Efforts to drive down high school dropout rates got a boost last week in Olympia.
Among the highlights of a bill sponsored by Rep. John Lovick, D-Mill Creek, are measures requiring effective dropout prevention programs and requiring middle schools to track students who quit school.
Gov. Christine Gregoire signed the bill into law April 28.
Nearly a quarter of the students in each graduating class in the state leave school before earning a diploma. “We’re realizing it’s a serious problem … and we’re getting ready to seriously address it,” Lovick said.
Under the law, the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction must identify effective dropout prevention programs and review how schools work with the courts to improve school attendance. Schools also will be required to track dropout rates back to seventh grade, instead of ninth grade.
The state superintendent of public instruction must report back to the Legislature by Dec. 1 with a list of prevention programs, including ones that target at-risk students and involve career and technical schools.
One example of a successful program, Lovick said, is Houston Independent School District’s “Reach Out to a Dropout” campaign to get former students back in school by sending volunteers knocking on their doors.
A separate work group will examine attendance policies, including the role of the courts in making children attend school under the so-called Becca Bill of 1995, which gave parents and courts more authority to deal with runaways and other at-risk children. A report on their findings is due by Jan. 10.
The attendance topic is of particular interest, said Karst Brandsma, the Everett School District’s associate superintendent for instruction. He hopes the work group finds nonpunitive ways of keeping students in class.
“Kids attend school for different reasons. But when it’s relevant, and there are enjoyable things that motivate kids, that’s probably going to be the most successful,” Brandsma said. “You’re not going to be able to force kids to go to school.”
The district will offer its own dropout prevention ideas to the state, he said, including new “student success coordinators” at high schools who track teens in danger of not graduating on time.
Melissa Slager is a reporter with The Herald in Everett.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
