Original Research by School Decision on Iempire Academy District
iEmpire Academy District is a small charter district in San Bernardino County serving kindergarten through fifth grade, with a single school, iEmpire Academy, operated by REAL Journey Academies. The district enrolls a small population of students distributed across its grade band, with the enrollment relatively balanced, slightly higher in fourth and fifth grades. The student body is predominantly Hispanic, with a meaningful share who are Black, and smaller populations of other backgrounds; specific counts for English learners and students receiving special education services are not publicly available.
State assessment data for the district is not available through the standard reporting channels. This absence likely reflects the school's small size and charter status, as not all small or alternative operators report standardized testing results in the same way traditional districts do. Families considering this school may want to reach directly to the operator for information about how student learning is measured and what recent results show. The district does not serve grades in which California administers its state proficiency tests, which means traditional measures of reading and math proficiency are not applicable here; that said, early literacy and numeracy are foundational, and a parent would reasonably ask how the school assesses and supports these skills in grades K-5.
Among San Bernardino County's districts, iEmpire Academy has a notably high chronic absenteeism rate, placing it in the bottom quartile of the county. Attendance patterns in early elementary grades often reflect family circumstances and transportation accessibility, and chronic absence can affect learning continuity. A parent may want to ask the school directly about what supports it offers for families facing barriers to regular attendance, and what its approach is to building attendance patterns in the elementary years.
Per-pupil spending at iEmpire Academy is in the upper-middle range for county districts. Publicly reported information indicates that per-student spending rose significantly between the 2020-2021 and 2023-2024 school years, roughly doubling and a half. At the same time, school performance declined over that period. This pattern is worth understanding: a parent might ask the school how it is investing these increased resources, what challenges it faced, and what changes are underway to improve outcomes.
The operator, REAL Journey Academies, adopted a charter-wide artificial intelligence policy for the 2025-2026 school year, incorporated into the student and parent handbook. The policy sets guidelines for responsible and ethical use of AI tools in coursework. Families with children in the intermediate grades may want to understand how this plays out in practice and what expectations apply to their child's use of these tools.
iEmpire Academy is a small, independently funded charter serving a predominantly Hispanic and Black student population in an economically diverse county. It offers a contained grade span without the breadth of programming available in larger districts. The school's recent spending increases and concurrent performance declines are a relevant context for families evaluating whether its educational direction aligns with their needs.
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