On-Grounds School

Third Way Center High School (Joan Farley Academy) is an alternative school licensed by the State of Colorado Department of Education and works closely with Third Way Center’s residential programs.

Some of the young people in our care cannot function in a traditional classroom setting, are school phobic, are one to three years behind in the schooling or are too difficult to handle even in a special education classroom. Our objective is to provide an environment which broadens these students’ knowledge base, experience levels and allows for more stability and strength for this target population. The ultimate objective is to mainstream these teens into public schools and allow for their lives to be as normal as possible. The on-grounds school offers testing, assessment, catch-up tutoring and a complete profile before entering public high school.

The on-grounds school offers small class size, individual attention, an individual educational plan, extended roles for teachers that include student counseling and guidance, cooperative environment, voluntary membership, student involvement in governance and the absence of and minimization of tracking, ability grouping and other forms of labeling students. Students’ educational plans are monitored by the faculty as a whole and are designed to fit within the boundaries of discipline-specific requirements for graduation in the conventional educational system.