Date: 07-26-2015
Kentucky law puts dropouts in back-to-school limbo;
No comment from Fletcher – yet…
(Lawrence Co. School Supt Dr. Robbie Fletcher was offered an opportunity to comment on this story as was Lawrence Co. DPP Vernon Hall but neither has issued a response. Therefore there is no estimate available as to haow many dropouts from 16-18 will be forced to return to school and their rights to take the GED taken away… Mark)
It wasn’t until after Sarah Norris dropped out of high school that she found an educational program that worked for her.
After years of feeling unmotivated and frustrated in classes, she said she feels revitalized and has more self-confidence thanks to GED courses she began taking a few months ago. Since enrolling at the beginning of the year, the 17-year-old has passed one section of the GED and is nearly ready to try taking the second of four sections.
But now the very classes that have inspired her have been taken away because of a new state dropout law.
As of July 1, the legal age for students to drop out of high school in Jefferson County and most other Kentucky counties moved from 16 to 18.
The idea of raising the dropout age, championed by Gov. Steve Beshear and his wife, was to encourage students to graduate and to underscore the importance of education. Educators and residents across the state have lauded the law and its goals.
But the law did not grandfather in students who have already dropped out, and teens who are finding themselves suddenly underage again must struggle to find a place in a system they thought they’d already left.
One place the new law is already being felt is among teens who have dropped out and are trying to get their GEDs. According to state policy, Kentuckians are allowed to get their GED when they turn 19 or if they reach the legal age to drop out and then are withdrawn from school for more than 90 days.
“The Kentucky Department of Education is focused on students graduating from high school ready for college/career, so they have the best possibility for job and economic success. A GED does not guarantee college/career-readiness.”
In other words, students like Sarah who dropped out when the legal dropout age was 16 and started working toward their GEDs now have to stop because the new law went into effect July 1.
“The Kentucky Department of Education is focused on students graduating from high school ready for college/career, so they have the best possibility for job and economic success,” department spokeswoman Rebecca Blessing said in an email. “A GED does not guarantee college/career-readiness.”
Blessing noted that there are no provisions in the law exempting students who have GEDs or are working toward them, saying those students who are under 18 would be considered truant if they don’t return to school.
But Blessing said the state education department has recommended that school districts work with court-designated workers and others to figure out how to best handle “any students who may be ‘caught’ in the transition to the new law.”
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State Education Commissioner Terry Holliday said school districts have had years to prepare for this policy and he hopes they have options for those students who have already dropped out.
“We shouldn’t be sending a student that turns 18 this fall that has no high school credits back to … ninth-grade classes,” Holliday said. “We should be providing them with an innovative alternative. … The worst thing for districts to do is try to put these kids back into the traditional system that failed them the first time.”
He said that for some students, schools can be helping with job training or with teaching core content that could help them later get their GEDs if course recovery doesn’t appear to be an option. Holliday said it’s schools’ jobs to try to help these underage students now or “they’ll live their whole lives with fewer opportunities.”
Gov. Steve Beshear, in a statement, acknowledged there “have been some transitional issues with students seeking their GED” but agreed with Holliday that districts have flexibility to “creatively work with these young people to ensure their ongoing education and progress.”
“If Kentucky is going to produce a 21st-century workforce, we must have all our students on a path to the highest educational attainment,” he said.
Still, some state legislators have expressed concerns about those students who have dropped out and been trying to get their GEDs and are now prevented from doing so with the new law.
Graham said he’d like to work with other legislators to fix the law but noted that it would have to wait until the legislative session begins in January.
Sen. David Givens, R-Greensburg, said he has not heard any concerns about the law aside from questions from reporters, saying that school districts and students should have known this law was coming, given the amount of time the legislature gave to phase-in the law. But he said that “if pressure builds for us to address this issue, we will.”
JCPS preparations
Jefferson County Public Schools and other districts have been working for months to prepare for the change — using $10,000 planning grants from the state to do training, enhance alternative offerings, create informative posters or start other initiatives — but school officials say it’s unclear just how everything will shake out in the first year.
“You have kids who legally dropped out and are now legally truant,” said Mike Raisor, chief operations officer for JCPS.
The district has previously estimated there could be an increase of about 2,800 students labeled as habitually truant this school year, and it has estimated that there are about 350 students who have dropped out and now legally have to come back to school because they are under 18.
Raisor said JCPS is trying to reach out to those students and provide them options, such as online learning, enrolling in an alternative school or returning to their home school. At this point, though, JCPS has no idea what these students may do and that means questions like transportation or school capacity are still up in the air.
“It will be interesting to see where the ripples will play into,” Raisor said.
Uncertainty for teens
Jessica Burton, a program specialist at the Kentucky Youth Career Center, said she has a two-page list of teens who dropped out who are now “in limbo” because they had been taking GED classes and now must stop because they are under 18.
Some are only days away from their birthdays, but others who are further from turning 18 must now contend with whether they could be brought up on truancy charges if they don’t re-enroll in high school.
One student on Burton’s list is 17-year-old Caitlyn Black, who dropped out in 10th grade from Valley High School.
At first, dropping out seemed like a relief. She’d hated going to class. But soon she realized that, without a high school diploma or a GED, “I couldn’t get a job. I couldn’t do anything with my life. I had to do something.”
After dropping out, she considered going back to school, but thought it would be too hard and strange after so much time away. She said she definitely doesn’t want to go back now.
Beginning in January, Caitlyn began taking classes to try to get her GED. But when she walked in to the latest GED class session on July 13, she was told she couldn’t come in.
“It’s frustrating, having to wait,” Caitlyn said, noting that her birthday is a couple of months away. She said she doesn’t know what she’s going to do now and is worried about losing her momentum if she has to wait to continue classes or has to switch gears. .
First-year headaches
Cammie Kramer, who works in JCPS’ adult and continuing education department, said that, overall, the change in the dropout age will help students, but that this first year, it’s creating headaches and uncertainty for a small group of at-risk teens.
“The law presents several caveats that have not been fleshed out,” Kramer said, adding that it’s unclear even whether students who do have their GEDs and are now studying at a postsecondary institution could be called back to high school.
“It’s brand new and we’re just trying to figure this all out now,” Kramer said.
Sarah echoed the frustration heard by some counselors and other teens over aspects of the new law. Because she’s already gotten her documentation of withdrawal form approved by GED, she thinks she may be able to continue working on her GED despite the law change, but she isn’t sure.
What is certain is she can no longer be in the Kentucky Youth Career Center’s GED classes and will have to study on her own if she wants to keep advancing.
“I finally enjoy learning. This is not fair,” Sarah said. “But I’m not going to let this stop me.”
Overall, educators and others are bullish about the new law and hope it can help prevent some teens from slipping out of sight.
Kramer added that the law has helped spur school districts like JCPS to offer more alternative options for at-risk high schoolers, such as the “success pathways” initiative JCPS is pushing this year at its alternative schools.
“Everyone in the district thinks this is a really positive change in the community,” Kramer said. “We want kids to have that diploma or GED.”
Still, there are worries about the hundreds of students in Jefferson County that are in limbo as the law goes into effect.
“They’ve already fallen through the cracks,” Burton said. “We don’t want them to fall through again.”
Kentucky’s new dropout age law
After several years of effort, Kentucky in 2013 passed a law raising the dropout age from 16 to 18.
Adoption of the higher compulsory attendance age was voluntary for school districts until 55 percent of the state’s districts adopted the change, at which point the law became mandatory across the state.
Jefferson County Public Schools was quick to adopt the higher age in 2013, with one board member calling the decision “a no-brainer.”
The vast majority of school districts implement the new law for the first time this school year, while one is starting in the 2016-2017 school year and six will start in the 2017-2018 school year.
Students who have already dropped out but are under the age of 18 are not grandfathered in, meaning they technically must return to school under the law or possibly face truancy charges.
Chief Academic Officer Dewey Hensley said JCPS will do evaluations of students who are returning to school, including what they need to graduate and what program may be the best fit. He said the new “success pathways” in JCPS alternative schools, or eSchool or other options may work for different teens.
JCPS has said that students who have dropped out should first contact a counselor at their resides school to get more information about their options. They can also call Jefferson County High School at (502) 485-3173, said Cammie Kramer, who works in JCPS’ adult education department.
By Allison Ross
The Courier-Journal
