[5] Both campuses, in Puxi and Pudong, offer Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate Diplomas, as well as both programs together to high school students.

Through APAC, SAS students participate in a variety of intramural recreations, including badminton, volleyball, band, choir, and theater.

It quickly established a reputation for academic excellence, and within a decade, the campus had grown to include twelve buildings on or near North Sichuan Road.

With the support of the Shanghai-based and overseas American businesses, especially Standard Oil Company, SAS broke ground on a purpose-built campus located amid farmland on the western edge of "Frenchtown" (today's former French Concession).

[8] (Parts of the campus remains along Hengshan Road including the Administration Building, headmaster's home, Girl's Dormitory, and Water Tower.

Housed in an open-air shed with rudimentary supplies, the newest iteration of Bootleg SAS nevertheless opened with 222 students.

But by 1949, with China at the end of the civil war and Shanghai about to be liberated by the Communist Party, the SAS Board of Managers once again made the decision to close the school.

Val Sundt, then vice principal, was inspired to invoke the "Spirit of Cheney" and assure the school would once again continue.

Recognizing a need to educate the children of Consulate employees, the U.S. State Department asked Lauer to restart Shanghai American School.

A third temporary campus was founded in the Shanghai Centre on Nanjing Road to serve the youngest SAS attendees, though it soon proved unnecessary and closed after just one semester.

In 2004, seven North Koreans climbed over the perimeter wall of the Puxi campus and, thinking that the school was US government property, attempted to claim asylum.