San Pasqual Academy is the first residential education campus for foster youth in the nation and was created to address the needs of foster youth in San Diego County.

When Chairman Roberts and Vice Chairman Cox initially conceived of the Academy, back in the late 1990s, their goal was to give foster teens a stable place to live and learn, and, ultimately, a real chance to earn a high school diploma. This concept came in response to serious concerns raised by the Presiding Juvenile Court Judge of San Diego Juvenile Court, Jim Milliken facing foster youth.

When the Academy opened in 2001, the risks were high and the skeptics many. But six years later, it is changing lives and helping to set foster youth on a path towards success. In fact, the Academy is a national model. The 2007 graduation rate at San Pasqual Academy was 93 percent, and many of these graduates – about one in three – have gone on to four-year universities.

Since you can never have too much of a good thing, the County of San Diego broke ground on its first major expansion of the Academy, one that will allow for an additional 50 foster teens to attend and take advantage of all this Academy has to offer – a high-quality education, a positive social environment to build long-lasting friendships, and most of all, a place to call home.

Similar to the way the Academy was original built, this expansion will be developed through a public-private partnership – this time between the County, Home-Aid San Diego and Lennar Homes of California.

For more information please visit the San Pasqual Academy website.