Original Research by School Decision on Simon Youth Found Acad at Outlet Mktplce
Simon Youth Foundation Academy at Outlet Marketplace sits inside a retail mall on International Drive in Orlando, operating as an alternative high school serving students in grades ten through twelve. The setting itself signals the school's purpose: this is a program designed to meet students where they are, physically and circumstantially, rather than asking them to fit a conventional school structure.
Enrollment is very small, concentrated almost entirely in the senior grade, with a handful of juniors and no tenth-graders reported. A substantial majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, reflecting the economically diverse population the school serves. The student body is racially mixed, with Black, Hispanic, and white students each representing a meaningful share of the group, and a smaller Pacific Islander presence. Data on English learner status and students with IEPs was not available in the records reviewed.
Academic performance data presents a gap worth understanding in context. No state assessment results appear in the records, and this is typical for programs like this one. Alternative schools serving older students who have left or been interrupted in the traditional pathway often enroll populations that fall outside standard testing windows or whose trajectories do not align with grade-level accountability metrics. The absence of proficiency data here should not be read as a performance signal; it more likely reflects the nature of the enrollment. A parent who wants to understand academic outcomes specific to this program would do well to ask the school directly about completion rates, credit recovery progress, and post-secondary planning support. A graduation rate was also not available in the data.
Comparison metrics relative to districts in Orange County, which is the relevant set for this school, were not applicable across the board, again because the school's structure places it outside the standard accountability measures used in those comparisons.
The school operates under the Orange County Public Schools district umbrella. The district brief search did not surface confirmed parent-relevant changes before the research concluded, so district-level context beyond the affiliation itself is left out here rather than filled in with speculation.
The International Drive corridor where the school sits is a commercial and tourism-heavy stretch of Orlando, car-dependent and distinct from the more residential neighborhoods to the north and east. Housing in the immediate zip code runs well above the state median, and rents are similarly elevated relative to statewide norms, though prices have dipped slightly year over year. For families considering this location, Orlando's LYNX bus network provides regional transit coverage, and the broader city is growing rapidly, with major employment across tourism, healthcare, and aerospace sectors.
For a student who needs an alternative path to a diploma and benefits from a small, low-pressure environment, this school's size and structure may fit well. The very small enrollment means individual attention is plausible, though a parent would want to ask specifically what coursework, counseling, and post-graduation planning resources are available on-site versus through the broader district.
See more original research from School Decision →