The Freddie Mac Foundation has awarded a $1 million grant to St. Coletta of Greater Washington to support the construction of a new school in southeast Washington, D.C., serving children with mental retardation and autism.

The 99,000-square-foot facility will house a special-education charter school and a private school serving 260 children. The grant also will be used to increase enrollment at the school by a hundred children and allow St. Coletta to create better-designed and -equipped classrooms, music and art studios, physical-therapy areas, and vocational-training stations. Because the majority of the student population will also be physically closer to their homes and community, the school will be able to incorporate families and caretakers more fully in students' education and overall development.

"The Freddie Mac Foundation is focused on strengthening families and helping children and young people reach their full potential," said foundation chair Ralph F. Boyd, Jr. "Ensuring that children with severe disabilities and their families have access to educational opportunities is critical to creating stronger families. Our grant to St. Coletta reflects our determination to invest in children so that they may have brighter futures."

The D.C. public school system has more than 2,400 cognitively disabled students. As a charter school, St. Coletta will be the first facility in the area to offer school choice to parents and caretakers of children with severe cognitive disabilities.