Bartlesville High School was reconfigured in August 2015 with a separate but attached Freshman Academy. This school-within-a-school approach helps students transition from middle school to high school. Research shows that the ninth grade year is a critical one in terms of student retention.

The Freshman Academy has its own core classrooms, administrative offices, guidance counselor, library, and computer labs. This allows freshmen to spend most of their day in a smaller academic setting while efficiently sharing with older students large-scale school facilities such as the cafeteria, gymnasia, and fine arts center.

Freshmen also have their own separate lunch period in the new cafeteria but have access during the school day to the shared fine arts and athletics facilities and an option for some advanced courses in the 10-12 grade classrooms.

The Freshman Academy has its own exterior entrance at the southeast edge of the campus at 18th & Shawnee Avenue, with its own pick-up and drop-off loop along Shawnee Avenue and pick-up lane running north along the west edge of Shawnee.