JLA was founded in 1995.   In 1998, JLA was proud to create a partnership with Simon Youth Foundation (SYF), making JLA the first Simon Youth Academy in the country.  Since its partnership, JLA has been able to expand twice (1998 and 2001).  This helped increase its impact on students, in addition to providing students the opportunity to earn 2- and 4-year scholarships through SYF.  As its flagship school, JLA has been afforded great benefits through its partnership with the SYF. With this continuous support, JLA has graduated over 2,000 students as of November 2019. This has been an increase in JLA's graduation rate from 61.1% during its first year, to 95.4% in 2019, according to the Texas Education Agency. JLA strives to continue to increase its enrollment and number of graduates yearly.