Community Project Funding/Congressionally Directed Spending - Construction - Protect Title: Cherry Creek School District Mental Health Day Treatment Facility The Mental Health Crisis in Colorado is well documented and has impacted school districts to a significant extent. Most urgently, schools have students in clinical levels of mental health crisis and extremely limited options for getting them help. Day treatment slots are exceedingly hard to find, as facility placements have dwindled from 77 ten years ago to less than 16 today. The Cherry Creek School District's community passed a bond measure in November 2020 to build a mental health day treatment facility to provide students in crisis with therapeutic mental health care combined with outstanding education will be the first school district-built and operated clinical day treatment facility of its kind in the nation and can serve as a model to other school districts in Colorado as well as across the entire country. The requested Congressional funding will address a $1.5 million shortfall in meeting the original scope of this project. Goals for this project: • Provide a day treatment option with therapeutic mental health services and an outstanding education for students in Cherry Creek School District. • Offer a unique multi-level program serving students with o severe acuity o moderate acuity o a transitional program to help return students to the regular school setting. • Provide outdoor and indoor activities, learning environments, and architectural features, creating a warmer, deinstitutionalized environment and a unique educational and therapeutic experience for students in crisis. • Expected Outcomes & Contributions: • This facility will provide much needed mental health support and educational benefit to students in desperate need of therapeutic mental health intervention and, simultaneously, need to continue their education. As previously stated, the adolescent mental health crisis in Colorado is staggering and only getting worse. Students in crisis are a risk to themselves and others. This will be the nation's first school district-built and operated clinical day treatment, even though it will be a Cherry Creek School District facility, it can most certainly serve as a model for other school districts in Colorado and across the nation. Facilities like this can and will save lives. In partnership with the CU School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry, the facility will also serve as a training ground for psychiatric students. Data will be collected regarding treatment efficacy and recidivism. The target students who will utilize this facility include: students with severe depression, anxiety and other mental health issues that interfere with their ability to function and participate in school activities; students at risk of harming themselves or others; and students who are managing mental health symptoms and lack a support system to provide resources and support to manage their mental health and stay on track academically. Cherry Creek School District will provide services for all students referred to this program. Financial assistance will be provided as needed. Per CCSD Board of Education Policy AC, "The schools in the District are subject to all federal and state laws and constitutional provisions prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race, color, ancestry, creed, sex, gender, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, religion, national origin, marital status, age, disability or need for special education services." In addition, students and families will be given intentional support and resources to reintegrate students back into the student's school of residency upon completion of day treatment programming.
