Pepin Academies Of Pasco County

Pepin Academies Of Pasco County in New Port Richey, FL, is an alternative school serving 300 students in grades 3 through 12 within the Pasco district, which ranks in the 47th percentile statewide.

This school stands out for a remarkable "graduation paradox": its graduation rate has climbed to 93.9% (2024-2025), exceeding the state average and rivaling high-performing nearby schools like Classical Preparatory School (100.0%) and Dayspring Academy (97.7%). However, academic proficiency on state tests is dramatically lower—for example, 10th-grade ELA proficiency is just 21%, compared to 82% at Dayspring and 72% at Classical Prep. This suggests the school excels at guiding students to complete coursework and graduate, but faces significant challenges in bringing them to grade-level academic mastery. The school invests heavily in this mission, spending $14,728 per student (much higher than Classical Prep's $7,527) to maintain a low 10:1 student-teacher ratio, yet these resources have not yet translated into strong test scores.

The most critical barrier to academic progress is chronic absenteeism, which sits at a very high 47.9% (2023-2024)—nearly four times the rate at Dayspring Academy (12.4%) and second only to the Dorothy Thomas Center (70.7%) among nearby alternative schools. This directly correlates with low test scores and indicates that any strategy to improve learning must first address why nearly half of students are regularly missing school. Compared to the similar Paul B. Stephens Ese Center, which spends $42,062 per student with a 5.9:1 ratio, Pepin operates with a more moderate budget but faces the same core challenges of absenteeism and low academic performance, highlighting that simply spending more may not be the sole solution.