Canyon-Owyhee School Service Agency (COSSA) was founded in 1969 by the cooperative effort of five rural school districts in Canyon and Owyhee Counties. The purpose of their action was to provide services that were financially impossible for them to provide individually to their students. Currently COSSA employs a specialized staff of people to serve the educational areas of special education, alternative high school education and professional-technical education.

     To accomplish this task, we have staff who travel to several districts delivering specialized services; we have students transported to centers of instruction; and we have staff whose assignment is with a single district.

• COSSA is a five-school-district cooperative which began in 1969 and formed under State Statute 33-317.

• Current member school districts include Homedale, Marsing, Notus, Parma and Wilder in Canyon and Owyhee Counties.

• Services provided include Professional-Technical Education, and Alternative High School, Special Education and Gifted/Talented programs.

• This collaboration enables the member school districts to pool resources and provide enhanced services that would not be feasible individually

• COSSA is governed by state and local regulations and a board of trustees that includes one superintendent and an elected trustee from each member school district.

• COSSA employs an administrative team of an Executive/Professional-Technical Director, Special Education and Gifted/Talented Programs Director and an Alternative School Principal.

• COSSA employs over 115 certified and classified staff who provide direct services to students.

• The agency annually serves: over 250 Professional-Technical students over 500 Special Education students over 120 Gifted & Talented students approximately 120 Alternative students.