COLORADO SPRINGS — For some students living with disabilities, earning their diploma can often be a challenge according to the nonprofit Roundup Fellowship. They're working to help more of these students make it to graduation and beyond.
"You cannot walk in here any day without loving these children. You just can't do it!," said Roundup School President Kathy Stults.
The Roundup School serves around 35 students from Pueblo to Parker, Colorado, grades K-12. They typically get student referrals from local school districts that can't meet their specific needs.
"So the philosophy in the state of Colorado currently is that all students, no matter what their disability, is that they're served in their neighborhood schools. So for a school district to recommend an out-of-school placement to somewhere like roundup is a really big deal," said Stults.
Special Education teacher Elijah Swartzendruber says he likes to focus on letting his students solve their own problems while teaching the critical-thinking skills they need to do it.
"When you know the past of some of these students and you know the capabilities they've been told they have, it's really cool to see them break through, it's incredibly rewarding. I have one student here who in 2 or 3 months last quarter grew a whole year academically," he said.
"Oftentimes, this population is forgotten about. It's not acknowledged, it's not celebrated, so I think the work we do in this community with this population is huge," said Stults.
Roundup Fellowship also provides services for adults with disabilities in our community, saying they want to support people throughout their entire lives.
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