Original Research by School Decision on Living School
Living School is a public charter high school in New Orleans serving grades nine through twelve. It sits within the city’s eastern neighborhoods, in a community shaped by the dense, historic urban fabric of New Orleans, a major Gulf Coast port and commercial hub with a distinctive musical and culinary culture. The school operates as a standalone charter under the Living School Inc. district, a small network that currently consists of this single campus.
The student body is small for a four-year high school, with enrollment distributed across all four grade levels in roughly comparable numbers. Demographically, the majority of students are Black, a substantial share are Hispanic, and a very small number are white or other races. A large majority of students qualify for free or reduced-price lunch, marking the school as serving a low-income population. Detailed counts of students with disabilities or English learner classifications were not available in the data provided, but publicly reported coverage of the school has emphasized that about two-thirds of students have special needs, either through an IEP or English learner status, and that the school is known for this focus.
State assessment results for Living School were not reported in the available data, so a direct measure of academic proficiency is absent. This gap often reflects the nature of a newer school; publicly reported accounts indicate that Living School completed its grade-level rollout and graduated its first senior class in 2023. The same coverage notes that a portion of students with IEPs in that first graduating class earned the TOPS University Diploma, which qualifies them for state-funded college scholarships. No graduation rate appears in the data set, likely for the same reason—the school has only recently established a full four-year track record. Chronic absenteeism figures were also missing, and no information on discipline, staffing, or course access was present. Because no proficiency or graduation metrics are available, a comparison to other Orleans Parish districts is not possible from the current information.
Home values in the area around the school are lower than the national median and have seen a slight decline recently, consistent with a city where housing costs vary widely across neighborhoods and where redevelopment since Hurricane Katrina has brought both recovery and gentrification. The school is located near the intersection of Bullard Avenue, in a part of the city that is more residential and less dense than the French Quarter or Central Business District.
For a family considering Living School, the defining characteristic is its publicly recognized work with students who have special needs. The school’s small size, charter status, and stated mission of serving this population make it a distinct option within New Orleans’ broad landscape of high schools. The absence of standardized test results and a long graduation history means that a parent would need to seek out current academic outcome data directly from the school to gauge how students are performing on state assessments and how many are graduating on time. The school’s first graduating class and the reported achievement of college-qualifying diplomas for some IEP students offer a starting point, but the full picture is still emerging.
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