SuccessWorks Academy doesn’t look like much more than an old elementary-school building now, but it is going to be different.

For starters, the “discipline school” is opening in the middle of the year. The kids who will show up today at the old Franklinton Elementary have been chronic troublemakers. They’ve been so disruptive that their regular schools have tried it all, and their parents are looking for help.

So they were referred here, a special school for kids in grades 3-7 whose student files already are full of reports of fighting, insubordination and threats.

“Some children have been in three or four different foster homes,” said Elaine Bell, who oversees student services for Columbus Public Schools. “Their lives are chaotic, but we expect them to be able to come to school and manage. It’s not unusual to know that students whose lives have been disrupted in that manner would have problems behaving.”

The district and teachers union have been talking for years about opening a school for the most disruptive students. It’s been slow to reach fruition, in part because critics worried it would become a dumping ground for minorities or students who are merely unruly, said Rhonda Johnson, president of the Columbus Education Association.

The SuccessWorks kids - about 100 so far - are what the district calls the “7 percent,” referring to the small number of kids who cause half the disciplinary problems in the district.

A study by KidsOhio.org in 2005 identified the 7 percent by analyzing offenses.

“Those are the kids we’re trying for,” said Yvonne Jones, a retired Columbus principal who returned to head SuccessWorks.

Students come to Success-Works after their regular school refers them and their parents approve the move. That should help prevent the school from becoming the dumping ground critics fear, Johnson said.

The original school must have tried several times to help the student.

Parents had to commit to going to the school orientation last week and to parent-teacher meetings during the year.

This is what’s in store for the students:

• There will be intensive counseling. Social workers and psychologists will conduct smallgroup sessions. Teachers are trained to hold daily gatherings about dealing with social and emotional issues.

• Classes will have no more than 15 students instead of the typical 25 to 30. Each child will have a specialized plan to help him academically and emotionally. And all students will be assigned a mentor from the community who will follow them through their schooling, even beyond SuccessWorks. The school also will link up with the Boys & Girls Club next door for some activities.

• Students will eat in two sessions to keep groups small. And there won’t be recess. Instead, kids will get a mini-course that could be anything from knitting to an anger-management workshop from the Buckeye Ranch.

• Instead of physical-education classes that have basketball and fitness drills, SuccessWorks students will be trained in Bushido, a martial art that focuses on ethical behavior and self-control. It will be noncontact.

“The old ‘sit-and-get’ (instruction) won’t work for these kids,” Jones said.

Research has shown that troubled students need smaller classes, quality counseling and continued monitoring once they return to regular schools, said Dennis L. White, research and policy analyst for the Washington, D.C.-based Hamilton Fish Institute on School and Community Violence.

“In virtually every case, when treatment is discontinued or there’s no sufficient follow-up, the (problem) will be revisited when kids return” to their home school, he said.

The SuccessWorks plan seems solid and has the elements that make a discipline-focused school successful, said White, former president of the National Alternative Education Association. But there aren’t many comparison schools, he said.

For many students, their SuccessWorks teachers will be the first who refuse to toss them out of class or send them to the principal’s office for acting out, Jones said.

“If you have a relationship with them, even on the bad days you don’t get rid of them,” said Ann Ventling, who will teach third-grade reading, math and social studies.

SuccessWorks isn’t a life sentence. Teachers are charged with helping give the children skills - ways to control angry outbursts, for example - to return to their regular school.

There’s no set length of time kids will be there, although most will stay at least a year, Bell said. A transition process will make the switch back to regular school easier.

“You need a specialized staff,” Jones said. “They’re tough. We’ve had practice in verbal responses. Our overall philosophy is ‘We don’t let others control our behavior.’ ”

A middle- and high-school discipline program is being considered.

jsmithrichards@dispatch.com