Trinity Charter School began partnering with Bokenkamp in 2004 and has campuses at each of the four children's centers in Texas: - Krause in Katy - New Life at Canyon Lake - Nelson in Denton - Bokenkamp in Corpus Christi. The charter school system was created to allow educators and therapists to develop curriculum to address the needs of the emotionally and behaviorally disturbed children at the centers.

New Life Children's Center is an
affiliated program of Lutheran Social Services.

 

Charter school for abused, neglected & troubled children earns Academically Acceptable rating
August 2, 2005

CANYON LAKE, Texas -- Trinity Charter School, which provides educational services to the New Life Children’s Residential Treatment Center at Canyon Lake for abused and neglected girls, was rated Academically Acceptable by the Texas Education Agency in its first year of operation.

“For this to happen in our first year of operation, with a startup and the type of kids we serve, it is just fantastic to have an Academically Acceptable rating,” said Bruce Rockstroh, Director of Educational Services for Trinity Charter School.

Trinity Charter School, a nonprofit organization, has campuses at four Texas children’s residential treatment centers: New Life at Canyon Lake, Nelson in Denton, Krause in Katy, and Bokenkamp in Corpus Christi. The four residential treatment centers are owned and operated by Lutheran Social Services of the South, Inc.

The New Life Center at Canyon Lake cares for girls ages 11 to 17.

Trinity Charter School was rated under the TEA’s alternative education standards, which takes into account the unique population served by the school. Most of the children are placed in the treatment centers by Children’s Protective Services and juvenile probation agencies. The children have severe emotional and behavioral problems which prevent them from functioning in regular foster homes and public school settings.

Since most of the children are in the child welfare system, their education has been disrupted repeatedly because of removal from their biological homes where education is often not a priority, and multiple moves between emergency shelters, foster homes and residential treatment settings. As a result of their history, all the children are in special education classes.

This history of disruption and lack of focus on academics means that most of the children are two to three grade levels behind when they are placed at one of the treatment centers. The goal of the centers, working with the faculty of Trinity Charter School, is to bring the children up one or two grade levels by the time they are discharged to less restrictive settings.

More than two years ago, LSS began exploring ways to address the educational needs of the children. LSS entered into a partnership Trinity Charter School, which offers a year-round, intensive individualized curriculum. Classes meet Monday through Thursday and Fridays are dedicated to one-on-one tutoring and self-paced computer curriculum designed to meet the specific needs of each child.

“Given the fragile state of these children, it made absolutely no sense to address their physical and emotional needs and not their academic needs before they left our centers,” said LSS Chief Executive Officer Kurt Senske. “If you place such a child in a public school and haven’t helped her get up to speed in a classroom, her emotional and behavioral problems are more likely to return and we will probably see her back in a more expensive residential treatment setting.

“For the sake of the children – and for the good of taxpayers – it makes sense to address all three aspects of their lives,” Senske said.

Rockstroh isn’t content to settle for the Academically Acceptable rating.

“Our goal is to have Recognized campuses. We will continue to build to get to the next level,” he said.

The high mobility of the students at the treatment centers and often inadequate information about their education when children are placed at the centers makes it challenging to track students’ progress. The average stay at the centers is six months.

To achieve the goal of reaching the Recognized rating, Trinity Charter School is implementing a nationally recognized assessment program that will enable the school to evaluate the students when they are first placed at the center and then monitor their progress every 90 days in reading, language arts and math, Rockstroh said.

The New Life Children’s Center is an affiliated ministry of Lutheran Social Services, the social service arm of The Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. LSS serves more than 23,000 children, elderly and poor annually. Its affiliated ministries include children’s residential treatment centers, therapeutic foster care, adoption, health care and retirement centers, disaster response and emergency assistance.

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