MOUNT JOY, Pa. (WHTM) – Students at the Janus School have been raising rainbow trout eggs and hatchlings for the last five months in preparation to release them into Little Chiques Creek.

“For these guys to be able to see the whole thing and it’s real, it’s not a worksheet, it’s not in a textbook,” teacher Jason McCauley said.

Kids got real life experience in keeping track of the young trout. The Janus School teaches K-12 students with learning differences such as ADHD and Autism.

In January, the school received 273 rainbow trout eggs. Now hatched, the fish were ready to go on their own.

The students took the lead this year with handling the responsibilities.

“It used to be that it was only the oldest kids in the school and there were like four or five of them and only they took care of them,” McCauley said. “We’ve got all kinds of kids taking care of them, learning about them before they ever come out here, which is good, because then they already established that connection before they’re releasing them.”

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The tradition started in 2018. Each student receives a cup filled with water and a fish.

The students found joy in releasing them into Little Chiques Creek.

“Feeling a connection with the things around them and understanding that it’s out here, so many of them don’t have that connection when they first come here,” McCauley said. “We try to build that.”

The students set a record. This year is the most fish the school has released in a single year.

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