Arlington Public Schools staff are proposing a new self-contained high school program for students who face recurring mental health challenges.

The proposed Flexible Learning Program would include dedicated clinical staff in addition to classroom teachers. It could serve up to 100 students at a time and would be located in the same Pentagon City office building that will house Arlington Community High School starting next fall.

Students coming back from treatment could start where they left off, as teachers and support staff “help them build up and earn those [academic] credits,” said Darrell Sampson, executive director of student services for the school system, at a Nov. 19 work session.

“We can get you caught up,” Sampson said.

Students would have the option of transitioning back into other academic programs, including general-purpose high schools, “but it also potentially could have students who finish their careers there,” Sampson said.

The concept was developed over the past year.

“We see increased needs for students, for a variety of reasons, needing more advanced [mental-health] treatment outside school … needing to go in and out of treatment,” Sampson said.

The proposal was among numerous new and revised non-traditional programs introduced during the 90-minute work session. Although School Board members did not seem sold on some of the specifics, they appeared in agreement about providing a variety of learning options to serve the needs of students on an individual basis.

“Sometimes kids are kids, and they just need a second to pull things together,” Board member Kathleen Clark said.

If some version of the staff proposal is adopted, “our staff will be able to have a very clear set of tools and opportunities and pathways to be able to offer,” said Kimberley Graves, chief of school support for the school division.

School Board Chair Bethany Zecher Sutton will have some discretion in determining next steps for the overall proposal for changing non-traditional learning options.

While Superintendent Francisco Durán discussed taking up matters during the fiscal year 2027 budget process next spring, some elected school leaders seemed inclined to have a full plan laid out for review as early as January.

Julie Crawford, the school system’s head of student support, said local students will not be left out of the conversation as development of the plan moves forward.

“We do have plans to work with our students to see what works well in our existing programs, and what might they need as we look at revisions,” she said.