Across California, continuation high schools are creating more personalized, purposeful learning experiences for students who have often been underserved by traditional systems. These schools support young people navigating poverty, housing instability, and other complex life challenges, yet too often these students are left out of education redesign efforts.

Career Technical Education (CTE) is a powerful lever for removing barriers to student success, building agency, and ensuring real-world readiness. But in continuation settings, access to high-quality, relevant CTE pathways remains limited and inconsistent.

This report, developed by Learner-Centered Collaborative and the Center for Powerful Public Schools, highlights how a sample of continuation schools is leaning into this challenge. Through empathy interviews, site visits, and systems analysis, we surfaced:

• What learners are asking for: relevance, connection, and a clear path forward
• What’s working: flexible schedules, on-site CTE offerings, strong student-staff relationships, and local partnerships
• What’s getting in the way: rigid program structures, limited staffing, competing priorities, and uneven access to resources

This report offers a snapshot of what’s possible when we listen to those closest to the work. It is a call to educators, leaders, policymakers, and funders to design with, not for, learners who are too often left out of innovation efforts. The goal: to ensure continuation schools are not where opportunity ends but where it begins.

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