Like schools across the country, covid prevention protocols affected five keys schools and programs'charter school in the SAN francisco county jail

The U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Assistance awarded a $900,000 Project Grant under the Second Chance Act Reentry Initiative to Five Keys Schools And Programs, a non-profit education management organization. The funding will allow Five Keys to expand custody-based and post-release educational services for formerly incarcerated individuals in the San Francisco area. Key deliverables include reopening the education and program corridor in the San Francisco County Jail, which will enable Five Keys to provide high school education for an additional 150 participants, and college-readiness classes from City College of San Francisco (CCSF). Additionally, Five Keys will launch a mandatory Pell Grant reinstatement program to assist students in completing the FAFSA application process prior to release. The overall objective is to establish a pathway from custody to college and ensure incarcerated and formerly incarcerated students access the educational support available to them.

The SAN francisco sheriffs office was forced to close the education and program corridor, a section in SAN francisco county jail #3 that houses ten classrooms, which for the last 15 years has served as home to five keys charter school. At the same time, SAN francisco greatly expanded the use of pretrial release, limiting the pool of prospective in-custody students. Five keys current operations in the jails have also been limited recently by a shortage of sworn staff (deputies), needed to move students between housing units and classrooms. Five keys current process is to enroll students in independent studies and have them work in their housing units under the supervision and tutelage of a five keys teacher, severely limiting the number of students five keys can enroll. Independent studies are ineligible for mandatory pell reinstatement. There is no full-time staff member assigned to college-readiness, nor a physical location for classrooms. Under this proposal five keys will expand and enhance its custody-based and post-release educational services, to include college readiness programming and the reopening of five keys custody-based classrooms (the education and program corridor), to provide high-quality, standards-based academic programs to an additional 150 students and college-readiness and city college classes to an additional 100 individuals each year. Five keys will also launch a mandatory pell reinstatement programthat will expand the organizations capacity to further identify and assist pell-eligible students so that every eligible person who is in custody will have begun the application process, completing, or at least making progress towards the completiontheir fafsa application and mandatory pell reinstatement. Five keys objectives are to: 1) establish a pathwayfrom custody to college; 2) assist students to transform their identities from criminal-justice involved to college and career-oriented; and, 3) ensure that incarcerated and formerly incarcerated students access the support that is earmarked for them through mandatory pell reinstatement. Five keys deliverables are to RE-open the educations and program corridor, which will enable five keys to provide high school education for an additional 150 participants, and for ccsf faculty to provide classes 3 days a week. Five keys will launch a mandatory pell reinstatement program that will assist students to complete applications for fafsa andmandatory pell reinstatement before they leave custody.