KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- It was a KCTV5 news investigation that revealed a local charter school surrounded by drugs, prostitution and other street crime.

A recent phone call to the KCTV5 investigative team, however, sent reporters back to the school and they could not believe what they found.

KCTV5's Dana Wright looked into the situation at Scuola Vita Nuova charter school, at 544 Wabash Ave., where the kids come from rough neighborhoods near what police consider one of the most crime-ridden boulevards in the city.

Of all the shocking things KCTV5 found during its first visit to the school, it's what the team uncovered on the return trip that showed to them that Scuola Vita Nuova really lives up to its name -- The School of New Life.

When KCTV5 first visited the school in November 2007, the investigative team found prostitutes, drug dealers, bottles, baggies, a spoon and a discarded tampon outside the building in an area where about 200 children were forced to navigate past the items on their way to class.

"One evening during our PTA meeting a prostitute was urinating on our property," principal Nicole King said during the first investigation.

At one point during the investigation a prostitute approached an undercover producer from KCTV5 on a sidewalk near where the investigative team found evidence of drug use. Upon returning to the school this year the team found that the majority of the illegal activity was gone.

No one seems to be happier about the changes that the children who attend the school.

"Nothing bad is happening no more," said student Aweis Sharif. "It's calm and every day is OK."

"A cover story for us has definitely put the word out that this is not the place to set up and run business after hours," said King. She said after the initial story aired that neighbors got involved and the police department refocused its efforts.

"We need the community's partnership, the community's understanding and working on it as a team," said Jim Schriever, from the Kansas City Police Department.

And while KCTV5 found the news is good outside, the news is even better inside.

"Finally somebody realized that this is the best school that you can find," Sharif said. "And all my life that I’ve been here it's been like, 'Hasn't anybody noticed?'"

A few weeks ago, the national association in charge of accreditation came to town and granted Scuola Vita Nuova full accreditation.

"It has nothing to do with ZIP codes -- it has nothing to do with socio-economic status -- it has nothing to do with what country you came from," King said recently.

A report released recently by the Washington-based National Alliance for Public Charter Schools showed that Kansas City ranks fourth nationally, with 29 percent of its public school children enrolled in charters operating inside the boundaries of the Kansas City School District.

There are currently 200 students attending the school with 200 more on a waiting list. The school prides itself on finding diamonds in the rough -- kids who need the most help -- and helping them thrive and get the most out of the school of new life.