Critically at-risk students belong to a category of the “at-risk” student classification. They have nonexistent or weak support systems, family histories of incarceration and cyclical dependency on government assistance. Often written off as lost causes, these students tend to become U.S. Department of Justice statistics rather than success stories – unless they gain access to hope. 

Maranathan Academy is a nonprofit, private alternative school specializing in critically at-risk youth and adult students. Its primary goal is to break cyclical dependency on government assistance which plagues the critically at-risk populace. It is the only nonprofit private school in Birmingham that works exclusively with critically at-risk students, and the only one that will accept students expelled for weapons-related or violent offenses.