Eau Claire Academy residential program closing
Sep. 21—EAU CLAIRE — A residential facility that has treated thousands of troubled children over the past 55 years will close this fall.
Clinicare Corp. announced Tuesday that the Eau Claire Academy, 550 N. Dewey St., will have its last resident leave by Nov. 12 and end operations in the large building there.
In a statement posted on the facility's website and Facebook page, the decision to close was tied to a labor shortage that had already led to a reduction in resident admissions.
"We're kind of in the same boat that a lot of people are. There's a labor shortage in the U.S.," said Chuck Anger, vice president at Clinicare and the interim director of the Eau Claire Academy.
Historically the residential program has been licensed for up to 135 residents, but would typically have 80 to 120 youths living there, Anger said.
In more recent years though, the facility changed to single-person rooms and reduced its capacity to 55 beds. But with less staff, the Academy had to cut down the amount of residents it could take.
"Due to the labor shortage the facility has had to decrease the number of admissions and has been operating below its capacity for the last year," according to the online statement.
Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, the facility has been averaging resident numbers in the 20s, Anger said. Now it's down to 16 kids.
With the impending shutdown, remaining residents are going back home to their families or to another setting determined by the agency that originally placed them at the Academy.
The Eau Claire Academy serves youths aged 10 to 17 who have emotional disorders, educational difficulties, impaired social relationships, dual diagnosis with substance abuse problems, behavioral disturbances or psychiatric disorders, according to the facility's website.
Since it opened in August 1967, there have been over 6,500 children and adolescents from across the Midwest served in the Eau Claire Academy's residential program, Anger stated in the closure announcement.
"This was an extremely difficult decision to make," he wrote. "Our mission has been to improve the well-being of children in our care and that sole endeavor will continue until the last resident leaves our care between now and November 12, 2022, at that time our operations will cease."
While there isn't enough staff to keep it going, Anger said the demand for the residential program remains high with hundreds of referrals seeking placement there this year.
And he noted that the Eau Claire Academy had long been where people going into special education, psychiatry, nursing and other professions would start their careers, even while they were still in college.
"For years it's been a great place to work for people getting experience in humanities," he said.
Even though the main building for the residential program will be closing, the neighboring Eau Claire Academy Alternative School and a gymnasium will continue to operate. That small school accepts students as young as 10 years old who are referred there by other local schools. Currently there are 18 students enrolled and a waiting list, Anger said.
