The Lighthouse Community School (LCS) is located in Cincinnati, Ohio, and is a unique charter school operated through the collaborative effort of Lighthouse Youth Services and the Cincinnati Public Schools. LCS has been in operations since 2000 and serves at-risk students from Grades 6 to 12, ages 13-21 years. Teachers and support staff (counselors, intervention specialists, etc.) all realize that the basic needs of health and safety of the students must first be met before any significant academic learning can occur. The tenets of a trauma-informed care (TIC) model have been presented to the faculty to better prepare them with strategies that work effectively with this traumatized student population. This article addresses how the TIC model connects at-risk youth to LCS. The model is defined as an organizational structure with a treatment perspective, which includes recognizing, understanding, and responding to the effects of all trauma types. Additionally, this article focuses on the phenomenon of student dropout, which has been increasing in our society. It is important that teachers, support staff, policymakers, and researchers find strategies to address this problem and help all students learn and reach their fullest potential.