YCCS-West Town Academy Alt HS

YCCS-West Town Academy Alt HS is one of the one-room-style 9-12 campuss in Chicago, Illinois, overseen by Chicago Public Schools Dist 299, with 115 students on its rolls from grades 9 through 12. Compared to the state average of about 834 students per school, that is 86% leaner than typical.

YCCS-West Town Academy Alt HS is one of 622 schools operated by Chicago Public Schools Dist 299, a district that hosts 324,396 students overall.

Looking at the student body, YCCS-West Town Academy Alt HS reports that Black students make up the majority at 77%; the rest breaks down as 21% Hispanic. By comparison, Cook County as a whole is about 22% Black, so the school skews considerably more Black than its surroundings.

Looking at the economic backdrop, Staff filings list 5 full-time-equivalent teachers, which works out to roughly 23.0:1 students per teacher. The state averages around 13.8:1, so this campus is higher than the state norm typical. About 88% of enrolled students meet the income threshold for free or reduced-price lunch, often used as a Title I proxy. Set against Cook County (around 66%), the school's rate is north of typical.

Adjusting for the school's free-and-reduced-lunch share, YCCS-West Town Academy Alt HS is in the bottom 10% of Illinois public schools. The BeatsExpectations model predicts schools with this FRL share to land around 20.8%; YCCS-West Town Academy Alt HS posts 4.3%, -16.5 points below that line.

In the surrounding community, Cook County reports that the typical household earns roughly $83,498 per year, 43% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, and the poverty rate sits near 10%. In all, Cook County runs 1406 public schools (combined enrollment of about 697,934 students), of which YCCS-West Town Academy Alt HS is one.

Morton Elem Career Academy is the nearest neighboring public school, about 0.1 miles from this campus. 8 of the 8 nearest public schools sit inside a five-mile radius. On composite proficiency, YCCS-West Town Academy Alt HS comes 9th of 9 in the immediate cluster, below the nearby-schools average of 24.4%.

Geographically, the school is in an urban area. YCCS-West Town Academy Alt HS operates as a public charter school, meaning it is publicly funded but governed independently of the surrounding district's traditional schools.

Looking at the recent track record. Looking back 7 years, enrollment at YCCS-West Town Academy Alt HS has edged down 11%, going from 129 students in 2018 to 115 in 2025. Black enrollment moved from 81% to 77% across the same window.

On the community side, members of the YCCS-West Town Academy Alt HS community share and discuss enrollment questions, classroom assignments, and PTA news. Members of the school community can share what they know.