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This combination of court and community schools provides options that improve student safety, encourage learning, reduce classroom disruption and significantly reduce Kern County's dropout rate. Operated year-round, these programs provide education at 14 county locations to approximately 8,000 students each year who are at-risk of failing.

Court school instruction has been provided by the Kern County Superintendent of Schools since 1972 for students incarcerated in juvenile detention facilities. In addition, the non-residential Court School program has been established in Bakersfield and Ridgecrest whereby juvenile offenders are ordered by a judge to attend school but are not held in the juvenile facility. Kern County Superintendent of Schools also operates residential educational programs for children in the Jamison Children's Center.

Community schools have been operated by the Kern County Superintendent of Schools since 1987 and serve at-risk students who have been expelled, on probation or who are not attending school for other reasons. Working with Kern County school districts, community schools have helped decrease the dropout rate in Kern County more than 50 percent since its inception.

Community schools now serve Bakersfield, Delano, Lake Isabella, Mojave, Ridgecrest and Taft. Some programs are highly structured and offer vocational training. Others require eight hour school days. Due to distance factors, yet another alternative is independent study as a short-term solution.

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