IDEA announces new school for health professions

Austin will soon be home to the country’s “first dedicated pre-K through 12th grade comprehensive health professions public charter school,” according to an announcement from IDEA Austin, the local branch of a Texas network of charter schools. Anticipated to open in 2018, the school will be located on a yet-to-be-determined site “in or near downtown Austin,” and admission will be free under an open-enrollment lottery system. Although the school will be the first of its kind, dedicated health professions schools are not new, and IDEA’s announcement notes that Austin is currently the only large Texas city without one, despite being home to the new Dell Medical School. More information about IDEA is available here.