A day-treatment program for kids with behavioral problems in Cortez is planning an expansion.
New Wings on S. Washington Street is planning a new $120,000 building that will house a classroom and allow the school to expand from 10 to 20 students by this fall, said Josiah Forkner, director of the Montezuma County Department of Social Services.
New Wings is a social services program run in partnership with local school districts. It offers an alternative to residential treatment offered in Grand Junction, Alamosa and Colorado Springs, he said.
The program allows students with serious emotional disabilities or a clinical diagnosis to continue classes in town with help from specially trained staff and a case worker who helps students’ families, he said. The goal is for students to transition back to regular school.
“The need has risen to a point where we have a constant wait list of six or seven,” he said.
This expansion has been discussed for several years because of the school’s wait list, said Jessica Spencer, former New Wings teacher and the west exceptional student services director for the San Juan Board of Cooperative Educational Services.
When students can’t get into New Wings, they face residential treatment hours away from their families. It also costs social services $5,000 to $6,000 per month per kid.
“Keeping our kids local is good for everyone, it’s good for the student most importantly, it’s good for the students parents, it’s good for DSS, it’s good for the school district,” Forkner said.
Social services will be paying for the new building with their general funds. However, the main challenge behind expansion was finding a way to pay two additional para-educators, which would bring the staff up to seven.
Starting next fall, school districts in Cortez, Dolores and Mancos will start paying for the new staff members. Students are referred to New Wings from these three districts and Dove Creek.
“This is a really good solution, and we think it’s going to be successful,” Spencer said.
mshinn@durangoherald.com