Growing pains

POST FALLS — A new career technical public charter school that was dinged for special education violations is correcting those errors and working to strengthen relationships with its families.

“We’ve realized, the population that we serve, we’re going to get more special education students,” Elevate Academy Special Education Director Stephanie Linder said Thursday. “We’ve learned. Those are growing pains. Like any other school would tell you, there’s things that we can do better. Learning from mistakes and growing, that’s what it’s about.”

Elevate Academy North opened in 2022 in Post Falls as a sixth-through-10th-grade school that has since added 11th grade and will add 12th grade next school year. As of November, the school's population included 48 students with individualized education programs, which describe a qualifying student's special education needs and detail how those needs will be met.

Linder said typically, about 11% of a traditional school's student population requires special education services. Elevate North is seeing double that.

"I think it’s because we’re so uniquely poised to serve kids that are outside of the box, because we have all the trades and the hands-on opportunities, and I also think because our model is inclusive, and you don’t see that a lot," she said.

Elevate has no dedicated special education classrooms; rolling podiums are used by teachers who move around and meet up with students to work with them in the hallways for individualized instruction.

“It could be with a group of students that may include students with disabilities or it may include students who are just behind and they need that extra help," Elevate North Principal Marita Diffenbaugh said.

Idaho Education News reported in a March 24 article that Elevate Academy schools failed to address special education needs, citing 2023 state investigation reports it obtained through a public records request. Elevate North was reported to have 16 violations while eight were cited at the Nampa location.

Linder and Diffenbaugh confirmed 16 violations occurred between two complaints filed with the Idaho Department of Education involving two students.

“They hired me after some of the complaints and they realized, ‘Hey, we need somebody that can help us do this better and get better procedures and support for all the schools that are opening,’” said Linder, who was hired by the Elevate network in July 2023 and operates out of the flagship location in Caldwell.

Linder said the violations were similar and procedural in nature, such as timely communication with parents, meeting timelines for eligibilities and annual reviews of the IEPs.

“Granted, we had one staff for that many kids,” Linder said. “We quickly realized the error, provided some support and corrected everything. The bulk of the findings resulted in more training.”

Diffenbaugh said Elevate North is a community-driven school.

"When we choose to work with students who need us the most, chances are we’re going to have more rumbles because there’s more need," she said. "So with that, we’re just going to continue to learn and grow and get better every day.”

Linder said Elevate North has participated in the required training and in two weeks will have a six-month follow-up regarding state recommendations.

“It’s really about making sure that we have the procedures and the policies in place so that we can make sure we meet the deadlines and the timelines," she said.

When the Post Falls site opened, school leaders didn’t know what they were getting as far as how many kids would need special education services, Linder said.

"We had one certified special education teacher that we opened with, and we had over 50 kids," she said. "It was a hard lift to make sure everything was happening the way it needed to happen."

This year, an additional special education teacher joined the team, which now also has two paraprofessionals.

"We do see higher needs across the board in special education,” said Linder, who has been in special education for 22 years. “There are higher needs coming in, and every school is facing challenges."

Diffenbaugh said the two families that lodged complaints did so before staff had opportunities to form relationships with them.

“It was so early on,” she said. “We have both families still. We have solid relationships and they’re still enrolled.”

Each Elevate operates as an independent local education agency, but the lessons learned at current schools will inform the opening of the next site that is soon to be opened in Idaho Falls.

"Now we’ve had three schools and we’re opening a fourth in Idaho Falls, we’re better prepared as far as knowing what kind of population we’re going to be serving," Linder said.

Diffenbaugh said Elevate is designed to inspire, ignite and engage its students and families.

"We made some mistakes and they’re corrected and we are doing better moving forward," Linder said. "We’re better because of this opportunity to learn from it.”

    Seventh grader Scarlytte Erickson, center, prepares to measure milk for a recipe at Elevate Academy North in Post Falls. Also pictured: Titus Fife, left and Lillia Kenney, right.
  

    From left, Dodge Lundquist, Joseph Goslin and Parker Taus, all juniors, work on framing a shed in a residential construction class Thursday at Elevate Academy North.