(1)The general assembly hereby finds
that:
(a)The state of Colorado has placed a high priority on reducing the number
of student dropouts in Colorado, including establishing the goal of decreasing the
high school dropout rate by half by the 2017-18 academic year;
(b)The Colorado department of education reports that the statewide
graduation rate for Colorado high schools for the 2006-07 school year was seventy-five percent, an improvement of nine-tenths of a percentage point over the previous
school year;
(c)Although the overall graduation rate may have improved, serious gaps
continue to exist in the graduation rates among ethnic and economic groups and,
overall, twenty-five percent of the high school students in Colorado are not
graduating from high school within four years;
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(1) The general assembly hereby finds
that:
(a) The state of Colorado has placed a high priority on reducing the number
of student dropouts in Colorado, including establishing the goal of decreasing the
high school dropout rate by half by the 2017-18 academic year;
(b) The Colorado department of education reports that the statewide
graduation rate for Colorado high schools for the 2006-07 school year was seventy-five percent, an improvement of nine-tenths of a percentage point over the previous
school year;
(c) Although the overall graduation rate may have improved, serious gaps
continue to exist in the graduation rates among ethnic and economic groups and,
overall, twenty-five percent of the high school students in Colorado are not
graduating from high school within four years;
(d) Students with disabilities also continue to achieve a significantly lower
graduation rate than other student groups. The graduation rate for Colorado
students with disabilities is sixty-three and seven-tenths percent, compared with a
statewide graduation rate of seventy-five percent.
(e) According to the 2007 Colorado youth risk behavior survey,
approximately one out of ten students did not go to school one or more days in a
thirty-day period because they felt unsafe at school or in traveling to or from
school. This statistic indicates that, to improve student attendance and graduation
rates, schools and school districts must address school safety issues as well as
student learning and engagement issues.
(f) Studies clearly show that a student's level of education attainment will
directly influence the student's level of achievement and success throughout the
rest of his or her life;
(g) The national center for education statistics reports that, in comparing
employment rates and levels of education attainment across the country, in 2005,
the unemployment rate for persons who dropped out of high school was seven and
six-tenths percent, compared to an overall average unemployment rate for all
education levels of four percent; and
(h) Studies further show that students who drop out of school are more likely
to be involved in crime or delinquency and to lose lifelong opportunities for
personal achievement, resulting in economic and social costs to the state.
(2) The general assembly therefore concludes that:
(a) It is imperative that the department of education create an office of
dropout prevention and student re-engagement to provide focus, coordination,
research, and leadership to assist local education providers in implementing
coordinated efforts to reduce the high school dropout rate and increase the high
school graduation and completion rates and the levels of student engagement and
re-engagement;
(b) To significantly reduce the statewide dropout rate and increase the rates
of student engagement and re-engagement, the office of dropout prevention and
student re-engagement must also provide leadership in creating and facilitating
systemic approaches that involve intersystem collaboration between local
education providers and the foster care and child welfare systems, the juvenile
justice system, the division of youth services in the department of human services,
institutions of higher education, career and technical education providers, adult
basic education, general educational development certificate, and English-as-a-second-language programs, offices of workforce development, school-based
student support personnel, expanded learning opportunity and family education
programs, general educational development programs, and facility schools.