Press Release From WestCare Nevada
WestCare Charter School
http://www.westcarecharterschool.com

WestCare Nevada has created a new and innovative educational program for the youth of Southern Nevada. WestCare Charter School is a publicly-funded charter school geared at assisting children and adolescents with behavioral and/or emotional problems. The school combines educational programs with emotional wellness training and behavioral modification techniques.

WestCare Charter School opened its doors for the first classes last week. The projected enrollment includes approximately 20 – 30 students in each grade level between 6 and 12. WestCare Charter School works with young people to promote the students’ desire to reach their educational and personal potential. The goals of the school are to: 1) Improve the opportunity for pupils to learn and 2) Reduce the incidence of drop-outs of at-risk students.

Goal number one reflects the fact that many young people find themselves in situations that make attending a traditional school setting on a regular basis impossible. The intent of this charter school is to provide both the residents of WestCare and other individuals in the community to have access to a high quality public education while still receiving services needed to help them in other aspects of their lives, including substance abuse counseling and anger management training. Many of these young people are not able to attend traditional schools and having this opportunity available to them can only increase their potential to become productive members of society.

Goal number two reflects the fact that when students are unable to attend school on a regular basis or find themselves credit-deficient in their high school career, they will often choose to drop out of school. Having the opportunity to attend school in a setting that is designed to meet their educational and personal needs should lead to more of these students continuing their high school career through to the point of graduation. We expect that our school’s drop-out rates will be lower than the dropout rate at traditional high schools. This lower rate is due to smaller class size, counseling groups offered, creating an environment where each student can feel success, and giving the students the extra academic support needed (tutoring/study skills).

WestCare is a family of tax-exempt nonprofit organizations providing a wide spectrum of health and human services in both residential and outpatient environments. The services include substance abuse and addiction treatment, homeless and runaway shelters, domestic violence treatment and prevention, and behavioral and mental health programs. These services are available to children and adolescents. WestCare specializes in helping people traditionally considered difficult to treat, such as those who are indigent, have multiple disorders, or are involved with the criminal justice system.