Cleo Eulau Center

Helping At-Risk Students Stay in School

CEC’s Transition Program provides support to students transitioning back to their public schools

Imagine switching high schools right in the middle of a semester, you know no one, you have no help enrolling in classes, you have no support from any adult figure and you are expected to do well or face switching schools yet once again.  This can be a real scenario for students in the San Mateo Court and Community Schools—alternative schools for students on probation or who have been expelled. All of these students need caring relationships and guidance more than ever in order to excel both academically and personally. Every student, at some point in the year, are required to transition back to public school—often a school they are unfamiliar with, where they know no one and have no support. It can be a recipe for failure.

As part of our Collaborative Counseling Program at the Court and Community Schools, we recognized that more needed to transpire during the transition process to increase student success and reduce recidivism.  Over the summer, the Cleo Eulau Center and the San Mateo Office of Education collaborated to start the Transition Program, piloting at Sequoia High School. The goal is to help increase the likelihood that Court and Community School students, making the transition back to public school, have the support and resources they need to stay in school and achieve academic success.