A long-vacant Chinatown building has a new purpose this week: educating San Francisco students with autism and intellectual disabilities who, until now, often had to leave the city entirely to get the support they needed. San Francisco officials cut the ribbon on the new Extensive Support Needs school inside the Edwin and Anita Lee Building, a site that had sat empty for two years before reopening for this program.
Mayor Daniel Lurie and Superintendent Maria Su were on hand for the opening, according to KALW, which reported that the school opened with one student, a high schooler, with two more expected to join the following Monday and several additional families holding outstanding offers, per an SFUSD representative. The school, designed for students in grades 5-12, is intended to serve children with autism and intellectual disabilities who require complex academic, behavioral and social-emotional support, according to KQED.
SFUSD first announced the program in a May press release describing it as a self-contained ESN school with enriched social-skills instruction and behavior-based supports. The district said students would have access to an occupational therapy room, a calm-down room, and a speech therapy room inside the Chinatown site, located at 657 Merchant St., per the San Francisco Examiner.
A Local Alternative to Costly Outside Placements
The need behind the new school is significant. Per a district representative cited by KALW, students with the highest needs have been traveling to schools outside San Francisco because the district had not been able to meet their needs internally, forcing families and students into long commutes for basic schooling. SFUSD pays roughly $180,000 to $200,000 in tuition per student for those nonpublic placements, KALW reported.
That figure lines up with broader district accounting. KQED reported that SFUSD pays to send about 160 students with individualized learning plans to nonpublic schools when their needs cannot be met internally, and a school board member told the outlet the district pays upwards of $200,000 a year per student enrolled in an NPS program. The district estimated in 2025 that it would spend a total of $42 million on nonpublic school services and other special education providers, the same report noted.
The Chinatown school opened with two classrooms serving roughly eight students each, for a capacity of 16 students, according to SFUSD's press release. The district said it plans to double that capacity to 32 students across four classrooms by the 2027-28 school year, per KALW's reporting. KQED reported that SFUSD estimated about 80 students fit the qualifications for the new extensive-needs program, with 26 already in the pipeline for the initial 16 spots.
Not an Open Enrollment
Getting into the new school isn't as simple as signing up. Families need district approval to join, and must be invited to enroll, KALW reported. The process reportedly includes a behavior specialist visiting a student's current school to assess fit, after which families can tour the school and make a final enrollment decision.
Melanie Bauzon, a parent of a child with a disability and chair of SFUSD's Special Education Community Advisory Committee, framed the opening in personal terms. “This school is a promise from our district that our kids matter, that they belong, and they deserve the very best support right here in San Francisco,” Bauzon said, according to KALW's report.
Part of a Larger Push on Special Education
The Chinatown site is the latest piece of a broader effort SFUSD has described to overhaul special education services. The district said last year it was implementing systemic and structural improvements based on recommendations from an independent FCMAT assessment, according to a district press release. SFUSD has said it wants to transition students back from nonpublic schools whenever possible.
The scale of that need has been growing. Nearly 14% of SFUSD's roughly 49,000 students in TK through 12th grade were identified as requiring special education services in the 2023-24 school year, and special education enrollment rose by two percentage points from 2019-20 to 2023-24 even as the district's overall enrollment declined, per the same SFUSD release. The district has said the new school is intended to reduce its reliance on nonpublic schools outside San Francisco and cut down on long-distance travel for students and families, according to the San Francisco Examiner.
The Edwin and Anita Lee Building itself has room to grow well beyond the current plan. KQED reported the former site has space for up to 11 classrooms, which could serve about 88 students, suggesting the Chinatown campus could eventually expand further than the 32-student target already announced for the 2027-28 school year.
