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.

The lack of information only adds fuel to advocates’ questions about whether the schools are effective.