Key Takeaway: Make classes accessible for the hardest to reach students.

More than 10 percent of adults over age 25 in San Francisco do not have high school diplomas. For one California charter school network, improving this statistic means changing the way it runs schools.

Some Five Keys students, most of whom dropped out of traditional schools, could not access the network’s 70 classrooms setup in partner community organizations throughout the Bay Area and Los Angeles. The students faced multiple obstacles to attending school, especially when it came to accessing affordable or free transportation. Often, students’ routes to class passed through unsafe neighborhoods.

So, Five Keys is bringing schools to its students.

Five Keys recently added a mobile classroom, in the form of a refurbished city bus. The mobile classroom has laptops, desks, a library, and wi-fi. The bus can serve up to 15 students at a time. The mobile classroom will make four stops a week—prioritizing neighborhoods facing above-average crime and poverty rates.

Five Keys Charter Schools network serves primarily incarcerated or formerly incarcerated students. The charter school opened in 2003 and was founded by the San Francisco Sheriff’s Department “as the first charter school in the nation to operate inside of a county jail.”

Five Keys is making a real difference. Since 2003, about 2,000 students have graduated with high school diplomas or passed the general education development (GED) exam.

Please click here to learn more about Five Key’s programs.