At least one charter public school is coming to Rockford as soon as 2009. Friday a group of local educators, business and community leaders headed to Chicago to learn how the system works. 23 News reporter Alice Barr went along for the ride, she takes us inside one of three schools visited.

The students in this classroom are all former dropouts, or kids who were on the verge of dropping out. Now they're on the path to success at Cicago's Youth Connection Leadership Academy, or YCLA.

These students sought out this charter school after dropping out of the regular Chicago Public Schools. YCLA administrators say Rockford's high dropout rate makes this program a really good fit for our district.

68 percent of YCLA seniors graduate from this program, that's compared to 45 percent in the general Chicago Public School system.

On average over a ten-year period, 79 percent of YCLA students go on to college or employment. And 41 percent of the high school students entering YCLA come in reading below a sixth grade level. After just one or two years here they bump up to a 10th grade level.

Those are some of the statistics and now for some of the reasons behind those successes YCLA student Kaprice Ford weighs in on why YCLA's education system works so much better for a lot of students.

"Truthfully you have a lot of teachers here who they care about us, and they look at us as people who are able to succeed and are smart and intelligent. We're faced with obstacles every day here in Chicago. Gang violence, drugs, parents who are addicted to drugs and things like that. So when you come here and you have people who care about you, it makes it easier for you to want to come to school and be here," says Ford.

23 News will continue our charter school special reports this Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. We'll break down how the system works, why charters get results and what they could do for Rockford's education system.