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The SEA Charter School is one of the few schools in the state that works exclusively with youth at high risk of deliquency and academic failure. Despite the fact that most of the students in the school have either been expelled or dropped out of school, have a history of delinquency, and test three or more grades below norm, approximately 88% of the 3,500 students enrolled annually successfully exit the program.
Background: The SEA Charter School, which was first granted its charter in 1997 by unanimous consent of both houses of the California State Legislature, is an alternative high school in Los Angeles County for at-risk youth (14-18) who are on probation, credit-deificient, or who have been expelled from school. The school is successful because, in addition to providing an academic curriculum specific to the needs of each student, it also provides a comprehensive set of social and wrap around services to youth and their families. As a result, it offers viable alternatives to gangs, drugs, and violence to youngsters at risk of academic failure and delinquency.
Accreditation: The school is a WASC-accreddited high school with 17 sites throughout Los Angeles County. It provides a complete California standards-based high school curriculum for six (6) hours daily to approximately 3,500 students annually. Enrollment in the school is based on 80-day contracts where students can systematically catch up on their credits, benefit from credit-recovery programs, and, if needed, renew their contracts or return to their home school. Our program is distinguished by a small class size and individual instruction. Each student is given an Individual Lesson Plan (ILP) and computerized curriculum which allow students to work at their own pace. A credentialed teacher and teacher’s ai
de supervise each classroom. Because of this close attention, our students begin to succeed in their school work—often for the first time in their lives.
Three Station Model: Another reason for the school’s success is its daily format. It uses a “three station model” and block scheduling in increments of 100 minutes each. The first station allows students to receive direct instruction from a teacher. In the second station, students conduct independent or cooperative work which challenges them to demonstrate mastery and reinforces topics they have learned in the previous station. In the third station, the student works with the SEA Charter School’s Internet and Multi-Media-Supported Commuter-Assisted Instruction Curriculum, where they may work on lessons at their own pace.
Community Day School: Because SEA is a community day school, we are able to provide additional hours of service daily. This enables us to provide a variety of social and wrap-around services to students and their families. SEA believes that if we are able to strengthen the family as a whole, the needs of our young clients will be more effectively met. Our case managers are trained in Integrated Case Management (ICM), an evidence-based, intensive, comprehensive, strength-based case management process. Moreover, these additional hours allow us to provide youth with constructive and supervised activities for eight hours per day, especially during the hours when youth are most vulnerable to delinquency.
Wrap-around Social Services: These include individual and substance abuse and mental health counseling; career development, job skills training, and computer training; gender-based services for at-risk girls; literacy tutoring for at risk youth; home-based and employment services for high risk/high needs youth; camping, and gang intervention, reduction and prevention services. We provide parents with Parents Helping Parents, a 20-week parenting course for the parents of at-risk youth and Parents Helping Teen Parents, a 12-week parenting course for teen parents.
Collaboration: SEA, Inc. and the SEA Charter School have a long and successful track record in conducting publicly funded programs for male and female youth who are at high risk of delinquency and academic failure by working in partnership with juvenile justice, probation, educational, employment, and law enforcement agencies as well as with the parents, guardians, teachers and all other stakeholders in a youth’s life.
Success Rate: Our goal at the SEA Charter School is not only to keep these youngsters from delinquency, but – even more importantly – to also help them grow to become responsible adults who contribute to society. Eighty-eight (88%) of the students who enter the SEA Charter School successfully exit the program after catching up on their credits by graduating from the school, returning to their home school, or by entering a more appropriate learning environment.
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