Adopt-a-School

Adopt-A-School Program

The Adopt-A-School Program puts FBI special agents and staff members into local schools to mentor and tutor kids.

In most cases, our volunteers create programs to help kids who are "at risk" or disadvantaged learn how to improve academically and become good citizens. They hope, above all, to show kids how to resist bad influences that could lead them to crime, drug use, gang participation, and violence. It goes without saying that our volunteers respect the privacy of the students and their families, and all information is kept confidential.

We also have a new program that is specific to Northern Virginia. The FBI Laboratory, which is located there, has created a Junior Scientist program. Here members of our laboratory go into a local school with a learning program that encourages students to consider science and laboratory work as a career.

We have active programs in our 56 field offices and in some of our headquarters offices in the Washington, DC, area. Some of our offices adopt elementary schools; others, middle or high schools—all of the schools are in areas where kids are considered to be "at risk." You can find the program in your area by contacting your local community outreach representative.

The programs vary. In some cases, our agents and staff members will focus just on mentoring and tutoring in the classroom during the school year. In others, they work with school officials to set up a 10- to 16-week Junior Special Agent program that teaches a course in civics and how to be a law-abiding citizen. At the end of this program, kids who pass the course graduate and are awarded Junior Special Agent status. See the Junior Special Agent in Training Handbook.