The Learning Zone is a small school in Littleton that teaches nonverbal students to use devices that
allow them to communicate by pushing buttons that convey words or phrases.
But to become a state-approved facility school in hopes of getting more school districts to pay for their
specialized services, The Learning Zone first had to become a state-licensed day treatment program.
When the licensing specialist from the state human services department showed up, she brought a
checklist. Did the school have all sharp objects locked up? Were the cleaning chemicals, hand sanitizer
and Lysol wipes out of reach?
“I understand that our licensing specialist is just doing her job,” said Amanda Attreau, executive director
of Real Life Colorado, the nonprofit organization that runs The Learning Zone. But “she looked me in the
face and said, ‘You have to keep it locked up because what if the kids try to drink the sanitizer?’ But like,
why? To get drunk? That’s never going to happen.”
Streamlining regulations and cutting red tape are one way lawmakers hope to shore up Colorado’s
collapsing system of facility schools, specialized programs that serve children with significant behavioral,
emotional and academic needs.
Advocates also want to see more attention paid to how home districts meet students’ needs. Educator
Carrie Fairbairn, who helps teachers learn to identify behavior patterns, 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.’”
The right approach, the right teacher or the right school setting can be the difference between a student
who is stable and learning and one who can’t make it through the school day, and solutions are being
found in classrooms and specialized programs around the state.