Erik, now 18, has a high school diploma and something even more important -- people who believe in him. He earned both as a student at the Otto A. Fischer School, one of four detention and treatment facilities run by the Orange County Department of Education’s ACCESS program.
High school graduation rates for California and Orange County have increased for the fifth year in a row, with English-learners accounting for the biggest overall spikes in 2014, according to data released this week.
In Orange County, students who started high school in 2010-11 posted a graduation rate of 88.6 percent in 2014 -- up from 87.5 percent in 2013. That number has been climbing steadily. [...]
