TRAVERSE ACADEMY

The Cherry Creek School District Traverse Academy will provide a critical resource to support the growing mental health needs of district students.

In reviewing data from the 2018-19 school year, CCSD staff noticed a sharp uptick in suicide risk assessments—up over 50% from four years prior—and threat assessments—up over 300% from four years prior. This rise was happening despite the District’s growing investments in mental health resources, including the hiring of specialized staff to support student mental health. At the same time, Colorado was seeing a decrease in the number of facilities serving students with mental health needs, and a loss of funding at the state and federal level to support mental health initiatives. Faced with the gap between available resources and the growing mental health needs of its students, the District bridged this gap by creating a District-owned day treatment center, the first such facility in the country.

Combining the programs of a clinical mental health facility and a PK-12 school, the facility serves students in grades 4 through 12, broken out into support two student populations according to their mental health needs. The “severe” population includes students who are coming out of full-time clinical environments, while the “moderate” population includes students who can safely be offered more independence as well as those who are making the transition back into regular, full-time schooling.

Check out our Design Resources page on this project.