When you choose Innovations Academy (IA), a tuition-free K-8 public school in San Diego, you are choosing personalized attention, caring teachers, and a high-quality academic environment for your K-8 student. You can feel confident that you are setting your child up for a bright future.

As a tuition-free public charter school, we are champions of school choice and the freedom to provide an education that serves our students the best way we know how. As parents in California, we know you have many options for your child’s education and sometimes making the choice is the hardest part. 

What is a Charter School? 

A charter school is a publicly funded, independently operated public school. Unlike traditional public schools, charter schools are typically established by a team of educators and parents who identify a need in the community and create a new school to address it. Here are some common elements of charter schools:

• tuition-free public schools open to all students. 
• operate under the terms of a charter that sets forth the school’s mission, program, goals, and ways to measure success. 
• financed directly by the state and exercise increased autonomy in return for accountability in both academic results and fiscal practices. In California, charters are granted by local school districts for an initial period of up to five years, after which they may be renewed.
• Why Should My Child Go to a Charter School?

Charter schools create choices for parents and their students within the public school system. They increase educational opportunities for families and give children more access to quality education.  

Whether it’s the educational philosophy, curriculum, or focus, each charter school is unique  and offers different options from local district schools. 

Highly qualified teachers are frequently attracted to work at charter schools where innovative teaching practices and creativity are encouraged. 

Parents and community members are often welcome to get involved in different aspects of a charter school education. Families typically find unique learning opportunities available and an emphasis on social and emotional well-being.

Charter schools offer:

• Smaller class sizes
• Personalized attention
• Support for learning
• Focus on character development
• How Innovations Academy Charter School Stands Out

Charter schools are a thriving source of innovation and imagination as they offer students the freedom to chart their own path to success. Charter schools attract highly qualified teachers who are enticed by the opportunity to teach with greater creativity and less restriction or alongside colleagues who share their passion and vision.

As a small, close-knit school, Innovations Academy is just the right size to nurture relationships and ensure that needs are met and strengths are cultivated. Free of charge and a continuous K-8, we offer: 

• academic excellence through a hands-on, inquiry-based project learning program.
• an extraordinary campus both inside and out with an auditorium, gymnasium, art studios, and nature based outside play areas for both organized and organic play.
• a strong social emotional program in which students learn to problem solve with peers and implement conflict resolution skills to work through challenges using positive discipline.
• arts through movie making, documentary filming, website design, vlogging, painting, drawing, animation, graphic design, ceramics, music production, reader’s theater, theater production, and improvisation.
• strong parent connection: you’re our students’ most important teacher!
• learning how to think, not what to think.

Want to learn more? Here are the FAQ’s or connect with Innovations Academy and enroll now for Fall 2025! 

About Innovations Academy:

Innovations Academy is a tuition-free public charter school serving kindergarten through eighth grade in San Diego, California. Our small school values a hands-on, inquiry-based education with high academic standards using self-expression, compassionate connection, and purposeful learning. Our new modern campus is intentionally designed with curiosity and exploration in mind.  Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, and YouTube. Find us at innovationsacademy.org. Join our innovative school today!