LAURINBURG — Scotland County is one of six districts in the state to see a significant decrease in the number of high school drop outs over the last three years.
Scotland County had 28 drop outs last year in grades 9-13, a rate of 1.6 percent, according to the North Carolina State Board of Education’s unofficial consolidated report of report of drop outs, suspensions and crimes reported in schools for the 2016-17 school year released earlier this week.
The N.C. Board of Education defines a dropout as “any student who leaves school for any reason before graduation or completion of a program of studies without transferring to another elementary or secondary school.”
For the 2016-17 school year, high schools in North Carolina reported 11,097 dropouts a rate of 2.31 percent an increase from the 2.29 percent reported in 2015-16.
The five other districts that saw significant decreases in the drop-out rate were New Hanover at 1.48 percent, Rockingham County at 2.16 percent, Harnett at 2.53, Stanly at 1.64 and Nash-Rocky Mount at 3.06.
Jamie Syan, director of School Support Services, presented the information to the Scotland County Board of Education during their Committee of the Whole meeting.
“We reported 28 students, the rate was 1.6, which is the lowest it has been in the history of DPI calculating the data,” said Syan. “The other highlight is that we are lowest in our region. It’s something our team has worked really hard to make sure that we continue to decrease that drop-out rate and we’re on track to do that.”
In comparison, Moore County had one of the largest three-year increases in drop-out rates, according to the report. Moore County had 95 students drop out in 2016-17, a 15.9 percent increase from the 2015-16 school year when 82 drop outs were reported.
Syan said the district has put numerous processes and procedures in place to decrease the number of local drop outs using multiple different forms of data to determine the students that are most at risk.
“We have on-track progress teams that meet every week at Shaw Academy and Scotland High School — made up of school-based mental health counselors, social workers, school counselors and administration,” she said. “We talk to those students who are missing a lot of days, at risk of failing a class or students that have multiple behavior referrals and put a plan in place for those students before they say, ‘I’m done and I’m dropping out.’”
The other thing Syan said that made a difference was over the summer members of the district’s cabinet and superintendent Ron Hargrave were assigned two or three students who had dropped out or were at risk of dropping out and went to their homes to find ways to get them to come back to school.
“You are all to be commended for the decrease and the improvement we have made year after year,” said board member Jamie Sutherland. “We constantly hear all the negative and bad and how we can improve and I understand that 28 is too many. Someone has to acknowledge that we are moving in the right direction in this school system and that doesn’t happen enough.”
Board chair Dr. Summer Woodside and vice chair Rick Singletary echoed Sutherland’s sentiment and congratulated those involved for making a positive change in the lives of the children in the county.
“These are some things that have never been done in our district, that I’m aware of, and it’s really exciting to see these numbers and this improvement on behalf of our students,” said Woodside.
Scotland also saw decreases in the number of reportable crimes and suspensions and expulsions. The schools had 10 reportable crimes for a rate of 6.01 percent, a one percent decrease from 2015-16 school year when the schools had 12 reportable crimes.
Scotland County had zero long-term suspensions in 2016-17 and reported 445 short-term suspensions for a rate of just under 27 percent — a nearly seven percent decrease from 2014-15 school year when the school reported 601 incidents.
“The number reported is not the number of students that were suspended, it’s the number of incidents,” said Syan. “The suspension center at Shaw has helped us reduce our suspensions and allow students to continue getting their education.”
The report remains unofficial until the state board gives its final approval during its next meeting.
Amber Hatten-Staley can be reached at 910-506-3170 or ahatten@laurinburgexch.wpenginepowered.com.
