Children's Community School

Children's Community School is a progressive elementary school in Van Nuys, California, north of Los Angeles. For 25 years, CCS has stressed hands-on learning, a diverse environment, and involvement with the community around it. Guided by its founding director, the staff, and its board of directors, CCS looks forward to the future. Admissions applications are accepted and evaluated on a year-round basis.

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Site design by Ezra Shapiro.

When we founded Children's Community School in 1980, our goal was a progressive, experiential elementary school that could invite a truly diverse population.

Children's Community School has since grown into an established school with about 100 children in Kindergarten through 6th Grade.

Our school is based on a set of simple convictions:

Kids, not their teachers or parents, must ultimately be responsible for their own learning.
Learning is initially a hands-on experience.
The ability to work with others is one of the basics—a fundamental life skill.
The value of an education is not revealed in test scores.
The printed word is only one means of expressing ideas.
Our purpose is to graduate people who thrive amid the complexities of life's choices and responsibilities.

We're lucky to have a group of committed parents who share these convictions. And thrilled to hear from so many of our graduates who think we got it right.

While no elementary school can be captured on paper, and a website can never take the place of a visit, the following pages are a pretty good snapshot of life here at CCS.

Neal Wrightson, Director