Tuition-free college for particular schooling coming to Arvada
ARVADA, Colorado – On Saturday, education officials and families will break ground for Colorado’s first no-fee charter school designed specifically for students with learning disparities.
The Prospect Academy will open in Arvada in autumn 2022.
The school will focus on students with diagnosed learning disparities such as autism, ADHD, or dyslexia. However, founding director Mia Coffing said that even students with no learning differences could benefit from this nontraditional environment.
“You don’t have to have a learning difference to get to Prospect (Academy). If you’re looking for smaller class sizes, more managerial support and social-emotional skills, we are definitely the place to be, ”said Coffing.
Coffing, a former special education teacher, founded Prospect Academy with community parents and the nonprofit Charter School Development Corporation. The school will be located at 5592 Independence Street in Arvada, where the Presbyterian Church of Arvada is currently located. Over the next year the building will be renovated and the school will hire teachers, staff and students. The school will open to students in grades 5-8, but hopes that it can eventually be expanded to include grades 9-12.
Mother Jill Trammell said she plans to send her 10-year-old son to Prospect Academy next year. She said it was a great relief for families to have that option for the middle school years.
“Moving to middle school – what you usually see is a lot of support and intervention going away, and a lot of families of children with learning disparities really struggle to know that our children are moving into that kind of atmosphere,” Trammell said.
She added that families of children with learning disparities often have to pay for private schools or other programs to meet their children’s needs.
“We’re really focusing on this equity and bringing it to families for free,” said Coffing.
Interested families are cordially invited to the groundbreaking ceremony on Saturday, September 25th. at 1 p.m. at 5592 Independence St. in Arvada.
