The Academy Schools

By request of the Allegheny County Juvenile Court, The Academy was established in 1982 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, as a healthy alternative to the institutionalization of court-adjudicated adolescents. The Academy’s Day/Evening Program nurtures proper personal growth through the instruction of academic subjects and industrial trade skills, involvement in athletics, and counseling in group and one-to-one settings.

For its outstanding work in juvenile justice, The Academy was honored by the Pennsylvania JCJC (Juvenile Court Judges Commission) with the prestigious Community-Based Program of the Year award in 1994. Proving its continued dedication to excellence, The Academy received worldwide recognition when The Visionaries, a non-profit television production organization, chose The Academy as one of the few non-profit organizations working to create positive social change throughout the world. The documentary aired in 2000.

The Southern Allegheny Academy (opened in 1991), located in Portage, Pennsylvania, follows the same philosophy as The Academy in Pittsburgh, and serves adjudicated youth from Cambria and Somerset counties. In South Park, PA resides the Sleepy Hollow Academy, a small, residential school serving female juvenile offenders between the ages of 14 and 18.

Summit Academy, located in Butler, Pennsylvania, (about 30 miles north of the city of Pittsburgh), opened its doors in 1996 and is the first private, academic, secondary-licensed school for delinquent youth in the state of Pennsylvania. Summit is a residential school for delinquent young men ages 14-18 and has an enrollment of approximately 300 students, who hail from all of Pennsylvania as well as Ohio, West Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, and Washington, DC.

The Summit Academy, following in the tradition of pride and excellence, was honored by the JCJC as Residential Program of the Year in 2000.

Today, all of the schools within The Academy System set themselves apart as innovators in the successful rehabilitation of delinquent youth and strive to remain leaders in the field of juvenile justice.

"All their lives, our students have been caught doing something wrong. Our job is to catch them doing something right." Our schools consistently strive to place our students in a positive, productive environment; one which fosters success and nurtures the self-accomplishment which naturally follows. Whether it be an A on a math test, the completion of an art project, or the game-winning jump shot, students are encouraged to discover and utilize their talents to better themselves and the people and environment around them. We seek to capture our students in their best moments, emphasize their success, teach them to raise the bar on their standards, and then work our hardest to never let them revert to less than their best. We believe that self-accomplishment is contagious, and once a student has proven to him/herself that he/she can succeed, they will continue to do whatever it is that brings them a sense of self-accomplishment and pride. We, in turn, do our best to extend and expand this sensation of pride and triumph across their lives so that they know they have the ability to be the best they can be at home, at work, and in the community. We want our students to be able to leave one of our schools equipped with the experience, knowledge, and passion to make every place they influence a place where pride still matters.

The Academy Schools is a network of award-winning schools for delinquent youth. Based in Western Pennsylvania and managed by leaders and innovators in the field of juvenile justice with over 30 years of experience, these schools are both community-based and residential, serving both local and out-of-state students.