We are an academic community committed to educating students with adult responsibilities. We service the educational needs of students ages 17-21 from 8:00 a.m. Our unique hours provide students who work or raise families the opportunity to create an academic schedule that dovetails with their adult responsibilities. We have an open admissions policy and enroll students who have been discharged fr
om other schools due to age and older foreign-born students with limited English proficiency. Our goal is to graduate students who are prepared for college or who are equipped with improved literacy and communication skills that enable them to find better employment or enhance their status in the workplace. In order to ensure that students receive the appropriate services they need to succeed, we engage in constant monitoring of attendance and academic performance, and in providing appropriate academic intervention and support services. Intervention may take the form of counseling, parent-teacher-student conferences, supplementary instruction, supervised study programs, group and individual tutorials, and the provision of social welfare supports such as medical, housing, legal, and employment assistance. Beginning in 1989 with only 25 students we serve over 700 a year today. Approximately two-thirds are older, foreign-born ELL students representing over 50 countries from Asia, Africa, the Caribbean and Latin America, the Middle East and Eastern Europe. Our non-ELL students have typically dropped out from other schools or needed to leave those schools for a variety of reasons. Many of them have dropped out from more than one high school prior to their admission to our school. By the time they reach Manhattan Comprehensive, approximately 60% are legally and financially independent of their families. Approximately 70% work during the day to support themselves; approximately a third are raising children of their own.