U-46 dropout numbers up sharply but 20 re-enroll

Driven perhaps by the economic downturn, more than double the usual number of students dropped out of high school programs in Elgin Area School District U-46 this year.

According to U-46, 114 students dropped out after the 2009-10 school year, up from 44 at the end of the 2008-09 school year and 46 the year before.

Superintendent Jose Torres said the economy may be prompting many older teenagers to stay home to support their families.

“In the current economy, I can only assume that more and more students are placed in the position of having to decide between school and work, Torres said in a news release. “As a community, we must figure out a long-term solution to address the increasing number of dropouts.

As he has done for the past three years, Torres sent out letters to each of the 114 students who dropped out urging them to return and explaining the benefits of a high school diploma. This year, 20 decided to re-enroll in high school.

Pat Dal Santo, who works with truant youths at the Kane County Regional Office of Education, said U-46's increased dropout rate may be part of a nationwide trend. The reasons more students are dropping out?

“Some of them are staying home to support their families; some of them are parents themselves; some of them weren't successful in school, Dal Santo said.

Reduced funding to programs that work with high school dropouts has made efforts like that in U-46 even more important, Dal Santo said.

“That funding has been cut so we're no longer able to do that on the same scale that we used to, Dal Santo said. “I think it's great that they reach out to the kids because it's very difficult once you've left to turn around and walk back through those doors.

A 2009 nationwide report from the Center for Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University in Boston shows that high school dropouts face high unemployment, low wages and high rates of incarceration relative to their peers with diplomas and college degrees.

For example, only 60 percent of young high school dropouts worked at some point in 2007, according to the report. That same year, dropouts earned only $8,358 on average, compared to an average of $15,149 for all young adults.

The study also found dropouts were more than 60 times as likely as four-year college graduates to be institutionalized in a correctional or long-term health care facility.

The effects of dropping out are not confined to dropouts and their families. The Northeastern study pegged the lifetime cost to taxpayers of supporting a single dropout at more than $5,000. The average high school graduate contributes more than $287,000 over his lifetime, according to the study.

The report concludes: “Adult dropouts in the U.S. in recent years have been a major fiscal burden to the rest of society. Given the current and projected deficits of the federal government, the fiscal burden of supporting dropouts and their families is no longer sustainable.

The 114 U-46 dropouts for 2010 break down as follows: 46 at Elgin High School, 26 at Larkin High School, 11 at Gifford Street Alternative High School, 10 at Streamwood High School, eight at South Elgin High School, seven at Bartlett High School and six at the Central Schools Program for students with special needs.

Torres also wrote letters to students 18 and older who dropped out explaining the benefits of getting a General Educational Development certification, equivalent to a high school diploma. He hopes to continue his letter-writing initiative next year.

“Dr. Torres is adamant that we continue to reach out to dropouts, U-46 spokesman Tony Sanders said.