The Open School

Transforming the lives of young people by empowering them to direct their own education.

Cassi Clausen founded The Open School in 2015 to provide a self-directed democratic educational model for students in Orange County. As a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization located in Santa Ana, California, we operate as a fully functioning micro-democracy. We serve students ages 5 to 19 through an in-person, mixed-age environment. Over the past decade, the organization expanded its reach. We added a Homeschool Enrichment Program and a Virtual Program to lower barriers to participation and serve diverse family situations. Recently, we purchased a permanent campus in Santa Ana. This transition from leased spaces to ownership ensures long-term institutional stability and allows us to utilize our environment as a "third teacher". Today, we remain committed to socioeconomic inclusivity through an ability-to-pay indexed tuition model.

At The Open School, we are cultivating the next generation of civic leaders. By operating as a fully functioning micro-democracy, we provide students with 13,000+ hours of lived experience in collaborative governance, conflict resolution, and collective responsibility. Our impact is seen in graduates who actively shape society, entering adulthood with the self-advocacy skills and ethical grounding required to lead in a complex, diverse world.

Key Metrics: 100% participation in weekly democratic School Meetings; student-led management of 10+ administrative committees; 0% reliance on top-down disciplinary measures in favor of restorative justice.

Traditional education models prioritize standardized compliance over individual agency. This approach creates a crisis of student disengagement and rising anxiety. It also produces a significant skills gap. Students graduate without the self-direction, emotional intelligence, and civic literacy required for the modern economy. The Open School addresses this gap by providing a proven, trust-based model of self-directed democratic education.

To sustain and expand this model, The Open School requires specific funding and community support in three core areas:

Campus Modernization: Having recently acquired a permanent campus in Santa Ana, we require capital funding to complete iterative renovations and fully utilize our environment as a "third teacher." Specific infrastructure needs include upgrading our outdoor makerspace, constructing accessible outdoor classrooms with weather-appropriate shade and collaborative furniture, and ensuring our space is fully accessible by adding ADA ramps, walkways, and bathrooms.

Socioeconomic Equity: We require ongoing financial support for our aggressive financial aid program. To maintain a diverse and inclusive student body, we utilize an ability-to-pay indexed tuition model. We need sustained tuition hardship abatement to ensure that learner-led education remains accessible to low-to-moderate-income families in Orange County, rather than functioning as a private luxury.

Programmatic Support: We need targeted funding to supply our experiential learning initiatives. This includes resources to expand our Accessibility Lab and Civic Leadership programs. Ongoing costs include new materials, bringing outside instructors or classes, and exploring our county with interesting field trips.

Santa Ana, Tustin, Orange, Irvine, Anaheim, Mission Viejo, Lake Forest, Costa Mesa, Long Beach, Garden Grove, Westminster, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach

The modern economy demands innovators, not followers. Yet, the traditional education system continues to treat students as passive recipients of standardized information. I founded The Open School in 2015 because I knew we could do better. We treat children as naturally curious and capable human beings.

We do not rely on mandatory classes or top-down disciplinary measures. Instead, we use a restorative justice framework and a democratic School Meeting to run our campus. Students and staff share equal voice. This is not an experiment in chaos. It is rigorous civic leadership training. Students gain thousands of hours of lived experience in collaborative governance and conflict resolution.

The model empowers students. They take full ownership of their time and learning. The results speak for themselves. Parents report significant decreases in student anxiety. Graduates leave our programs as self-confident, emotionally grounded, and civically engaged leaders. They possess the exact skills the 21st-century workforce requires: initiative, creative problem-solving, and the ability to learn how to learn. We are not just preparing students for tests. We are preparing them for adulthood on their own terms.

For over 11 years The Open School Orange County has provided an alternative space for students to pursue an educational path that deeply engages their personal interests and respects their individual autonomy. Before anything else, The Open School is a community of adults and students who are supportive of both the individual journey as much as that of the community as a whole.

Play is valued as a cornerstone of education, providing deep learning and engagement, exploration and experimentation. Students and staff at The Open School solve conflicts through collaboration and self-advocacy, allowing for tangible outcomes that can be applied in the world outside of our community.

Our founders, staff, and Board of Directors understand that education is more than traditional classrooms and homework. We believe that every young person deserves to feel supported in their school community, safe in their surroundings, and free to explore what truly inspires them.