The Indigo Program is a free parent participation public school in the Oak Grove School District, offering an experience that is anything but ordinary. We are proud to be one of only nine recognized Positive Discipline Lab Schools in the nation. This designation reflects our deep, schoolwide commitment to respectful, research-backed approaches to raising and educating children like fostering empathy, responsibility, and mutual respect every day.
What truly sets Indigo apart is our active, three-way partnership among students, teachers, and families. Parents and caregivers are an essential part of classroom life throughout the year, creating a close-knit community where children feel known, supported, and excited to learn and adults feel connected and fulfilled.
While our curriculum meets all California state standards, how students learn looks quite different here. Our reading and math scores place us in the top 20% of California schools, a success driven by a genuine love of learning. Students build, investigate, create, and solve real-world problems through gardening, hands-on science experiments, field trips, and collaborative projects.
Indigo welcomes all students in the Oak Grove School District, and families from outside the district can apply through an inter-district transfer. Admission is determined by a simple lottery with no test scores or special qualifications required.
The Indigo Program was founded in 2005 through a partnership between visionary parents and Oak Grove School District educators who wanted something better for their children. Together, they built a school grounded in hands-on learning, active family involvement, and positive discipline. What started with just three classrooms and 60 students has grown into a thriving K–8 community.
In 2011, Indigo celebrated its very first graduating 8th-grade class. Today, more than two decades later, those founding values continue to guide everything we do.
Indigo’s mission is to help every child grow. Not just academically, but socially, emotionally, and creatively. We believe students are capable of far more than simply recalling the right answers, and we design every aspect of our school around that belief.
In practice, students learn through experience, an active approach educators call Constructivist Learning. Rather than passively receiving information, students discover concepts through hands-on exploration. Science comes alive through experimentation, mathematics is applied to real-world problems, and history is explored through creative projects and primary sources. Essential social skills like resolving conflicts, collaborating effectively, and taking personal responsibility, are taught with the same intentionality as reading and writing.
We also recognize that every child learns differently. Indigo teachers know their students deeply and thoughtfully adjust instruction to meet each child where they are. Our ultimate goal goes beyond academic achievement: we aim to raise confident, curious, and caring individuals who are prepared to make a positive impact on the world.
Parents are a vital part of this learning experience. Families actively bring our values to life by partnering with us to lead and support enrichment programs, sharing talents in areas like cooking, crafting, outdoor exploration, photography, languages, and martial arts. These unique, community-driven offerings are what truly make the Indigo experience special.
You may have heard that Indigo uses “Positive Discipline” but what does that actually mean? Rather than relying on punishments and rewards to manage behavior, we teach students the skills to make thoughtful choices for themselves. Problem-solving, self-awareness, empathy, and mutual respect are practiced daily and qualities that serve students far beyond the classroom.
Indigo is one of a select group of schools in the United States recognized as a Positive Discipline Lab School. Schools earn this designation based on the depth and consistency of their whole-school implementation. It is not a label, it is a sustained practice. When you enroll, families have access to regular parent education workshops so the approach can be reinforced at home as well.
The result is a school environment that feels genuinely calm and purposeful. Students feel secure enough to take intellectual risks, learn from mistakes, and grow with confidence. Parents, in turn, gain a practical and research-backed framework for navigating the everyday challenges of raising children, one that works both at school and at home.
Many parents find that their involvement gives them far more than they expected. It provides a genuine window into how their child learns, builds lasting relationships with other families and students, and creates a depth of connection to their child’s education that is difficult to find anywhere else.
You’ll often find Indigo families summering, camping and adventuring together. Our community truly is a village and isn’t that what it takes to raise children!
We offer flexible volunteer options to fit every work schedule and skill level, from helping in the garden or assisting at campus events to completing projects from home on your own time.
