37-13-80 - Office of Dropout Prevention created; qualifications and responsibilities of director; date for implementation of dropout prevention program; procedures for tracking students who enter and
§ 37-13-80. Office of Dropout Prevention created; qualifications and responsibilities of director; date for implementation of dropout prevention program; procedures for tracking students who enter and leave detention centers; dropout prevention plan to address student transition to home school districts; legislative intent.
(1) There is created the Office of Dropout Prevention within the State Department of Education. The office shall be responsible for the administration of a statewide dropout prevention program and the Office of Compulsory School Attendance Enforcement.
(2) The State Superintendent of Public Education shall appoint a director for the Office of Dropout Prevention, who shall meet all qualifications established by the State Superintendent of Public Education and the State Personnel Board. The director shall be responsible for the proper administration of the Office of Dropout Prevention and any other regulations or policies that may be adopted by the State Board of Education. The director shall report to the Legislature on the activities and programs of the office by January 1 of each year beginning in 2009.
(3) Each school district shall implement a dropout prevention program approved by the Office of Dropout Prevention of the State Department of Education by the 2008-2009 school year.
(4) (a) School attendance officers, working with school district officials, shall gather accurate data on youth in juvenile detention centers to properly track students.
(b) The Office of Dropout Prevention in the Department of Education shall establish the procedure for the tracking of students who enter and leave detention centers on a statewide basis.
(5) Each school district's dropout prevention plan shall address how students will transition to the home school district.
(6) It is the intent of the Legislature that, through the statewide dropout prevention program and the dropout prevention programs implemented by each school district, the graduation rate for cohort classes will be increased to not less than eighty-five percent (85%) by the 2018-2019 school year. The Office of Dropout Prevention shall establish graduation rate benchmarks for each two-year period from the 2008-2009 school year through the 2018-2019 school year, which shall serve as guidelines for increasing the graduation rate for cohort classes on a systematic basis to eighty-five percent (85%) by the 2018-2019 school year.
Sources: Laws, 2006, ch. 504, § 6; Laws, 2007, ch. 568, § 3; reenacted without change, Laws, 2009, ch. 345, § 14, eff from and after June 30, 2009.