Once, this spacious room was jam-packed with band students and the sounds of instruments being tuned up.

Today, it is quiet, punctuated only by the teacher's voice as 19 students pursue their work in front of computers or at tables with textbooks.

The young men and women wear black T-shirts and sweat pants, and speak respectfully and politely when spoken to.

They are members of the Cherokee County Regimented Education Academy, commonly known as "boot school." It's designed to help students having problems to remain at home, while pursuing their education and obtaining the skills they need to return to the classroom.

Periodically, stories surface of "boot schools" that entice parents to send their children to military-style programs to straighten them out.

A recent Associated Press story reports that such programs -- referred to as residential treatment facilities, behavior modification programs or therapeutic boarding schools -- have been under congressional investigation for about a year. An estimated 20,000 teenagers attend these programs nationwide.

Sgt. Marcus Sams, who leads CCREA, said the local program is different from the programs referred to in the congressional investigation cited in the story. So is Thunderbird Youth Academy in Pryor, a military-oriented residential program for young people having trouble in regular high school classes. Juvenile courts refer students to the CCREA or Thunderbird.

Some of the programs the AP cited in the congressional study do extensive advertising to urge parents to send their troubled children to the institutions.

Investigators at the Government Accountability Office made undercover visits to the boot camps and their referral services. One investigator posing as a father was advised to hide information about the program from his wife, said Greg Kutz, an investigator who was scheduled to testify before the congressional committee.

"The referral agency warned our fictitious parents that his wife might 'freak out' about sending her daughter to a boarding school, and stated: 'I want you to tell her that it's a college prep boarding school. ... If she thinks that you want to send her daughter to a place where there are drug addicts and people that are all screwed up, she will look at you and say 'no way,'" Kutz said in testimony obtained by the AP.

Kutz told members of Congress the GAO has obtained thousands of allegations of abuse, including eight deaths, at such programs since the early 1990s.

Sams said such allegations occasionally surface. He worked at Thunderbird for 5-1/2 years before coming to CCREA when it was established in 2001. He said these stories were posted prominently to make Thunderbird staff aware of them.

"This is nonresidential," he said of CCREA. "They don't live here. They are court-ordered to be here, from truancy to minor crimes."

CCREA, now housed in the old band room at the Central school complex, operates during the same hours as Tahlequah High School. Its students, who must be in middle or high school and can come from throughout Cherokee County, attend for a minimum of one trimester. They don't have class during breaks and have the summer off.

The academy has a maximum enrollment of 20. The number of students varies from four or five to as many as 20, but averages 14 or 15. The number of boys and girls is roughly equivalent, and also varies. Currently there are nine girls and 12 boys attending class.