Untapped Learning

Aspen Creek K–8 School brings preschool, elementary, and middle-level learning together on one Broomfield campus. Students move from kindergarten through eighth grade, with dedicated elementary and middle-level academics; the school also lists special education and gifted and talented support programs.

Bal Swan Children's Center is a nonprofit early childhood education center in Broomfield, Colorado that has been a cornerstone of the community since 1963. It builds a social-emotional foundation and nurtures an inclusive learning community where each child and family grows and belongs, guided always by the well-being of the children it serves. Inclusion is central to the Bal Swan Way. Classrooms are intentionally balanced with about one third children with special needs and two thirds children with typical needs, because children of varying abilities and ages learn best together. Alongside inclusion, the center is built on interdisciplinary teaming, individualized education, and love, with teachers and therapists collaborating closely and parents welcomed as lifelong teachers and essential members of each child's team. On-site therapy strengthens this model. Occupational therapists support fine and gross motor and daily-living skills, speech-language pathologists help children with communication and conditions such as autism spectrum disorder and childhood apraxia of speech, and warm water therapy improves motor coordination, balance, and strength. Individualized instruction, tracked with the Teaching Strategies Gold assessment, ensures each child is truly known and seen.

Spectra School, at 7205 W. 120th Ave. in Broomfield, is a day treatment school for neurodiverse students ages 5 to 21 with social, emotional, or behavioral needs. We are approved by the Colorado Department of Education Office of Facility Schools, and we work with 19 placing districts toward each student's return to a district school. Many of our students stay at least a semester, and often two to three years, until data and the IEP team support the move. Our programs cover elementary, middle, and high school, plus a young adult transition program. Instruction follows the Colorado Academic Standards and each student's IEP, with Extended Evidence Outcomes where the IEP calls for them. We group core classes by academic need in the morning and electives by functional level in the afternoon. Each of our special education teachers works with up to 12 students, and many students start one-on-one or one-on-two. A school social worker, occupational therapist, BCBA, and speech-language pathologist work in the classroom alongside students under our Interdisciplinary Intervention Model. Our school day runs 8:15 a.m. to 3 p.m. for 176 days, and our summer program keeps the same routine.