Original Research by School Decision on 917 New Chance
New Chance is an alternative school serving grades six through twelve in Hastings, part of Intermediate School District 917, a regional cooperative that provides special education, career and technical education, and alternative learning programs to nine member districts across the area. The school operates as a separate setting from the traditional public schools within those districts, and its structure signals a specific purpose: to serve students for whom a conventional classroom is not the right fit.
The student body is very small. The demographic profile includes a mix of racial backgrounds, with roughly half of students identifying as white and the remainder split between Black and Hispanic students. Data on whether students qualify for free or reduced-price meals, receive special education services, or are English learners was not reported. The school’s alternative designation means its population may include students working through academic recovery, behavioral challenges, or other circumstances that led them out of their home school.
State testing results are not available for public reporting. For the 2021–22 school year, math testing data at the eighth-grade level was suppressed because the number of students tested was too small to report. Science results from 2017–18 were similarly suppressed. No reading or English language arts results were reported for any grade. A multi-year trend line shows only a single year of data with a zero percent proficiency rate, but that figure comes from a group so small that drawing conclusions is not meaningful. In the absence of published state assessment data, a parent or guardian considering this school would want to discuss student progress measures directly with the school.
Graduation rate information is not applicable. The enrollment by grade shows a few students in tenth and eleventh grades and none in twelfth at the time of reporting, so no four-year cohort can be calculated. Broadly, the school’s alternative mission means its academic outcomes are measured differently from a mainstream school’s, often through credit recovery or individualized progress toward a diploma rather than through standardized testing alone.
The housing and community context places the school in Hastings, a historic river town and the county seat of Dakota County. Hastings has evolved into a Twin Cities suburb while retaining a small-town character, with a historic downtown district along the Mississippi River, riverfront parks, a network of paved biking and walking trails, and landmarks such as Vermillion Falls in the center of town. The population appears to have stabilized in recent years, and the housing values in the area are slightly above the national benchmark. The city is car-dependent, without public transit bus routes, though commuter rail is under study. The school itself is located at an address on Highway 55, serving a regional mission that draws students from multiple member districts rather than from a single neighborhood.
The district brief for Intermediate School District 917 did not surface any parent-relevant changes or recent developments with lasting impact, which is consistent with an intermediate district that functions as a service provider rather than a standalone local school system.
For a family or resident evaluating New Chance, the picture is defined largely by what the data does not contain. The school is not designed to be compared on typical measures. It exists to serve a small, specific population of students for whom a different educational setting is necessary. Any decision to enroll would rest on a conversation with the school about its programming, its approach to instruction, and how it tracks individual student growth. The narrative here is thin because the available public data is thin, and that itself is a reflection of the school’s nature: a small alternative program where individual circumstances matter far more than aggregate metrics.
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