Medicaid-funded transportation to a special Denver school for 53 low-income children with medical needs has been dropped because the kids are not getting daily treatment along with their lessons.
The pupils at the Kunsberg School, renowned for its pulmonary research, learned last week that the free trips didn’t qualify under Medicaid rules.
Some parents have been forced to quit jobs just to ensure their children get to school. Many Kunsberg pupils are severe asthmatics with other medical problems.
“I just can’t take him to school and pick him up with my work schedule,” said Gylinda Gonzales, a 35-year-old formerly homeless mother of four whose son, David, attends Kunsberg.
Gonzales chose to leave her inventory clerk job and rely on her husband’s income rather than transfer the 12-year-old to a public school and “compromise his acute medical needs,” she said.
The state Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, which administers Medicaid, ruled trips to school are covered only when the child receives medical treatment there, department spokeswoman Ginny Brown said.
Kunsberg students receive treatment as needed, not necessarily daily.
Kunsberg is part of a nationally recognized research program run by National Jewish Medical and Research Center.
It costs $24 a day, about $4,300 a school year, to transport one child to Kunsberg, too much for the school to absorb them all, spokeswoman Geri Reinardy said.
Kunsberg could recoup the costs by asking school districts to pay, Reinardy said.
The school, however, would then forfeit its right to state education funds for each child. Rules prevent schools from getting funds from both sources.
The busing decision led about half the parents to arrange to carpool or rely on relatives and friends.
Six pupils are taking public transportation after the school announced a half-price deal on RTD bus passes.
School officials say attendance by 11 pupils has grown spotty since the rides have stopped.
Parents of eight pupils have decided to place their child back in area public schools.
Allison Newell, a city of Denver employee and single mother, said she can’t balance the conflicting schedules of work and getting her son, 10-year-old Jarrae, to and from school.
Jarrae has attended Kunsberg for nearly four years and will now attend a Denver public school, she said.
“He’s much too small to ride the city bus on his own, and I’m out of options,” Newell said.
Denver Public Schools spokeswoman Alejandra Garza said the district welcomes new pupils.
“We look forward to working with them and meeting their needs” she said.
Staff writer David Migoya can be reached at 303-954-1506 or dmigoya@denverpost.com.
