Summary
ACCESS Juvenile Hall is a K–12 alternative school in Costa Mesa, serving 186 students in the Orange County Department of Education district. Its most important finding is that 2025–26 proficiency was very low in every reported subject: 8% in ELA, 2% in math, and 6% in science, all well below state and district results.
Test results place the school near the bottom of the nearby comparison group: among six nearby schools with results, it had the second-lowest ELA proficiency and the lowest math and science proficiency. Nearby averages were 45% in ELA, 33% in math, and 34% in science. The school also trailed state averages of 49%, 38%, and 36%, and district averages of 20%, 10%, and 12%, respectively. Low chronic absenteeism is a relative strength: 7% of students were chronically absent, compared with 18% statewide and districtwide. But this did not coincide with strong completion figures: the graduation rate was 33%, versus 72% in the district and 88% statewide, while the dropout rate was 62%, compared with 14% districtwide and 8% statewide.
Results have improved since 2022–23: ELA rose from 3% to 8%, math from 0% to 2%, and science from 0% to 6%. The gains are encouraging, but proficiency remains far below state levels; in math, the state’s improvement outpaced the school’s. The 6.8:1 student–teacher ratio in 2024–25 was the lowest among nine nearby schools with reported ratios, whose next-lowest was 7:1. In 2024–25, 50.5% of students were directly certified for free meals; the school is also flagged as likely serving free meals to all students (Community Eligibility). SchoolDigger’s rating is for the district, not the school: the district ranked 467 of 968, in the 52nd percentile, with 3 stars. Some grade-level results are suppressed, so comparisons for individual grades are incomplete.
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