Community Day Schools in

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

are operated by

school district A school district is a special-purpose district that operates local public primary and secondary schools in various nations. North America United States In the U.S, most K–12 public schools function as units of local school districts, wh ...

s. Community day schools serve students referred by a School Attendance Review Board, and other high-risk youths."Community Day Schools" from http://www.cde.ca.gov/sp/eo/cd/. Accessed December 21, 2010 Community day schools are a type of

opportunity school Alternative education encompasses many pedagogical approaches differing from mainstream pedagogy. Such alternative learning environments may be found within state, charter, and independent schools as well as home-based learning environments. Ma ...

. Community Day schools should not be confused with County Community Schools which are run b
County Offices of Education
and serve students who have been expelled from a school district within the county.

Program information

The 360-minute minimum instructional day includes

academic program An academic degree is a qualification awarded to students upon successful completion of a course of study in higher education, usually at a college or university. These institutions commonly offer degrees at various levels, usually including unde ...

s that provide challenging

curriculum In education, a curriculum (; : curricula or curriculums) is broadly defined as the totality of student experiences that occur in the educational process. The term often refers specifically to a planned sequence of instruction, or to a view ...

and individual attention to student learning modalities and abilities. Community day school programs also focus on the development of pro-

social skills A social skill is any competence facilitating interaction and communication with others where social rules and relations are created, communicated, and changed in verbal and nonverbal ways. The process of learning these skills is called social ...

and student

self-esteem Self-esteem is confidence in one's own worth or abilities. Self-esteem encompasses beliefs about oneself (for example, "I am loved", "I am worthy") as well as emotional states, such as triumph, despair, pride, and shame. Smith and Mackie (2007) d ...

and

resiliency Resilience, resilient, resiliency, or ''variation'', may refer to: Science Ecology * Ecological resilience, the capacity of an ecosystem to recover from perturbations ** Climate resilience, the ability of systems to recover from climate change * ...

. Community day schools are intended to have low

student-teacher ratio A student teacher or prac teacher (''practice teacher'') is a college, university or graduate student who is teaching under the supervision of a certified teacher in order to qualify for a degree in education. The term is also often used intercha ...

s. Students benefit from learning support services that include

school counselor A school counselor is a professional who works in primary (elementary and middle) schools or secondary schools to provide academic, career, college access/affordability/admission, and social-emotional competencies to all students through a school ...

s and

psychologist A psychologist is a professional who practices psychology and studies mental states, perceptual, cognitive, emotional, and social processes and behavior. Their work often involves the experimentation, observation, and interpretation of how indi ...

s, academic and vocational counselors, and pupil discipline personnel. Students also receive collaborative services from county offices of education,

law enforcement Law enforcement is the activity of some members of government who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules and norms governing that society. The term en ...

probation Probation in criminal law is a period of supervision over an offender, ordered by the court often in lieu of incarceration. In some jurisdictions, the term ''probation'' applies only to community sentences (alternatives to incarceration), such ...

, and

human services Human services is an interdisciplinary field of study with the objective of meeting human needs through an applied knowledge base, focusing on prevention as well as remediation of problems, and maintaining a commitment to improving the overall qua ...

agency personnel who work with at-risk youth. Community day schools are supported by supplemental apportionment for community day school attendance, in addition to base revenue funding.

Accountability

Initially, th
Alternative Schools Accountability Model
(ASAM) provided accountability for educational options schools serving very high-risk, highly-mobile students. These schools include community day, continuation, opportunity, county community, juvenile court, Division of Juvenile Justice, and other

alternative school An alternative school is an educational establishment with a curriculum and methods that are nontraditional. Such schools offer a wide range of philosophies and teaching methods; some have strong political, scholarly, or philosophical orientati ...

s that meet stringent criteria set by the

California State Board of Education The California State Board of Education is the governing and policy-making body of the California Department of Education. The State Board of Education sets K-12 education policy in the areas of standards, instructional materials, assessment, and ...

(SBE). ASAM was discontinued due to changes in the accountability system, which were brought about by th
Local Control Funding Formula
(LCFF) in 2013. ASAM was replaced by th
Dashboard Alternative School Status
(DASS), which is currently under revision.

Law for Community Day Schools

Selected California Education Code sections

California school directory

California School Directory

References

{{reflist School types