Original Research by School Decision on The Chiles Academy
The Chiles Academy is a small charter alternative school in Daytona Beach, serving students from middle through high school grades. Its enrollment is quite small relative to a conventional secondary school, and the grade distribution in the data reveals something worth understanding before enrolling: the overwhelming majority of students are recorded at the pre-kindergarten level, with only a handful spread across the upper middle and high school grades. That is an unusual pattern for a school listed as serving grades six through twelve, and a parent would be well advised to contact the school directly to clarify how enrollment across those grade levels actually works in practice.
The student body is racially and ethnically diverse, drawing from Black, Hispanic, white, and multiracial populations. An exceptionally high share of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, which reflects the economic circumstances of many families the school serves. Data on students with disabilities and English learners was not available in what was reported.
On academic performance, the picture is thin. A single year of state science testing data exists for one grade level, and that result was suppressed, meaning the tested group was too small to report publicly. No multi-year trend data was available, no ELA or math proficiency rates were present, and no graduation rate was reported. Because of how the state handles small group sizes, this suppression is not itself a red flag, but it does mean there is essentially no publicly available picture of academic outcomes to evaluate. A parent should ask the school directly about student progress, course completions, and post-secondary outcomes for high school students. The comparison set relative to districts in Volusia County showed no applicable metrics for this school either, leaving that framework without usable data here.
The school is publicly reported as an alternative school, a designation that in Florida typically reflects a setting designed for students who benefit from a different structure than a conventional campus, whether for academic, behavioral, social-emotional, or other reasons. No program offerings, discipline data, attendance figures, or staffing information was available.
Daytona Beach itself is a coastal city with a genuine economic texture: a tourism and hospitality base combined with substantial institutional employers in healthcare, aviation, insurance, and higher education. The housing market in the zip code where the school sits is priced well below both state and national medians, with rents that consume a meaningful but not extreme share of typical income. The city is publicly reported to be in a growth phase, with new residential construction concentrated in newer corridors, though single-family starts have moderated after a period of rapid building. The downtown core along the Halifax River is walkable and has a working civic life, including libraries, transit access through Votran, and riverfront public space, though much of the broader city requires a car.
No parent-relevant changes were confirmed for the Volusia district during research.
For a family weighing The Chiles Academy, the defining question is whether the alternative school model fits their student's needs. The school's small scale and alternative designation suggest an intentionally different environment, and the academic data available is simply too limited to draw conclusions about outcomes. Reaching out to the school to understand its program structure, how it serves the grades it lists, and what student support looks like would be the necessary next step.
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