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Knight Academy: suspension drop after phone policy; district cyber program serves 178 students
Summary
Steven Silva presented Knight Academy updates to the board: AEDY enrollments and reviews, a district phone-collection practice he credited with cutting suspensions from 48 to 1 then zero, and a district-run cyber program serving 178 students with 11 more registering.
Steven Silva, the district’s director of integrated education, told the board on Jan. 2 that Knight Academy’s alternative education (AEDY) and cyber programs have shown measurable improvements and support for students with behavioral and nontraditional learning needs.
Silva described AEDY as a program for students in grades 7–12 referred by any of the district’s five schools. He said referrals are vetted through the home school, the educational services center and Knight Academy and include family input at intake meetings. “Within the first 5 days, behavioral assessments are conducted,” he said, and periodic 45‑day formal reviews determine readiness to return to home schools.
Silva highlighted daily supports at Knight Academy: a scheduled 30‑minute period of 1‑to‑1 counseling or small-group sessions, weekly PBIS lessons, and open hours with a school counselor and social worker. He said the AEDY program currently enrolls 11 students and has served 25 students so far this school year, and staff report all returning students have been eligible for re‑entry to their home schools.
On student discipline, Silva credited a phone-collection practice implemented with alignment to state standards. He reported that during the 2022–23 school year the program issued 48 suspensions, during 2024–25 that number dropped to 1 suspension, and “this year, we’ve had none,” which he described as a “dramatic decrease in suspensions.”
Silva also described the district-run cyber program, which he said currently serves 178 students (with an additional 11 in registration) across K–12 using a mix of the k12 and Edmentum platforms and district-developed in‑house courses for grades 4–12 to better align with Southeast Delco standards.
Why it matters: The presentation laid out behavioral supports and in‑district cyber options that the district intends to scale, framed as tools to reduce out‑of‑school discipline and provide alternative pathways for student success.
Board response: Board members thanked Silva for the presentation; one member noted a marked decline in summer-school failures and Silva credited collaborative districtwide work.
Provenance: Silva’s presentation opened at SEG 372–378 (identifying himself) and continued through SEG 593 where the superintendent and board thanked him.
