United States Bankruptcy Court
Robert T. Matsui U.S. Courthouse
501 I Street, Sacramento, CA 95814
Courtroom 32
Our commitment to students continues
Highlands Is Open.
Keep Coming to Class.
Classes continue. Teachers continue teaching. Student services remain available. Students should continue attending school as usual.
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Standing Together with Respect and Purpose
November 10 Court Hearing
An upcoming hearing is an important step in Highlands’ Chapter 11 process. Staff, students, and community partners who choose to attend are invited to show their support through a quiet, respectful presence.
Attendance is entirely voluntary.
Students should prioritize their classes. Employees who wish to attend should coordinate with their supervisors to ensure appropriate work coverage.
A quiet, respectful presence
Please dress professionally and follow court personnel’s directions. This effort does not include public speakers, signs, banners, chanting, or demonstrations. Do not film or photograph inside the court without authorization.
Highlands Is Open. Classes continue. Teachers continue teaching. Student services remain available. Students should continue attending school as usual.
What you need to know
Students & families
Keep coming to school and attending your classes as usual.
Employees
Continue reporting to work as usual.
Student services
Student services remain available to support you.
Official statement
Highlands Is Open as We Pursue an Orderly Reorganization
Keeping our promise to students while building a path forward
Highlands Community Charter and Technical Schools has made an extraordinary decision to protect our students and preserve the future of our schools.
Our Board has authorized Highlands to seek protection through a federal bankruptcy reorganization. Highlands is not closing. Classes will continue, teachers will continue teaching, and students should continue planning on coming to school.
We are taking this step because our students deserve stability while longstanding financial and legal disputes are resolved.
Highlands has faced serious scrutiny, and some of that scrutiny was deserved. Under prior leadership, decisions were made that were wrong. Systems were weak. Oversight was inconsistent. Public trust was damaged.
Current leadership has not hidden from that history. We confronted it.
Over the past year, Highlands has rebuilt governance, attendance systems, financial controls, contracting, credentialing, human resources, transparency and Board oversight. We strengthened conflict-of-interest safeguards, documentation requirements, purchasing rules and accountability across the organization.
That work has been reviewed by others. The California State Auditor has marked all 18 recommendations directed to Highlands as fully implemented. Twin Rivers’ professional staff found cited violations had been refuted or remedied to the district’s satisfaction and recommended against revocation. The Sacramento County Board of Education later overturned the revocation and allowed Highlands to remain open. WASC accreditation remains in place.
Highlands today is not the Highlands of the past.
At the same time, one major dispute remains unresolved. The State Auditor concluded that Highlands was ineligible for more than $180 million in state funding, including essentially all classroom-based funding for two school years. Highlands strongly disputes that determination and will continue pursuing every lawful administrative and legal remedy available.
Our position is simple: thousands of students came through our classrooms. They received instruction. They earned credits. Hundreds graduated. Highlands maintains contemporaneous records documenting student participation and believes the full record must be considered.
Problems with recordkeeping can justify scrutiny, correction and consequences. They do not turn real students into zero.
Highlands serves nearly 2,000 second-chance learners, including immigrants and refugees from dozens of countries and a particularly large Afghan community. Many of our students are learning English while working, raising families and rebuilding their lives after war, displacement or persecution.
They did not create the failures of the past. They should not lose their school because of them.
That is why we are taking this step.
The doors remain open. The lights remain on. Class remains in session.
We will continue fighting to serve our students, continuing the reforms already underway, and working through the reorganization process with transparency and care.
We made a promise to our students that their past would not define their future.
We intend to keep it.
Public FAQ
Your questions, answered.
1. Is Highlands closing?
No. Highlands is not closing.
Classes continue, teachers continue teaching, and student services remain available. Students should continue attending school as usual.
2. What did Highlands announce?
The Highlands Board authorized the organization to seek protection through a federal bankruptcy reorganization.
The purpose is to create an orderly process for addressing disputed obligations and claims while Highlands continues operating and serving students.
3. What does “bankruptcy reorganization” mean?
Reorganization is a legal process designed to give an organization a structured way to address financial obligations while continuing operations.
For Highlands, the goal is straightforward: keep students in school, preserve instruction and create a sustainable path forward.
Specific legal questions about the court process will be addressed as the case proceeds.
4. Why is Highlands taking this step now?
Highlands has spent months pursuing administrative remedies, settlement discussions, cost reductions, restructuring and other possible paths forward.
No workable resolution has emerged that would allow Highlands to absorb the disputed $180 million state funding determination and continue serving students.
The Board concluded that reorganization is the lawful path available to protect the schools and the students who depend on them.
5. Does Highlands owe the state $180 million?
The California State Auditor concluded that Highlands was ineligible for more than $180 million in K-12 funding.
Highlands strongly disputes the factual and legal basis of that determination and does not accept the amount as a final, undisputed obligation.
The issue remains subject to available administrative and legal processes.
6. Why does Highlands dispute the $180 million determination?
Because Highlands believes the conclusion does not reflect the full record of the students who were actually educated, and disputes the methodology used and the application of law.
Thousands of students attended Highlands classrooms during the years in question. They received instruction, earned credits and graduated. Highlands maintains contemporaneous electronic and written records documenting student participation and believes those records must be fully considered.
Highlands accepts that recordkeeping problems can have consequences. We do not accept that real students and real instruction should effectively be reduced to zero.
7. Is Highlands trying to avoid accountability?
No.
Highlands has spent the last year doing the opposite.
The organization changed leadership, remade governance, strengthened attendance and financial systems, tightened contracting and credentialing, added conflict-of-interest and anti-nepotism safeguards, improved human resources and documentation, and increased transparency and Board oversight.
The California State Auditor has now marked all 18 recommendations directed to Highlands as fully implemented.
Reorganization does not erase the past. It gives Highlands a lawful process to address disputed obligations while preserving the reformed organization and protecting students.
8. How do we know the turnaround is real?
Highlands is not asking the public to take our word for it.
The State Auditor has marked all 18 recommendations directed to Highlands fully implemented. Twin Rivers’ professional staff recommended against revocation after reviewing corrective work. The Sacramento County Board of Education independently overturned the revocation. WASC accreditation remains in place.
These outside reviews are important because reform should be measured by evidence, not promises.
9. What happened to the leaders responsible for the old Highlands?
The leadership structure that presided over the old Highlands is no longer in place. Executive leadership changed, the Board was remade and the old operating model was dismantled.
Current leadership’s responsibility is to make sure the failures identified in the past are not repeated and that the systems now in place meet a much higher standard.
10. What should students and families do now?
Keep coming to school.
Classes continue. Teachers continue teaching. Student services continue.
Highlands will communicate directly with students, families and staff if anything changes that affects day-to-day school operations.
11. What happens to employees?
Highlands remains open and operating, and our focus is on continuing to serve our students. Employees should continue reporting to work as usual, and there are no changes to employees’ current work status as a result of this announcement. If that changes as a result of court proceedings, we will let you know immediately.
The purpose of the reorganization is to provide Highlands with an orderly process to address its financial challenges while continuing operations, preserving instruction, and building a sustainable path forward.
12. What does this mean for the California Learning Academy in Sutter County?
The California Learning Academy, or CALA, is a separate proposed public charter school moving through California’s public charter review process.
CALA is not a plan to abandon Sacramento or move liabilities elsewhere. Highlands’ Sacramento schools remain open and serving students.
CALA reflects the same second-chance mission and the lessons of Highlands’ turnaround: strong systems, strong oversight, flexible education, career training and multilingual support from day one.
13. What happens next?
A hearing is scheduled for November 10, 2026, at 11:00 a.m. Pacific Time. This is an important step in Highlands’ Chapter 11 process. Highlands will continue operating while the legal process moves forward.
We will keep students, employees and the public informed as major developments occur. We will continue pursuing available remedies related to the disputed state funding determination, continue implementing the reforms now in place, and continue working toward a sustainable future for the schools.
Our commitment does not change:
The doors remain open.
The lights remain on.
Class remains in session.
We will keep our promise to our students.
14. Do I have to attend the hearing?
Attendance is entirely voluntary.
Students should prioritize their classes. Employees who wish to attend should coordinate with their supervisors to ensure appropriate work coverage.
15. Can I speak or bring a sign?
Please dress professionally and follow court personnel’s directions. This effort does not include public speakers, signs, banners, chanting, or demonstrations. Do not film or photograph inside the court without authorization.
16. Where can I find arrival and access details?
Arrival, parking, security, visitor access, and any remote-attendance details will be shared once confirmed. Hearing details may change; check this page for updates before traveling.
About Highlands Community Charter and Technical Schools
Highlands Community Charter and Technical Schools is a public charter high school for second-chance learners, offering tuition-free high school diploma pathways that include career training, student support and workforce-connected opportunities. Highlands serves students whose lives, work, family responsibilities and educational journeys require flexible, supportive and meaningful pathways to graduation and career readiness.
The doors remain open.
The lights remain on. Class remains in session. We will keep our promise to our students.