Riley George, a 12-year-old with autism and disruptive mood dysregulation disorder, has had to cross a mountain range to get an education. 

That’s because all but one of the state’s 30 facility schools, those rapidly disappearing schools of last resort for students with severe behavioral, mental health, or special education needs, are located on the Front Range.

In rural Colorado, the lack of facility schools, combined with overwhelmed public schools, can mean students end up learning online, languishing in mental health facilities, or attending a residential school far from home. 

For Riley, it meant a lengthy search for a school marked by multiple emergency mental health holds and temporary stays in a youth detention center and a mental health hospital during that search.

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. 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. Sometimes, 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 was in a supportive environment at Bill Metz Elementary School in Monte Vista, one town over from where his family lives. But then the school’s special education program became short staffed, setting Riley and his family on a lengthy search for a permanent school. 

In late March, the Georges drove him to a Colorado Springs facility school three hours away called the J. Wilkins Opportunity School.

The Georges are relieved and optimistic to find a place for Riley, but they wish he could be closer to home. “We can’t be the only family in our 200 square miles dealing with this,” said Kelly George.