Frequently Asked Questions

HighTech Los Angeles Middle School is a tuition-free public charter school serving grades 6 - 8. Just like a traditional public school, we receive state and federal funding, enabling us to remain tuition-free. 

As a public school, we are open to all students in 6th-8th grade who reside in California. There is no tuition, entrance exam, or other admissions requirements, and you do not need to live in a specific neighborhood or zip code. All admission is done by lottery. 

HTLA MS is located on the campus of Van Nuys Middle School.

Siblings are automatically admitted.

Yes, breakfast and lunch are offered to all students. We participate in the Federal School Lunch program, which provides free or reduced-cost meals to qualifying students.

High Tech LA Middle School serves any student, no matter his or her learning style or cognitive ability. Our Special Education Director works with our teachers to identify students with special needs and ensure that they are set up for success by providing them with carefully targeted support. Notably, HTLA-MS implements an inclusion model, which means that we meet the vast majority of our IEP students' needs within the context of our mainstream classrooms.

 

For information from LAUSD’s Division of Special Education regarding enrollment procedures or other questions, please contact 213-241-6701.

 

If you’d like to attend any parent workshops or trainings regarding special education provided by LAUSD, visit the following links (LAUSD Parent Workshops and Trainings: dates, times, and locations and Local District Northeast/Northwest Trainings).

HighTech LA Middle School commits to supporting every student who is ready to do the hard work of getting ready for college, no matter the student’s skill level when s/he first enters the school. The support that we provide comes in many forms, including:

• Reading and math intervention courses

• A school-wide advisory system

• Daily before and after school school tutoring

• Co-teaching for extra support in classes as needed

HTLA MS is an inquiry-based school where the lines between "technical" and "academic" are deliberately blurred. While we encourage students with interests in math and science to apply, and while we provide exciting, cutting edge experiences in math and science, similar quality is to be found in the humanities and the arts. HTLA MS offers students a high quality broad-based education that will serve them in all phases of adult life.

Curriculum at HTLA MS is framed around answering questions and solving problems. Integration at HTLA MS means that we address issues as they are found in the real world -- in teams, studying questions and themes that cut across disciplines. In a well-integrated curriculum unit, students experience pursuing one important question or theme in several classes.

Every student has a laptop computer, which they borrow from the school each year.

Our goal is to prepare 100% of students to be successful in a college prep high school and eventually to earn a Bachelor's Degree in college. To help achieve this big goal, we have a curriculum for all High Tech LA Middle School students that is academically challenging, so that every student reaches that destination truly prepared. To succeed at High Tech LA Middle School, students must commit to:

• Coming to school every day on time, ready to focus and learn

• Completing 1 to 2 hours of nightly homework

• Maintaining a growth mindset, which means working hard to learn new skills even if at first they are difficult or don’t come naturally to you

Parent involvement takes many forms. On an academic level, we ask parents to commit to attending their students’ advising conferences, which since Covid have taken place by Zoom twice a year. Every parent and every student have every teacher’s email address and phone number, and we encourage parents to maintain close communication with their students’ advisors and teachers.

 

We also use PowerSchool, a web-based portal for grades, so that parents can use their phones, laptops or tablets to go online and check their students’ progress. The school sends phone calls and texts whenever a student is missing from school, has missing or low-quality homework, or has been struggling to meet expectations in class.

 

On a volunteer level, parents can join PATH, our booster organization, as well as serve on our School Site Council, attend monthly workshops and family potlucks, and volunteer in the school when a need arises.

 

 

Identifying, recruiting, and developing wonderful teachers, who are great both in the classroom and at advising students, is the most important work that High Tech LA Middle School's leaders do! We are working to build a world-class team that can inspire their students to be their best selves.

No! High Tech LA Middle School is a public school and a nonprofit organization. This means that most of our funding comes from the federal government and the State of California. The organization invests all of its money in the school to provide high quality programming and services for our students. We have an independent board of directors, and none of the individuals on the board are paid for their service; none of them makes a profit from the school.

Enrolling in the school is an easy 3-step process that starts with submitting an admissions form. Please visit our enrollment page for details and directions.

Please contact our office! We also offer meetings or tours. We are eager to meet with your family, and arrange for you to visit, and/or speak with current HTLA Middle School students and teachers. You can reach us between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. at (818) 583-6229.