Saved Schools

Chautauqua Charter School

Chautauqua Charter School, nominated by Center on Reinventing Public Education, is a high school in Panama City, Florida, that describes itself as a public charter school serving learners from a primarily urban/suburban/rural area.

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Location Panama City, Florida

Governance Public Charter School

Grades High

Students 60

Locale Rural, Suburban, Urban

Teacher/Director Cynthia McCauley

Demographics

Percentage of students*

7%

English Learners

100%

Free/Reduced Lunch

100%

Students with Disabilities

African American or Black 22%

American Indian/Alaska Native —

Asian 2%

Hawaiian or Pacific Islander —

Hispanic or Latino 15%

White 59%

2+ Races —

Why Chautauqua Charter School was nominated

The school focuses fully on students with significant exceptionalities, providing service learning and peer learning opportunities to broaden the definition of a school experience for students with disabilities. Students engage meaningfully in the community and take international trips to meet with similar peers abroad. It's an off the beaten path charter school partnered with a public high school (to staff student mentors) led by a veteran special educator Cynthia McCauley. She has also worked to rebuild the school after a category 5 storm hit the community in 2018 and threw many students and families into disarray and poverty. https://www.emeraldcoastmagazine.com/the-chautauqua-school/

Student experience design

Substantive, inclusive service-learning projects completed on every continent on Earth and designed to empower the natural allies of those with disabilities--the elderly, the marginalized, the poor, and other disabled, advance the most significant learning priority--self-determination. Self-determination requires an individual to know: I am competent, I belong, and I am in charge of me! Joining the gifted and disabled in world-changing service-learning does just that.

Core Practices

Core Practices Length of Use

All Courses Designed For Inclusion
5+ years

1:1 Mentoring
5+ years

Peer To Peer Support
5+ years

Service Learning
5+ years

Universal Design For Learning
5+ years

All Practices

Adaptive Learning Software

Advancement On Mastery

Student Advisories

AI Literacy

AI For Learning Materials

AI For Teacher Productivity

AI-assisted Tutoring

Apprenticeships

Assessments For Agency And Self-directed Learning

Assessments For Career Readiness

Assessments For Deeper Learning

Assessments For Social-emotional Skills

Blended Learning

Career Advising & Support

Career Exploration

Co-leadership

College Advising & Support

Community And Workforce Partnerships

Family And Community Support Services

Competency/mastery-based Education

Cooperative Education

Disaggregated Data On Student Participation

Dual Language Programming

Early College High School

Extended Learning Time

Flexible Staffing & Alternative Teaching Roles

Grading Policies Focus On Mastery

Higher Education Partnerships

Industry-recognized Credentials

Educators Have Industry Experience

Industry-aligned Learning Pathways

Internships

Interoperable Data From Multiple Technologies

Individual Learner Profiles

Individual Learning Paths

Mental Health Services

Micro-credentials And Badging

Multi-tiered System Of Support (MTSS) In Academics

Industry Networking

No Tracked Classes

Project-based Learning

Performance Based Assessment

High Quality Instructional Materials

Student-led Conferences

Students Access Their Own Data

Student-led Goal Setting

Self-paced Learning

Students Develop Projects

Tutoring

Youth Employment Programs

Career Prep

key reasons for innovating

Address systemic inequities

Better support a specific population of students

Better support economically disadvantaged students

Better support students experiencing housing insecurity or homelessness

Better support students in the foster care system

Better support students of color

Better support students with disabilities

Increase student agency

Date Updated: 4/1/2026

*Canopy profile data is self-reported or sourced from NCES data, then verified by school leaders.