When students fall behind, Fulton County school offers credit recovery program

COLLEGE PARK, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — As students return to school across north Georgia, some won’t go back — due to family or personal reasons — leaving them racing to catch up and graduate.

A program in Fulton County is designed to help at-risk youths achieve their academic goals.

Fewer than 2% of Fulton County high schoolers drop out in a given year, but that figure can still represent hundreds of students.

Skyview High School in College Park is a non-traditional charter school that sets aside a typical school day in favor of individualized credit recovery plans for at-risk students.

Students who arrive at Skyview are often years behind academically.

“Those students come in sometimes defeated, at a loss, where they felt as if graduation was not even an option for them at all,” Principal Shelley Leger said.

Instead of a traditional eight-hour school day, student days are divided in half, allowing flexibility for students who support family members or have to work.

Kenya Pierce was one of those students.

“Nobody in my mom’s family graduated,” Pierce said.

Recognizing that she was on a similar path, she pivoted.

“I was being influenced by the wrong type of people,” she said.

Her path through the program was difficult, but she graduated last May at 21 years old.

“This was the best day of my life,” Pierce said, looking at her graduation photo.

Skyview’s model stands in contrast to legislative options such as SB 513, which would open chronically absent students to disciplinary actions that could make graduating even more difficult.

“Our students are not just statistics,” Leger said.

To anyone who feels too far behind to catch up in school, Pierce offered support.

“Nobody is going to want it more than you want it,” she said. “You have to go get it for yourself.”