Our History

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Founded in 1999, with the help of the Pepin Family, Pepin Academies are 501(c)(3) not-for-profit, tuition-free, public charter schools dedicated to the educational needs of students with identified learning and learning related disabilities.

Pepin AcademiesPepin Transitional
The Pepin Academies has celebrated over 15 years of excellence in education, with over 80% of the students graduating with a standard high school diploma and 20% on track graduating with a special diploma.

Pepin Academy started in a one room school house with 9-12th graders with specific learning disabilities. A short time later it became apparent that we needed to get the students earlier in their education and so the elementary and middle school grades opened. In 2006, we realized we needed to keep some students longer, those who may not be ready to transition to secondary schooling after high school, and so our Pepin Transitional, job training program was born to prepare young adults 18-22 with life and job skills, partnering with some of the Tampa Bay area’s most respectable businesses and organizations.

Today, Pepin Academies has grown to serve over 850 students, with a main campus in Tampa, a campus in Riverview and its latest addition in New Port Richey, serving the students in Pasco county. The Pepin Transitional Program job training program has a downtown campus at The Law Offices of Julianne Holt, one of our job site partners and classrooms at the main campus.

The mission of Pepin Academies is to create a high intensity, low threat therapeutic learning community that celebrates the gifts of every student. We strive to break the destructive cycle of learned helplessness by finding their academic strengths and abilities, and making social skills a top priority.