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The development of second-chance facilities, created in 1996 in the framework of a « plan to combat violence in the schools », is the latest in a series of institutional measures brought in since the end of the 20th century to provide a structure for those students who are least apt to meet the educational requirements. In the context of « mass education » it is also part of the movement to construct and impose categories for interpreting the difficulties involved in educating children from the most deprived segments of the working classes. The present article focuses on the study of the actual classification of secondary students at the time they pass through the remedial facilities, whether or not this is done in conformity with official objectives. It analyzes the modes of production of the institutional patterns of perception and action involved in sorting, processing and re-classifying « disorderly students », and shows two effects connected with the passage through second-chance facilities : on the one hand the creation or reinforcement of an institutional safety net around the secondary students (and their families); on the other hand, organization of the deferral and supervision of school-leaving.