Education equals FUTURE - High School Drop-Outs

High School Drop-Outs

Did you know if a student who does not receive a regular high school diploma, the student remains eligible for special education services until the age of 21 years old? But, if the student drops out and enters a GED or alternative school program, the student loses their rights for special education services.

Student Discharge from Special Education

When a student is discharged from special education, the school district is no longer responsible to provide special education services to the student.

Before the Team may determine a child no longer eligible for special education.

If the child’s eligibility is ending because he/she is graduating with a regular diploma or turning 21, the LEA must provide the child with a written summary of his/her academic achievement and functional performance, including recommendations on how to assist him/her in meeting his/her post-secondary goals.

The student graduates from high school with a regular high school diploma, or The student turns 21, whichever occurs first.

A high school drop-out what do you immediately think of....? Do you understand the data collection? Would you be surprised to find that there are different graduation rate formulas and statistics? Are you confused or concerned with the different spins of how the data is reported?

Understanding High School Graduation Rates

Graduation rates are a fundamental indicator of whether or not the nation’s public school system is doing what it is intended to do: enroll, engage, and educate youth to be productive members of society. In today’s increasingly competitive global economy, graduating high school is a critical step towards securing a good job and a promising future. Yet nationally, one-third of our students—about 1.2 million each year—leave high school without a diploma, and graduation rates for poor and minority students are even lower. The failure to graduate every child prepared for the 21st century has serious consequences for both individual students and the rest of American society. Yet, the unacceptably low graduation rates of America’s youth have been obscured for far too long by inaccurate data, misleading calculations and reporting, and flawed accountability systems. (Alliance For Excellent Education) read more.....

Have you thought about how the drop-out rate effects society as a whole? Here are some quick facts:

Students who do not earn a high school diploma are more likely to:

face unemployment;
live in poverty;
be incarcerated;
earn half as much annual income as a high school graduate;
have children at an early age;
use illicit drugs, tobacco, or both; and
be overweight.

Source: Hair, Ling, & Cochran, 2003

Dropouts from the Class of 2007 alone will cost the nation nearly $329 billion in lost wages, taxes, and productivity over their lifetimes (Alliance for Excellent Education 2007).
If the United States’ likely dropouts from the Class of 2006 had graduated, the nation could have saved more than $17 billion in Medicaid and expenditures for uninsured health care over the course of those young people’s lifetimes (Alliance for Excellent Education 2006b).
If U.S. high schools and colleges raise the graduation rates of Hispanic, African American, and Native American students to the levels of white students by 2020, the potential increase in personal income would add more than $310 billion to the U.S. economy (Alliance for Excellent Education 2006a).
Increasing the graduation rate and college matriculation of male students in the United States by just 5 percent could lead to combined savings and revenue of almost $8 billion each year by reducing crime-related costs (Alliance for Excellent Education 2006c).

Uniform Disaggregated Graduation Rates

U.S. Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings today announced final regulations to strengthen and clarify No Child Left Behind (NCLB), focusing on improved accountability and transparency, uniform and disaggregated graduation rates and improved parental notification for Supplemental Education Services and public school choice. read more...

The Role of Parents in Dropout Prevention:
Strategies that Promote Graduation and School Achievement

July 2006

Students who drop out of school face a difficult future. They are more likely to be unemployed, incarcerated, and/or impoverished. For students with disabilities, the risks are intensified. Their dropout rate is about 40 percent—more than twice that of their peers without disabilities.

Students with Disabilities who Drop Out of School—Implications for Policy and Practice

June 2002 • Vol. 1, Issue 2

Excerpts:

"American society has decided that it can no longer afford to have students drop out of school because of the serious implications for social stability and economic development. Youth who drop out generally experience negative outcomes—unemployment, underemployment, and incarceration. School dropouts report unemployment rates as much as 40% higher than youth who have completed school. Arrest rates are alarming for youth with disabilities who drop out of school—73% for students with emotional/behavioral disabilities and 62% for students with learning disabilities. More than 80% of individuals incarcerated are high school dropouts (Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 1995). When taxpayers spend approximately $51,000 per year to incarcerate one person, compared to approximately $11,500 to educate one child with a disability, the cost effectiveness of high school graduation is obvious."

High School Drop-Outs

Understanding High School Graduation Rates

The Role of Parents in Dropout Prevention:Strategies that Promote Graduation and School Achievement

July 2006

Students with Disabilities who Drop Out of School—Implications for Policy and Practice

The Role of Parents in Dropout Prevention:
Strategies that Promote Graduation and School Achievement