SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS) – The high-school graduation rate in the San Francisco Unified School District has risen to a multi-year high, according to the California Department of Education. A system being used to identify students in need of extra support is being credited for the success.

For the past eight years, high school graduation rates have risen more than 9 percent and for the 2015-16 year stands at 86.5 percent, an all-time high.

“All of our student groups over the last decade have been on an upward trend,” San Francisco Unified spokesperson Gentle Blythe told KCBS.

Blythe said the graduation rates for Latino and African-American students have improved the most.

“Which means we’re narrowing the achievement gap for graduation rates,” she said.

Since 2012, the district has been using early warning indicators to identify students in need of extra support as they enter the ninth grade.

“Among other things I think it is one of the things really helping us see that graduation rate go up,” Blythe said.

One subgroup that needs focus is foster youth. The foster youth graduation rate declined 8.5 percent year over year and stands at 54.4 percent.