The Last-Chance Schools : Education: Demand for independent study programs has swelled as social pressures and personal circumstances distance more and more students from public classrooms.

They’ve all wound up in the same place, but their reasons for opting out of the public school system are of a surprisingly wide stripe.

One is an amiable but overweight youth whose physical appearance prompted intolerable jeering from his peers.

Another is a young woman who found the usual round of classes and the whirl of high school society overwhelming after the slaying of her boyfriend at a local fast-food restaurant.

Still another is a girl, barely into her teens, who was raped near her home school and is fearful to again set foot on campus.

All of them have sought refuge at educational centers catering expressly to school dropouts. Designed for youths ages 12 to 18, the programs allow students to work at their own pace, aiming either for an eventual return to mainstream education or a high school diploma earned independently.

The San Fernando Valley is home to half a dozen such centers, which are operated by private agencies under contract with the Los Angeles Unified School District. Attendance requirements are less strict than district-run continuation schools, which require a daily presence.

The students who attend cut across all ethnic, geographic and socioeconomic lines, hailing from wealthier communities such as Chatsworth or less affluent areas such as Van Nuys.

Their shared characteristic is a desire to complete their secondary schooling.

Although the turnover rate in the independent study programs can be quite high--some youths find attendance even an hour a week too onerous--the teen-agers who persevere welcome the opportunity to escape the rigors of a traditional school setting, at least temporarily, without turning their backs permanently on education.

“These kids are just clamoring for this kind of opportunity,” said Joanne D. Saliba, executive director of Poseidon School, a West Los Angeles-based program with a newly opened center in Reseda. “They are sort of the invisible population. These are kids who really would like to get back on track and . . . don’t find a place in the mainstream.”

And their numbers are increasing.

In the spring of 1990, the last year for which statistics are available, the Los Angeles Unified School District reported more than 27,000 youths between the sixth and 12th grades--nearly 12% of all students in that age range districtwide--who were officially designated dropouts after they were missing from their classrooms for nine consecutive weeks.

Some school officials, however, believe the actual total to be much higher--perhaps pushing 40,000.

With the rising tide of youngsters who fall by the wayside of public education, the demand for independent study programs has correspondingly swelled. Although an exact tally is unknown, because the district subsidizes the programs based on the actual work produced by the students rather than by attendance alone, officials estimate that about 4,500 youngsters throughout the district are enrolled in independent study centers--about 500 more than last year.

“The programs are excellent for the students they work with,” said Barry Mostovoy, a district administrative consultant whose office oversees independent study programs. “These are very difficult students to work with. These are students we just can’t entice back to our campuses.”

But as with other educational programs all over the state, independent study providers, which do not charge students for their services, have felt the pinch of inadequate funding for the number of dropouts they hope to serve. Most centers operate on shoestring budgets and require cheap housing--in churches, community centers and even the neighborhood roller rink, as in the case of Poseidon.

Materials are often outdated or in dwindling supply. The sizable number of students who suddenly leave the program often take their books with them.

Options for Youth, one of the largest independent study programs with three centers from Gardena to Hollywood, has been allotted by the school district a maximum of about $800,000 to run its centers this school year, but program officials said they have had to shut their doors to prospective students and may be forced to drop some enrollees if no more funds are forthcoming.

The cash-strapped Los Angeles school board is scheduled to vote Monday on whether to approve an increase to $1.3 million, but Options founder John Hall predicted that the amount would still not be enough.

Part of the problem, Hall said, lies in the fact that the number of dropouts tends to rise as the school year wears on, and he and his staff are loath to turn anyone away, particularly those who turn to alternative education because of extraordinary circumstances.

“There’s no place for them to go,” he said. “I don’t know how to say no to these kids.”

The youths who leave the regular school system and strike up independent study fit no universal profile, except that most have fallen behind--some considerably--in their education. The typical assumption tends to cast dropouts as delinquent youths with severe disciplinary problems or a history of violent behavior that may have run them afoul of the law.

However, such a picture is not always accurate, according to Fay Purcell, director of the San Fernando center of Options for Youth. Purcell, who readily acknowledges that many of her students have gang affiliations and up to 25% are on probation, says a variety of circumstances impel her students toward alternative education.

“I have students who have been harassed in high school, students who fear gangs, students who just do not get along with teachers, students who are on their own, students who are already married, students who work full time,” Purcell said. “You’d be surprised.”

In fact, her center serves more teen-age parents than any other kind of youth. Children are allowed to accompany their parents, although no formal day care is provided.

For Karla Rodriguez of North Hollywood, the ability to bring her 5-month-old daughter to the church that serves as the San Fernando center was the determining factor in why she signed up for independent study instead of returning to Francis Polytechnic High School in Sun Valley.

“I don’t want a baby-sitter. This is better for me because I can’t leave her,” Rodriguez said one recent morning, baby Irene next to her in a pram during a career planning seminar. Rodriguez, 18, said she hopes to earn her diploma by the end of the year and then pursue her goal of becoming an airline ticket agent.

She isn’t alone in harboring a dream. Sitting a few chairs over from her was 16-year-old Krikor Telian, a self-professed gang member on probation who has vowed to clean up his act so that he can one day open his own jewelry store like his cousin, at whose downtown shop he works 25 to 30 hours a week to help support his parents.

Initially, he said, his parents objected to his return to education, preferring that he work full time rather than opt for a setting where he might hang out with fellow gang members. He eventually was able to persuade them of his commitment to finishing his high school education and going to college.

“I told them I want to go to school because I want to get my diploma and straighten out,” he said, labeling the center his “last chance.”

Many of the independent-study students do advance to higher education after returning and graduating from their home schools or earning their diplomas on their own.

Although none of the contractors with centers in the Valley have tracked enrollees after they leave the program, it is believed that most of the youths who continue their education attend community colleges.

But because more students intend to enter the work force after earning their diplomas, the curricula in the programs, while adhering to district guidelines, often lean toward the practical without being strictly vocational. For example, writing skills are fostered in learning how to compose business letters as well as essays.

“Our students tend to need a lot of real-life emphasis,” said Elizabeth Buck, Options for Youth executive director. “We tend to emphasize life skills. . . . We focus on basic skills and the things they need to be successful in their life and to go on to work.”

Her students, many of whom have difficulty operating in larger settings and need to catch up with basics, receive personal attention from certificated teachers, who tailor the curriculum for each youth. The Options for Youth strategy has youngsters study one subject exclusively for several weeks so that they can watch themselves progress in a short period rather than wait until the end of the semester to see results in five or six classes.

However, the amount of tutelage can vary from center to center. Depending on need or outside circumstances, a teen-ager at Poseidon School may meet with his or her assigned teacher only once weekly, whereas in the program run by the Latin American Civic Assn., students are required to attend classes four hours a day, five days a week.

“Our objective is to get them back to the traditional school program,” said Hector Briones, Latin American Civic Assn. program coordinator. “We try to get them in the habit of going to school.”

Options for Youth schedules hourlong visits twice a week for each student to work with the teacher, receive homework assignments and take tests. But officials said the comparatively small amount of time spent in the classroom does not necessarily equal less work.

“We’re requiring a fair amount of them, sometimes more than their high schools would,” Buck said.

“Independent study doesn’t mean you do less.”