Original Research by School Decision on Midwest Special Education Co-op
Midwest Special Education Co-op serves a specific purpose in the Stevens County education landscape. It is a special education school in Morris, Minnesota, and its entire enrollment consists of preschool-age children, serving only a prekindergarten grade band. The school is a cooperative, meaning it exists to provide specialized early-childhood special education services across participating districts, rather than functioning as a neighborhood school.
The school's enrollment is small, which is typical for a program of this kind. The student body is predominantly white, with a small Hispanic population represented. A substantial share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, indicating that the school serves families across the economic spectrum within the region it covers.
Because the school serves only prekindergarten students, no state testing results are available. The state's standardized assessments do not apply at this grade level, so there is no academic proficiency data to report. For the same reason, there is no graduation rate. The school's mission is early intervention and support, not general education instruction leading to a diploma.
The absence of civil rights data, such as discipline rates or staff-to-student ratios, means that a parent considering this program would want to ask the cooperative directly about class sizes, the types of therapies or services provided, and how the program transitions children into kindergarten. The comparison fact-set positioned the school relative to districts in Stevens County but found none of its standard metrics applicable, again because the grade band and school type fall outside the measures that apply to typical elementary, middle, or high schools.
Morris itself is a small prairie city and the county seat, anchored by the University of Minnesota Morris and a strong agricultural and manufacturing base. The local economy is built around agribusiness, education, and light industry. The town's growth is modest and steady, and its character is that of a rural college town with a compact downtown. For a family whose child qualifies for early childhood special education services through a participating district, Midwest Special Education Co-op is the designated provider, not a school one chooses independently. A parent should coordinate with their home district's special education office to understand how the cooperative works, what services are offered, and what the transition to kindergarten looks like. The school's core identity is as a specialized, cooperative service provider for the region's youngest students with identified needs.
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