By Monica Brady-Myerov (WBUR)

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There are many safety nets built into schools to catch failing students, including tutoring, counseling, calls to absent students and frequent face-to-face check-ins. But sometimes they just don’t work. So there’s another option — alternative school. These schools are for students who are chronically absent and below grade level.

BEATRIZ ZAPATER: We are an ungraded school. We’re competency-based, which means that students have to demonstrate their learning on benchmarks across a series of academic classes.

Beatriz Zapater, co-head of one alternative school, Boston Day and Evening Academy in Roxbury, says if students meet the benchmarks, they can catch up quickly. The charter school offers courses during the day, in the evening and online. It’s flexible and tailored to each student’s needs, which allows many to work at the same time. This attention helps those who had completely given up on school, says Nastasia Lawton, the academy’s advancement associate.

NASTASIA LAWTON: They’ve all experienced significant gaps in their education or difficulties — some of them have already dropped out and are coming back, some of them are at risk for dropping out and we’re trying to prevent that.

VANESSA MARTINEZ:  I was actually out of school for about three and a half months.

Vanessa Martinez is 18 years old.

MARTINEZ: It was just too much. It felt like a burden, like I felt like I was going crazy so I was like, ‘I’m not gonna go.’ And then I came here and I just did like a complete 360.

Martinez dropped out because she couldn’t concentrate on her studies, now she is excelling academically. She’s even student government president. She’s lucky to have gotten one of the 350 seats in this school. Most alternative schools have waiting lists.

Because these schools have smaller classes, more support staff and sometimes longer hours, they cost districts more to run. Boston Day and Evening Academy spends $3000 more per student than other Boston public schools. Despite the higher cost, there’s a strong commitment, says Phil Jackson, who oversees the 16 alternative schools in Boston.

PHIL JACKSON: This is very urgent that we do some reprogramming around our alternative network. I think even in light of our budget challenge I must credit our superintendent with making this a priority.

Demand for alternative schools is up across the state. Even in Natick, where the annual drop-out rate is less than one percent.

MARK MORTARELLI: This our social workers’ office. And this is our artroom.

Mark Mortarelli runs the North Star School, an alternative program inside Natick High School.  The program is 30 years old.  10 years ago there were 12 students, now there are 46.

MORTARELLI: We’re busting at the seams at this point.

Mortarelli says that’s because of the growth of the Natick high- school population. But it’s also because more kids aren’t functioning in the regular high school.

MORTARELLI: Our younger students are usually referred here because they aren’t making it in the mainstream. They are skipping classes. Their attendance is poor. They are having behavior problems in the academic areas, which is all affecting their grades.

Mortarelli says the program has smaller classes with individual focus. Many programs, such as Natick’s, offer work study and extended hours. But it doesn’t work for every student and it’s hard on staff.

MORTARELLI: It’s certainly not an easy job, there’s very explosive behaviors. Some of the students come in here not ready to learn, not ready for school — that’s why they are here. They don’t want to be here, some of them, and it’s a struggle to get them motivated, to get them focused.

And most students in alternative schools are way behind academically.

KHAFRE NURSE:  My eighth grade year, you know,  I realized I couldn’t really read.

Khafre Nurse was arrested several times for gang involvement before coming to Boston Day and Evening Academy. It was his probation officer who suggested he go to the alternative school. At first he caused trouble, but then he connected with his teachers.

NURSE:  I don’t know what they saw in me. Like I woulda kicked me out. But, it was like I was their, like, art project. They treated me like canvas and you know made this beautiful mural out of me.

Now this beautiful mural is a freshman at Hampshire College on a full scholarship. He says if he could catch up and get a high school diploma, anything is possible. But educators worry that dropouts are not a population on top of politicians’ priority lists. So solutions that have been shown to work, such as alternative schools, are under-funded and are being further curtailed because of budget cuts. Boston Day and Evening Academy lost 24 percent of its budget for next year.