Helping Young People Reconnect With School

Across the coun­try, school sys­tems are work­ing to reen­gage young peo­ple who have left school or stopped attend­ing reg­u­lar­ly. A new report by Edu­ca­tion North­west, Effec­tive Pro­gram Fea­tures and Prac­tices for Reen­gag­ing Young Adults, high­lights promis­ing strate­gies from two school dis­tricts that are help­ing young peo­ple resume their edu­ca­tion and make progress toward their goals.

Sup­port­ed by the Annie E. Casey Foun­da­tion, the report focus­es on pro­grams that help young peo­ple recon­nect with school, or pur­sue a GED or career path­way, after they have stopped par­tic­i­pat­ing in tra­di­tion­al school set­tings. These pro­grams are often based on reen­gage­ment cen­ters — wel­com­ing, flex­i­ble spaces that pro­vide per­son­al­ized sup­port, one-on-one guid­ance and con­nec­tions to oth­er services.

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This lat­est report builds on Effec­tive Approach­es to Reen­gag­ing Young Adults, a 2023 pub­li­ca­tion that exam­ined the goals, the­o­ries of change, prac­tices and expe­ri­ences of young peo­ple in diverse reen­gage­ment pro­grams. Both reports were pro­duced by Edu­ca­tion North­west, a Port­land, Oregon–based non­prof­it that pro­vides research, eval­u­a­tion and pro­fes­sion­al devel­op­ment to pub­lic, pri­vate and com­mu­ni­ty-based organizations.

Why Stu­dents Dis­en­gage and How Pro­grams Can Respond

Stu­dents stop par­tic­i­pat­ing in school for a vari­ety of rea­sons, includ­ing men­tal health con­cerns, hous­ing insta­bil­i­ty, care­giv­ing respon­si­bil­i­ties and the need to work. In one dis­trict high­light­ed in this report, low atten­dance account­ed for about 20% of reen­gage­ment refer­rals, while men­tal health con­cerns account­ed for 15%.

These chal­lenges inten­si­fied dur­ing the COVID-19 pan­dem­ic, when the num­ber of young peo­ple dis­con­nect­ed from both school and work rose sharply to 4.6 mil­lion by 2021. Address­ing the needs of these young peo­ple requires sus­tained atten­tion and invest­ment in pro­grams built to sup­port them. The report’s action­able insights for edu­ca­tors, dis­trict lead­ers and com­mu­ni­ty part­ners reflect the day-to-day real­i­ties of young peo­ple and staff and the impor­tance of design­ing sys­tems that work for all.

“Pro­grams designed with flex­i­bil­i­ty and per­son­al­iza­tion will more effec­tive­ly sup­port stu­dents,” said Bethany Boland of the Casey Foundation’s Research and Eval­u­a­tion team.

Three Things Reen­gage­ment Pro­grams Need

Edu­ca­tion North­west gath­ered infor­ma­tion through inter­views and focus groups with staff mem­bers, par­tic­i­pat­ing young adults and par­ents at two school-dis­trict reen­gage­ment pro­grams in the Pacif­ic North­west. Researchers also col­lect­ed quan­ti­ta­tive dis­trict and pro­gram data. The result­ing report high­lights the cor­ner­stones of suc­cess­ful reen­gage­ment pro­grams, including:

• con­sis­tent, sup­port­ive rela­tion­ships with car­ing adult staff who build trust and help stu­dents nav­i­gate challenges;
• pro­gram flex­i­bil­i­ty, includ­ing rolling enroll­ment and self-paced course­work, which helps reduce bar­ri­ers to par­tic­i­pa­tion; and
• indi­vid­u­al­ized sup­port tai­lored to stu­dents’ aca­d­e­m­ic, social-emo­tion­al and prac­ti­cal needs.

“These fea­tures are espe­cial­ly impor­tant for stu­dents man­ag­ing respon­si­bil­i­ties such as work, care­giv­ing or unsta­ble hous­ing,” said Boland.

Read about a reen­gage­ment pro­gram in Baltimore

The report also notes a com­mon chal­lenge: Rel­e­vant data are not con­sis­tent­ly col­lect­ed or acces­si­ble across orga­ni­za­tions and sys­tems. With­out strong track­ing tools, many pro­grams strug­gle to mon­i­tor stu­dent progress or improve ser­vices in real time.

Rec­om­men­da­tions for Strength­en­ing Reen­gage­ment Efforts

Effec­tive Pro­gram Fea­tures and Prac­tices for Reen­gag­ing Young Adults out­lines sev­er­al actions school sys­tems and com­mu­ni­ty part­ners can take to improve reen­gage­ment services:

• Lead with out­reach. Pro­grams should take respon­si­bil­i­ty for ini­ti­at­ing con­tact with young peo­ple, rather than expect­ing stu­dents or fam­i­lies to find this resource on their own.
• Offer more instruc­tion­al options. A range of learn­ing envi­ron­ments and path­ways can help more stu­dents feel connected.
• Pri­or­i­tize men­tal health ser­vices. Emo­tion­al and psy­cho­log­i­cal well-being is a major dri­ver of dis­en­gage­ment and stu­dents need access to con­sis­tent, cul­tur­al­ly respon­sive support.

“Young peo­ple don’t dis­en­gage with­out rea­son and they come back when they feel seen, sup­port­ed and val­ued,” Boland not­ed. ​“This report high­lights the con­di­tions that make reen­gage­ment more acces­si­ble, respon­sive and relevant.”

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