BROOKLYN — The last day of school was emotional at the ReStart Academy at Thomas Askin.
The academy was one of roughly 25 public school programs that offer counseling and other support services to help students get their lives back on track while working toward a high school or high school equivalency degree.
After signing each other's yearbooks, the 50 students — a mix of high school dropouts, young parents, people with mental health problems or a history of drug use — said their final goodbyes to each other and to the program, which will not re-open in September.
"It didn't take long for people to start crying," said Margarita Kaplan, a 16-year-old junior from Gravesend. "Students were in tears because of how the school turned their lives around. The staff was crying too because they were losing such a big part of their lives, something they worked so hard to build."
ReStart Academy was housed for nearly 20 years at the Jewish Board of Family and Children Services's Midwood location. Due to shrinking government funding and private donations, the board could no longer cover the $1.3 million it needed to keep the program going, representatives from the nonprofit said.
Though Kaplan is graduating a year ahead of time and would not have returned to the school regardless, she launched a petition to save it — so far to no avail.
"It occurred to me that there are other kids out there, like me, that desperately need schools like these to be available," she said. "Regular schools are insanely stressful and take their toll on students one way or another."
Kaplan ended up at Thomas Askin in the spring of 2014 because she had been struggling with anxiety and depression at her old high school, John Dewey.
"I would break down in tears during class if I didn't get perfect scores on my tests, and had to be escorted to the school psychologists office very often. I lost all my motivation and was a constant nervous wreck," she said. "I had a teacher tell me that everyone gets depressed and that it isn't a big deal, so I needed to stop complaining."
A few months after she started therapy, she lost the will to get out of bed most mornings and often missed school. In January 2014, Kaplan tried to kill herself. She then dropped out of school.
"The thought of going back would give me severe panic attacks," she said.
Her therapist then recommended she attend the ReStart Academy.
The school helped her finish her classes and even graduate early. For the most part, her panic attacks, once daily, now occurred every few weeks.
"I've learned to somewhat manage and control feelings of anxiety and depression," said Kaplan, presently working toward a career in costume design. "I've also become much more confident and have been able to express myself much more than I ever have before in my life."
Now that the school is closing, many of its social workers are being laid off or having their schedules cut, said Kaplan, who has already been transferred from her original therapist of two years. Her new therapist just got her hours cut so much that Kaplan can't make appointments because the hours conflict with her work day.
"It's a shame that this wonderful program had to close," said David Rivel, the Jewish Board's CEO.
The Department of Education covered the costs for the teaching staff, but the funding for the clinical services — covered by the state whent the program started — now fell to the Jewish Board, which also provided free rent for the school, according to the DOE and the Board. The Board added that it had been struggling for several years to raise enough money to cover its share.
Rivel said the organization "had multiple conversations over a number of years with [Department of Education] leadership" to find ways to keep it running.
DOE officials, however, said the Board's decision to close seemed abrupt and took them by surprise.
A department spokeswoman said the city would make sure the 50 students in the program were "placed into other appropriate academic settings."
