“Sign up for Chalkbeat Colorado’s free daily newsletter to get the latest reporting from us, plus curated news from other Colorado outlets, delivered to your inbox. 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 .
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