NYC school changing lives

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NEWS) - How do you give youngsters the resources they need to confront and overcome the challenges in their personal lives so they can achieve in the classroom? It's a question educators across the city and state are asking.

New York City has more than 200 charter schools. Many are exploring unconventional approaches to education. The Broome Street Academy is one of them.  Dr. Barbara McKeon, the head of school, leads with tough love.

50 percent of the seats are set aside for students who are homeless, in foster care or the child welfare system. Let's be honest, they take students other schools don't want. To address the very real needs of the kids that come here, they have 5 case workers, a clinic and Legal Aid on site. The whole goal is to provide students with what they need beyond the classroom.

NYC Charter Center President James Merriman says that African American students in charter schools are 2.5 times as likely to be proficient in math and about twice as likely to be proficient in English as their district counterparts.

Last year, 82 percent of students graduated and a large number of those students were considered special education.