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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE |
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State
Rep. James Roebuck |
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Roebuck's dropout-prevention bill advances to full House
HARRISBURG, May 14 – The House Education Committee today approved a bill proposed by the committee's chairman, state Rep. James Roebuck, D-Phila., aimed at preventing high school dropouts.
"In recent years, Pennsylvania has made great strides toward ensuring a quality education for its students through proven strategies, but we must also focus on improving our efforts to make sure every student graduates high school prepared for college or the work force," Roebuck said. "Our current data-collection system needs improved so we can more effectively target additional resources and support to prevent students from dropping out."
In 2005-06, about 88 percent of all students graduated high school in Pennsylvania. About 17,000 public students drop out annually, including around 5,000 from Philadelphia’s schools.
Roebuck's bill (H.B. 2466) would establish an Office for Dropout Prevention and Data Collection under the Pennsylvania Department of Education. The office would be responsible for implementing a high-quality, detailed data-collection and reporting system for dropout and graduation rates in all public school districts.
The office would also award grants from funding established under H.B. 2466 to help school districts create dropout prevention plans in conjunction with community organizations targeted toward at-risk students. Grants would also be available for programs to recover students once they've dropped out through various forms of outreach, literacy education and work training/placement initiatives.
PDE currently runs the Successful Students' Partnership, a dropout-prevention grant program established in 1987. Roebuck's proposal would supplement that program by helping school districts that have dropout rates higher than the state average.
House Bill 2466 now heads to the full House for consideration.
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