DASS Eligibility Criteria

Eligibility Requirements

The Dashboard Alternative School Status (DASS) program is limited to schools that meet certain eligibility requirements established by the State Board of Education (SBE). Schools are identified as "alternative" through one of two methods:

Alternative Schools Defined in Education Code

The following school types identified in California Education Code (EC) Section 52052(d) are automatically defined as DASS schools:

• Continuation
• County or District Community Day
• Opportunity
• County Community
• Juvenile Court
• California Education Authority, Division of Juvenile Justice
• County-Run Special Education Schools

Additionally, any district-operated special education schools that have at least 70 percent of the students enrolled in grades three through eight and grade eleven participating in the California Alternate Assessments (CAA) in the prior year will also be automatically placed into DASS.

Application-based DASS Status

Schools that serve high-risk youth, but are not explicitly required to do so in the EC, may apply for DASS status through the California Department of Education (CDE). These include: (1) alternative schools of choice and (2) charter schools that serve high-risk students. These schools must have an unduplicated count of at least 70 percent high-risk students within the school's cumulative enrollment (upon first entry to the school) to be eligible for DASS. The high-risk student groups include the following:

• Expelled (EC Section 48925[b]) including situations in which enforcement of the expulsion order was suspended (EC Section 48917)
• Suspended (EC Section 48925[d]) more than 10 days in a school year
• Wards of the Court (Welfare and Institution Code [WIC] Section 601 or 602) or dependents of the court (WIC Section 300 or 654)
• Pregnant and/or Parenting Youth
• Recovered Dropouts – State Board of Education (SBE) defines recovered dropouts based on EC Section 52052.3(b) as students who: (1) are designated as dropouts pursuant to the exit and withdraw codes in the California Longitudinal Pupil Achievement Data System (CALPADS), or (2) left school and were not enrolled in a school for a period of 180 days
  
• Habitually Truant (EC Section 48262) or Habitually Insubordinate and Disorderly whose attendance at the school is directed by a school attendance review board or probation officer (EC Section 48263)
• Retained more than once in kindergarten through grade eight
• Students who are credit deficient (i.e., students who are one semester or more behind in the credits required to graduate on-time, per grade level, from the enrolling school’s credit requirements)
• Students with a gap in enrollment (i.e., students who have not been in any school during the 45 days prior to enrollment in the current school, where the 45 days does not include non-instructional days such as summer break, holiday break, off-track, and other days when a school is closed)
• Students with high level transiency (i.e., students who have been enrolled in more than two schools during the past academic year or have changed secondary schools more than two times since entering high school)
• Foster Youth (EC Section 42238.01[b])
• Homeless Youth

The application process will be updated for the 2025 Dashboard to reflect feedback and action by the SBE. Information about any updates to the application process will be posted on the DASS Application Instructions web page.

Terms of Dashboard Alternative School Status Participation

All application-based DASS schools must maintain an annual cumulative enrollment of 70 percent of high risk youth. The CDE will conduct annual reviews and failure to meet this threshold may result in termination of the school's DASS.

Additionally, all application-based DASS schools will be required to re-apply every three years (i.e., if a school is approved in 2024 for the 2024–25 school year to participate in DASS, this school must reapply in 2027 for the 2027–28 school year to continue their participation in DASS for the Fall 2028 Dashboard). If a school fails to re-certify its high-risk student enrollment or the school's enrollment of high-risk students falls below 70 percent, the school will be removed from DASS.