Last Resort
- Gretel Daugherty, Special to the Colorado Sun
About the Project
“Last Resort “is a Colorado News Collaborative-led four-part investigation by Chalkbeat Colorado, The Colorado Sun and KFF Health News into the collapsing system of schools that serve some of Colorado’s most vulnerable students.
The state is now scrambling to shore up what are known as facility schools, which enroll thousands of students a year with intense mental and behavioral health needs. Where there were once 80 schools offering a combination of therapy and academics, only 30 remain, All but one are located in the Front Range, leaving rural Coloradans desperate for options.
A cross-newsroom team of reporters filed open records requests, sifted through state documents, visited facility and non-facility schools, and interviewed dozens of people, including family members, students, special education specialists, disability rights advocates, educators, and lawmakers to tell the story of system hobbled by a chronic lack of staff, anemic funding and the unintended consequences of a federal law seeking to prevent the warehousing of children. It is also a system in which oversight is fragmented and opaque, leaving parents and the public with no easy way to determine whether children are learning and safe. Even as the state seeks to beef up the existing system, school districts and others are finding their own ways to help these students succeed.
The Stories
How Colorado Is Filling Gaps for Its ‘Most Vulnerable’ Children As Last-Resort Schools Dwindle
Colorado Is Pouring More Money Into Schools for Kids With Behavioral Health Issues and Disabilities, but Are They Helping?
Students in Rural Colorado Are Left Without Options as Specialized Schools Close
The Schools That Take Colorado’s ‘Most Vulnerable’ Children Are Disappearing
Reporting Team
Melanie Asmar
Rae Ellen Bichell
Helen Santoro
Jennifer Brown
Editing Team
Erica Meltzer
Matt Volz
Lance Benzel
Tina Griego
Reporting Team
Melanie Asmar
Rae Ellen Bichell
Helen Santoro
Jennifer Brown
Editing Team
Erica Meltzer
Matt Volz
Lance Benzel
Tina Griego
Reflections
Reporting on Colorado’s “Most Vulnerable” Students
Tina Griego - May 18, 2023Our latest multi-newsroom reporting collaboration wrapped on Sunday. The four-part series, “Last Resort” examines the slow-motion collapse of specialized schools most Coloradans likely do not know exist. Thousands of Colorado…
This project was made possible through unprecedented collaboration between dozens of newsrooms and journalists across the state, who are active partners in the Colorado News Collaborative, or COLab.
To support the statewide effort, donate to the Colorado News Collaborative.