Moving Forward After Expulsion, How Alternative High School Options Can Help

Expulsion. It's a scary word for students, and probably a scarier one for parents. After all, teens are wired to think in the short-term, not the long term. Expulsion can feel like a death sentence: RIP college plans, We Hardly Knew Ye career options, and so on. But expulsion -- or voluntary withdraw from school under threat of expulsion -- doesn't have to be the end of the story.

It's obvious, but it bears saying here: all kids are different. So if your child isn't thriving in a standard public high school, it's okay to look for alternatives where they can be successful. Not every kid is wired in a way that's compatible with our public school system. That's why we've developed an alternative option that works in cooperation with the public school system. Some kids struggle with juggling multiple topics at once. Some have trouble focusing when immersed in large peer groups. Some just can't sit still and wind up creating a distraction for others. The issues students face are myriad, which is why we offer individualized success plans. We know many kids who leave high school aren't prepared to succeed in a self-driven, online-only curriculum so we've gone beyond that. Our students take one course at a time (a mastery-based, sequential curriculum), so they can focus on a single topic. They are welcome to work at home or come into one of our local learning centers to work with a certified teacher. We are able to offer extracurricular activities like field trips, clubs and more. Additionally, we partner with local businesses to offer internships and mentorship opportunities. And all of this is provided at no cost to the student. We specialize in supporting youth who are at risk of not completing high school, not just those who wish to pursue an alternative education, and our results so far have been astonishing. Our graduation rate (again, only working with at-risk dropouts) is 65.7%. That's a big deal, especially considering that many students had been out of school for a while before coming to us to complete their high-school education. In the last two years of SAT testing, our students scored higher than most alternative schools and many traditional schools. We saw the same quality of results prior to that on ACTs

So, whether your student has been expelled or is facing expulsion, whether they can work with us or live too far away, be assured: expulsion doesn't have to be the end of the story. It can simply be a bump in the road that leads to a successful, happy, fulfilled life. You just have to decide how to move forward. To learn more about the communities that Success VLC serves, click here