reasons Why,” which received heavy criticism in its first season for its graphic depiction of suicide.

With that show, Harper said, “You could be [watching] by yourself and that’s the end of it. This is meant to begin a conversation.”

Greeley West, which will host the play again in the spring for the other half of its freshman class, followed the two-day “Ghosted” sequence with a mental health presentation the following week conducted by staff from North Range Behavioral Health, a local mental health provider.

Mitch Johnson, the ninth-grade counselor at Greeley West, said more students than usual came to see the school’s five-member counseling team after the three events.

“After these presentations, I think we do see an influx because they’re like, ‘OK, that stigma doesn’t matter.’”

“Ghosted,” which will run this fall until Nov. 22 and again in the spring semester, is available for free to schools in Kaiser Permanente Colorado’s service area. Those interested in booking the show may contact brian.harper@kp.org.

How a Colorado public school for students with dyslexia is changing the game for struggling readers — and the state conversation on reading

2019-10-22T22:26:36+00:00

Tammy Kennington and the four children in her cozy therapy room prepared to sound out the word “April.”

“Divide before your first medial consonant. Accent the first syllable,” Kennington said, her fourth graders quietly echoing her words.

“A vowel in an open-accented syllable is long. Code it with a macron,” they said. “A vowel in a closed syllable is short, code it with a breve.”

Methodically, Kennington and her students narrated each step of the decoding process as the children penciled in slashes, accents, circles, or stress marks on all 13 words in the sentence. Three minutes and 20 seconds later, they put it all together: “For her birthday in April, we gave her a blue and white apron.”

This is what learning to read looks like for the 122 second- through fifth-graders who attend the Academy for Literacy, Learning & Innovation Excellence in Colorado Springs. Run by School District 49 and commonly referred to as ALLIES, it’s the state’s only public school for students with dyslexia. Private schools with the same mission can run $30,000 annually.

ALLIES, now in its third year, is ascending at a time when lawmakers and education leaders are raising big questions about why so many Colorado children can’t read well and what the state is doing to remedy the problem. There’s also been a growing push among parents and other advocates to better serve students with dyslexia, a learning disability that can make reading, spelling, and pronouncing words difficult.

Recent activism helped spur a new state law that called for a pilot program for dyslexia screening and a work group charged with recommending policies to support students with dyslexia. In addition, advocates around the state plan to open additional public schools for students with dyslexia over the next couple years. A K-8 school in El Paso County and a K-4 charter school in Fort Collins are set to open next fall. A Jefferson County mother is working on opening a similar school for sixth- through 12th-graders in 2021.

Lynne Fitzhugh, president of the Colorado Literacy and Learning Center in Colorado Springs, attributes growing awareness about dyslexia partly to parents “tired of their children falling through the cracks.”

Experts estimate that dyslexia affects 10% to 20% of the population. In Colorado, that’s 90,000 to 180,000 schoolchildren — far more than the 41,000 students officially designated as having a “specific learning disability,” an umbrella category that includes dyslexia.

“There could be an ALLIES in every district in the state and it wouldn’t be too much,” said Fitzhugh, one of the leaders of the new K-8 school for students with dyslexia.

Desperation

Jocelyn Conrad, a teacher herself, knew something was wrong when her daughter Genevieve was in first grade. The little girl struggled constantly with reading — even simple sight words like “the.” She would recognize it in one sentence and have no idea what it was a sentence later. Sometimes, she’d be able to read words one day but couldn’t the next.

“She used to beat her head against the table because she couldn’t read,” said Conrad, tearing up as she described the experience. “She used to say, ‘I hate my life,’ She was 7 when she would say this.”

It’s a familiar story to ALLIES Principal Rebecca Thompson, who fields calls all year long from worried parents, usually mothers.

“They’re crying and they’re heartbroken, and they just don’t know what else to do,” she said.

The seeds of ALLIES were planted about a dozen years ago when Thompson was an assistant principal at District 49’s Odyssey Elementary. A mother stopped in and told school leaders her son needed a special program for students with dyslexia, but Thompson and the school principal realized they knew little about the disability or effective interventions.

After investigating the program the mother mentioned, they tried adopting it on a schoolwide basis. But it was designed for one-on-one instruction, not large groups, so didn’t work well. For the next few years, Thompson continued searching for answers, coordinating staff training on dyslexia, and taking classes herself on dyslexia screening.

In 2014, Thompson and the team at Odyssey launched the “Lex Program,” which provided daily therapy, smaller class sizes, and specially trained teachers for second- through fifth-graders who had characteristics of dyslexia.

In 2017, that program became ALLIES, a separate school housed in portable classrooms on the Odyssey campus. This year, ALLIES moved into its own building on that campus — a small but shiny school peppered with motivational messages such as “Let the journey begin,” and “Spread your wings and fly.”

Oasis in a desert

ALLIES, which sits in a quiet residential neighborhood in northeast Colorado Springs, serves students from District 49 and six nearby school districts. One family drives an hour each way so their child can attend. Others have moved to the area from out of state to be near the school.

Class sizes at ALLIES are small, usually about 12 students.

Throughout the school’s short history, Thompson has led countless tours for superintendents, special education directors, teachers, and parents who want to learn more about the ALLIES model.

There are lots of people who want to do something for students with dyslexia, she said, “they just don’t know how to tackle it yet and I think we’re right on the cusp of that.”

ALLIES wasn’t open yet when Conrad began to realize the extent of her daughter’s reading struggles.

She hired a tutor to help Genevieve during first grade and that spring brought her daughter to a Denver psychologist to get her tested for dyslexia. The results not only showed Genevieve had dyslexia, but that she was so anxious about reading, she could have been given an anxiety disorder diagnosis as well. Conrad said her family dipped into savings to pay the $2,400 testing bill.

Genevieve repeated first grade in her home school outside of District 49, but still wasn’t making much progress. That’s when Conrad visited ALLIES on the advice of a friend. There, she saw the setting she dreamed of for Genevieve.

“I need my kid to be here,” she remembers thinking.

Genevieve, now a third-grader, started at ALLIES last year. Lately, she’s taking a stab at reading chapter books, something that would have been unthinkable previously.

Conrad also likes that Genevieve gets to work on projects that play to her creative strengths in the school’s “Innovation Lab.” There, the 9-year-old recently constructed three-dimensional barns, complete with swinging doors and latches.

At ALLIES, Genevieve is finally happy.

“It saved her,” Conrad said. “I didn’t even know where she would be if she wasn’t there.”

ALLIES also led to a pivotal moment in Conrad’s own career, prompting her to leave the El Paso County district where she’d taught for years to teach sixth-grade language arts in District 49.

Her rationale was simple: “Here’s this district that gets it, and I want to be a part of it.”

Critical ingredient

One of the hallmarks of ALLIES is its daily 50-minute therapy block. Certified academic language therapists work with just four students each using “Take Flight,” a curriculum developed by Texas Scottish Rite Hospital for Children and based on the well-known Orton-Gillingham Approach to teaching reading.

An ALLIES student goes over a worksheet on words starting with the letter “e” during her Take Flight therapy session.

To outsiders, Take Flight sessions can sound like a foreign language, with their references to words like digraph — a two-letter combination that represents a single sound — and tittle — a dot placed over an “a” or “g” to remind students of their pronunciation in certain contexts. But for students who can’t learn to read with traditional classroom instruction, it’s a way into the mysterious world of written language.

“We’re teaching them the rules of the game,” said Teresa Hinote, the lead Take Flight therapist at ALLIES, and a former staff member at Scottish Rite Hospital. “It is so systematic and so structured and so explicit.”

On a recent morning, a fourth-grader named Faith looked at a Winnie the Pooh picture book while she waited for Take Flight therapy. Asked what kinds of words are hard for her, she pointed to the word “afternoon” in her book.

“I can say ‘the’ and ‘will’ and ‘no.’ Those are easy,” she said. “It’s like big words. I can’t, kind of, say them.”

Take Flight therapy, which lasts for three years at ALLIES, is such a critical part of the school day that staff take pains never to schedule assemblies or special events during therapy blocks. They also don’t allow students to enroll in ALLIES mid-year because they’d never catch up on Take Flight lessons.

While reading scores often plateau or even dip after the first year of Take Flight, they jump dramatically by the end of year two, according to district data.

“We have taken a child all the way back to the beginning, and they have to relearn everything,” Thompson said.

ALLIES is not the only public school in Colorado to provide Take Flight therapy, but others don’t typically offer it with the same intensity or frequency, she said.

A pricey model

Unlike students at most elementary schools, those at ALLIES switch classes every 50 minutes, and most classes are limited to 12 students. Teachers — called professors at ALLIES — are all trained in how to work with students who have dyslexia, as well as other co-occuring conditions such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, a writing disability called dysgraphia, and a math learning disability called dyscalculia.

Besides Take Flight, students take math, language arts, a class devoted to online math or reading practice, and another that combines art, music and physical education. They also attend Innovation Lab, which incorporates science and social studies in a makerspace atmosphere.

While all ALLIES students have been screened for dyslexia and show telltale signs, many don’t have an official diagnosis. That’s because formal evaluations are costly and time-consuming — putting them out of reach for many families.

Jessica Cook, whose third-grader Isabella attends ALLIES, said she considered getting her daughter tested after the girl’s former teacher recommended ALLIES. But the $1,500 price tag was impossible on Cook’s medical assistant salary.

About a quarter of ALLIES students qualify for special education services and another 7% have what are called “504 Plans,” which require certain accommodations for students with disabilities. In practice, however, all ALLIES students get specialized instruction and accommodations.

Cook knew that Isabella had long struggled with reading — along with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. Classmates at her former elementary school called her “baby” because she couldn’t understand the stories they read in class. At least once a week she broke down in tears after school, and sometimes she begged her mom to home-school her.

Cook, who lives a few minutes away from ALLIES, was shocked when she discovered everything the school provides — iPads for every student, small group therapy sessions, and gleaming whiteboard tables to name a few features.

She remembers her reaction: “This is insane. Are you sure this is not going to cost any kind of tuition whatsoever?”

The answer was no, but that doesn’t mean ALLIES is cheap. While most other elementary schools in District 49 spend around $6,000 to $7,000 per student, ALLIES spends a little over $10,000 per student, according to the district’s latest budget.

Michael Pickering, leader of the seven-school zone in District 49 that includes ALLIES and CEO of the Colorado Literacy and Learning Center, said students’ huge reading gains in the Lex program laid the groundwork for ALLIES.

And while it was nerve wracking at times to fold dyslexia interventions commonly found in private practice into a public school, he said, district officials wanted “to be able to offer something that students typically wouldn’t be able to access because of cost.”

At $60 an hour, private Take Flight therapy would be unattainable for most families, he said.

Pickering, who is also involved in the planned K-8 school for students with dyslexia, said stand-alone schools like ALLIES provide valuable learning labs for educators to see effective interventions for dyslexia — particularly when the concept of school-based dyslexia therapy is new.

But over the long run he doesn’t believe such schools are a must-have in every Colorado district. Instead, he’d support a certified academic language therapist in every school along with training for all teachers on how to support students with dyslexia.

If that comes to pass, Pickering said, “Oh my word, we would have a vastly different landscape for students with dyslexia across Colorado.”

From biliteracy to bilingual: Adams 14 working on plan for English learners

2019-10-21T23:22:49+00:00

Four months after taking over management of the Adams 14 school district north of Denver, MGT leaders have submitted a plan to the federal government on how they will educate English learners.

The plan proposes replacing biliteracy programming with a bilingual program, and monitoring how quickly students are becoming fluent in English. The plan would continue with existing curriculum for English learners, and highlights a partnership with Regis University that former superintendent Javier Abrego brought into the district when he ended a previous partnership with a center at the University of Colorado Boulder.

Julie Benmellah, board president of the Colorado Association for Bilingual Education, reviewed the draft of the plan and said she was happy that the plan states that the district values cultural and linguistic diversity, but said the plan didn’t live up to those statements.

“The content feels and looks like a rewrite of the previous plans, and those weren’t implemented, so what makes this one different?” Benmellah said. “It didn’t leave me feeling confident.”

Benmellah, who has been a bilingual educator for more than 20 years, said she was particularly disappointed because she thought an external manager might help the district to do more.

“I expected to see the presence of MGT’s consulting, guidance, and support throughout the plan,” she said, “But what I saw was not that.”

The plan is still a draft, as district officials say they are working with the federal Office for Civil Rights before finalizing it. The district refused to release a copy of the draft before it was finalized, but is now planning a discussion of the plan with the school board Tuesday afternoon.

District officials did not respond to a request for comment Monday.

The Adams 14 school district has around 50% of its students identified as English learners — the highest percent of any district in Colorado. Nearly 10 years ago, complaints from families and staff in the district spurred a federal investigation which found evidence that the district was discriminating against Spanish-speaking families, staff and students, and was violating the civil rights of English learners.

The district in 2014 signed an agreement with the Office for Civil Rights, outlining corrections that must occur to ensure the English learners in the district were receiving proper education.

But the district has seen considerable turnover in leadership since then and has not complied with that agreement. Last November, when the State Board of Education ordered Adams 14 to hire an external manager to remedy academic failings, the state asked that the manager be “qualified and willing to fulfill the duties imposed by the U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights.”

The district was in the middle of rolling out its biliteracy program in elementary grades with help and training from bilingual researchers at CU Boulder. But in 2017, then-superintendent Abrego halted the rollout saying he wasn’t confident in the program, and that getting enough qualified bilingual educators was a challenge.

The program had been popular with many teachers and parents who criticized the district’s step back.

MGT’s draft plan proposes transforming the biliteracy program in four elementary schools into bilingual programs. The draft did not explain differences between the programs or give a rationale for the switch.

Generally, educators have explained that biliteracy programs focus on teaching students to read in their native language so that they can transfer those same skills to reading in English when they gained fluency. In Adams 14 bilingual teachers led classes in Spanish, slowly adding more instruction in English as students progressed through the grade levels.

MGT’s draft plan describes the bilingual program similarly, beginning with more Spanish in the early years, then progressively switching to more English instruction in higher grade levels.

In the other elementary schools without a bilingual program, the draft plan proposes training all teachers to use strategies to help make the content accessible to students who don’t yet speak English. In addition, English learners would get a separate class during the day to develop their English language skills.

The draft plan mentions professional development for all teachers, but does not acknowledge previous challenges the district has faced in training teachers while having high turnover.

Union leaders and teachers who previously had helped shape the district’s plans for English learners said they have not seen the latest plan and said they have been left out of the conversations around it.

Benmellah said she was also disappointed that a part that deals with community engagement focuses on informing parents about the plan, but doesn’t mention incorporating families or staff into the work, or changing policy to send report cards home in Spanish.

Read the draft plan here:

On the brink of quitting, this Colorado special education teacher helped fix staffing gaps

2019-10-09T18:51:28+00:00

Here, in a feature we call How I Teach, we ask educators who’ve been recognized for their work how they approach their jobs. You can see other pieces in the series here.

Julia Mackay almost quit her job as a special education teacher last year. She’d been working at Chipeta Elementary School in Colorado Springs for eight years, and a sudden increase in the number of students with severe needs — without additional staff — pushed her to the breaking point.

But a nudge from her husband prompted Mackay to reach out to the local teachers union president for help. And, in fits and starts, they worked with district leaders to find a solution. The district eventually came up with a new special education staffing model and Mackay stayed on the job.

While the new system doesn’t fix every problem, said Mackay, who was named 2019 Teacher of the Year by the Colorado Council for Learning Disabilities, “Change takes time.”

Mackay, who this year works with kindergartners, first-, and third-graders, talked to Chalkbeat about how she discovered a non-verbal student’s passion for wrestling, why she doesn’t take student misbehavior personally, and what happened after a wildfire traumatized the school community.

This interview has been condensed and lightly edited.

Was there a moment when you decided to become a teacher?

Becoming a teacher was not my first career choice. I have a restaurant management degree and when I graduated college, I never thought I would teach or be a stay-home-mom. What did I know at 22? Then I had children and my perspective changed.

Once my children were both in elementary school, I started volunteering at their school, Chipeta. After a couple of years of frequent volunteering, the principal at the time asked me if I wanted to get paid for doing what I was doing. I did and was hired as a special education assistant.

I worked in that position for four years. The lead special education teacher at the time talked to me about the Teacher in Residence Program. My principal hired me as a special education teacher and I took classes on Saturdays to obtain my certification. If I had to attend college for four years to obtain my certification, I am not sure I would have had the time since my kids were young and keeping me very busy.

How do you get to know your students?

With students who struggle with communicating, I get to know them and their interests through play. I spread out various types of hands-on activities in our room and let the student explore. I learn a lot by just watching which activities they choose and how they use the items.

My favorite story about using this strategy was with a nonverbal student that had Down Syndrome. He came in the room and went straight for a stuffed mouse. He then lay on top of it and slapped his hand on the floor three times. It didn’t take but a second to realize he was pinning the mouse and must know about wrestling.

My son was wrestling in middle school at the time, so this was an action I knew well. I incorporated anything about wrestling into what we did. Eventually, I was able to use reading about World Wrestling Entertainment wrestlers as a reward for completing some academic tasks.

Tell us about a favorite lesson to teach. Where did the idea come from?

Helping students understand prosody — the ability to be expressive when speaking aloud — is my favorite lesson to teach. I have named it “Loud and Proud” and we do this during writing. I have small calendar cards that have sentence starters on the back. I store these cards in a cat statue named Earvin.

Twice a week a student will choose a calendar card from Earvin and write the sentence starter on the white board. The other students write the sentence starter on a piece of paper. The students will then finish the sentence using correct spelling, grammar, and punctuation. We practice adding as much detail in one sentence as we can. Lastly, they read what they wrote “loud and proud.” Each student must say something the speaker did well and something he needs to work on.

It is so much fun to hear them put their personalities into their stories and watch them become good speakers. They aren’t aware of how much they are learning. They are just having fun.

You successfully pushed for a different staffing model for students with disabilities in the district. How did that come about?

Last year was a very tough year for me. It started with six new students with severe needs being enrolled. We were expecting only two. This meant we were way outnumbered and there wasn’t enough adult support to go around.

We reached out to the special education facilitator for help. Multiple staff members from the district would come to our school and observe, but not speak to me or my teammate. The suggestions offered were things we had already tried or went against inclusion, which is what the district promotes. My teammate and I were not getting planning time or even lunch. We were just doing our best to keep everyone safe for the most part.

I went home after eight weeks of non-support from the district, worrying about being out of compliance, what parents were going to do because of the lack of necessary support, and extremely angry. I told my husband I was going to quit. My principal and colleagues at Chipeta could not have been more supportive, but that wasn’t enough. I was tired of working non-stop 10-hour days, taking stuff home every night and weekends without a solution in sight.

My husband, the man I have loved for 33 years, told me he had never seen me quit anything in my life and there had to be something more I could do, but would support whatever decision I made. This was what I needed to hear to motivate me. I reached out to the Colorado Springs Education Association.

I was contacted by the president. He was amazing and helped me turn my anger into action. He listened and offered a reasonable path to a solution. With his support, my principal’s support, and the support of my team, we documented how out of compliance we were, and suggested a solution.

This information was sent to the special education director at the time and her response was not acceptable. We were asked to group students together in a room other than their general education classrooms, with one educational assistant supporting all of them and another rotating a student out for individual support.

This was not inclusion and we would be creating a form of a self-contained classroom. This was not safe for the students. If more than one student ran out of the room — yes this does happen — which student should the educational assistant chase and who would support the students left in the room?

We continued up the chain of command in the district to get the answers and the support we needed. This eventually required the special education department to examine the district’s staffing model and come up with suggestions for improvement. The model they decided on doesn’t fix all of our problems, but change takes time and at least something happened.

What’s something happening in the community that affects what goes on inside your class?

The event in our community that most affected our students was the Waldo Canyon Fire. This happened in June 2012 — thankfully, not during the school year. Ten percent of our students lost their homes. Many, many more were evacuated from their homes, my family included.

There was a little time to begin to heal before we started back to school but we were all still very raw emotionally. The scenery around us had changed so much, it was difficult for me to be on the playground and see the burnt-out neighborhoods and mountainsides that had been so beautiful in the spring. I can’t imagine what it was like for our students. That was a very tough year and one of my first as a teacher. We focused on the emotional state of our students. Academics still happened and students still progressed, but it wasn’t easy.

Tell us about a memorable time — good or bad — when contact with a student’s family changed your perspective or approach.

A few years back I supported two third grade students who were cousins. They were being raised by their fathers who were brothers and had moved to Colorado from Missouri for work. During one parent meeting, practicing multiplication facts at home came up. One dad announced they were moving to Missouri, and stated that in Missouri “kids don’t learn to times until fifth grade. Our kids will be geniuses.” I was astonished and didn’t know what to say.

After that, I incorporated more practice during class time. I came up with fun ways for students to practice at home independently. Knowing support at home isn’t the best definitely changes how I support the students during the school day.

What was your biggest misconception that you initially brought to teaching?

My biggest misconception I initially brought to teaching was that all parents support their children. At one point, a new student enrolled and on his first day, he didn’t know how he was getting home. I asked him how he got to school in the morning and he couldn’t tell me. We went to the front office and learned he was to ride the bus home and what the bus number was.

The bus driver is a retired special education teacher and reported to me the next day that when they arrived at this student’s stop, he didn’t know which apartment he lived in. The bus driver called transportation and figured out which apartment was his. The bus driver waited until the student was inside. This student struggles and if the bus driver wasn’t so aware, what could have happened scares me. We as teachers can only do so much during the school day and without a good partnership with home, the students don’t progress as quickly and at times, I worry for their safety.

What are you reading for enjoyment?

For enjoyment, I am currently reading “When the Crawdads Sings” by Delia Owens. I don’t read as often during the school year as I do in the summertime, but when I have a chance, I sit in my favorite chaise lounge in our front room and read.

What’s the best advice you’ve received about teaching?

The best advice I’ve received about teaching, so far, is not to take things personally. Teachers become attached to their students and when things don’t go as planned and students act out, we feel it in our hearts and can take it personally. This advice helped me look at the not-so-great situations and empathize with the student while thinking of ways to improve the outcomes. These moments still hit me in the heart, but I use them as a way to learn more about my students.