Author: Debbie Kelley
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Work begins on addressing violations at Colorado mental hospital: ‘We’re using a system that doesn’t work now’
As the number of online beds and employees working at the Colorado Mental Health Institute at Pueblo continue on a downward trajectory, triage measures to help alleviate the increasingly clogged pipeline for pre-trial criminal defendants waiting in jails for admittance to Colorado’s largest psychiatric hospital are underway. “We’re using a system that doesn’t work now,”…
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Afghan refugees will need housing, jobs, food, English classes and more, Colorado Springs agency leaders say
Southern Colorado’s sole resettlement agency is preparing to assist at least 75 Afghan refugees who had worked with United States troops in their homeland before last month’s military withdrawal, according to Floyd Preston, program director of the Colorado Springs office of Lutheran Family Services Rocky Mountains. But it could be more, he said. “That number…
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Some standardized test scores fall to lowest levels ever in Colorado, as schools scramble to get kids caught up
Scores from standardized testing that Colorado public school students took in the spring proved what educators have suspected: classroom disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic have caused significant learning losses and cut achievement from 2019 to this year across all grades and subjects. Colorado Education Commissioner Katy Anthes called the findings “sobering data that confirm just…
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Colorado Springs observes 31 years of ADA compliance. but improvements are an ongoing process
Before President George H. W. Bush signed into law the Americans with Disabilities Act on July 26, 1990, many people couldn’t navigate their homes and their communities. There simply weren’t enough ramps for wheelchairs or sign language interpreters or flexibility in jobs to accommodate physical and mental challenges. “It’s not the disability that’s the problem,…
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Marijuana-funded construction grants include new school — with a hitch
Of the 41 school construction projects the Colorado State Board of Education approved Wednesday – funded in part by marijuana excise taxes on retail sales – seven have been awarded to Pikes Peak region school districts. The proposals include a nearly $23.5 million undertaking to renovate the high school and construct a new middle school in…
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Children’s Hospital Colorado declares state of emergency over mental health, suicide
Children’s Hospital Colorado officials on Tuesday declared “a pediatric mental health state of emergency,” saying their entire system is taxed and experiencing an unprecedented overload of children as young as 8 needing immediate treatment, largely for suicidal thoughts and attempts. “We’re overrun with kids attempting suicide and suffering from other forms of major mental health…
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NONPROFITS | Coloradans asked to share their pandemic relief money in a ‘spirit of generosity’
As the third and largest round of federal stimulus dollars is poised to be released to millions of Americans, some Christian churches and faith groups are rebooting a benevolent movement that started last year. The effort asks people who don’t necessarily need all of their COVID relief money to donate some or all of it…
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Applications drop for Daniels Fund, which announces 2021 scholarship winners
Applications for this year’s Denver-based Daniels Fund scholarship dropped by several hundred over last year, a change officials believe is related to the COVID-19 pandemic. The private charitable foundation has “no definitive prognosis” for the decline but “we would expect a big part of that was probably due to COVID,” fund spokesman Bruce Wilmsen said.…
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Moratorium still protects qualifying Colorado renters from evictions, but landlords finding loopholes, attorney says
Some pandemic-related protections for renters remain in place, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s temporary moratorium on residential evictions. The program began in September to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. It was to have ended Jan. 31, but has been extended by the Biden administration through March 31. Though the program doesn’t…
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Nonprofits banking on Tuesday’s Colorado Gives Day to help raise funds for operations
Following this year’s wildly successful Giving Tuesday, when on Dec. 1, nearly 35 million Americans opened their wallets to donate $2.47 billion to nonprofits around the nation, Colorado Gives Day again is being held one week later. Local organizations are hopeful donors will be just as generous with charitable efforts close to home. The annual…