On January 26, Governor Steve Beshear, First Lady Jane Beshear and Kentucky Department of Education Commissioner Terry Holliday gathered to praise local boards of education across Kentucky and celebrate a statewide increase in the compulsory school attendance age.

Senate Bill 97 (2013), also known as the “Graduate Kentucky” bill, cleared the way for each school district to adopt a policy raising the dropout age from 16 to 18, amending the school attendance law created in 1934. The board of education in all 173 school districts in the state have now approved such a policy.

“The time when a student could drop out of high school and find a dependable, good-paying job is long gone,” said Gov. Beshear. “It only makes sense that if we want students to be successful after graduation from high school, they need to stay in school long enough to gain the skills and knowledge they will need for college, career and to become a productive resident of our state.”

Keeping students in school creates significant benefits not only for the students themselves, but also for the communities where they live. Economists predict that if the high school dropouts of 2009 had graduated, the Kentucky economy would have realized an additional $4.2 billion in wages over those students’ lifetimes.

In addition, research shows that high school graduates live longer, are less likely to be teen parents, and are more likely to raise healthier, better-educated children. High school graduates are also less likely to commit crimes, rely on government healthcare or use other public services.

Clinton County Schools Director of Pupil Personnel Julie York discussed the new Graduate Kentucky law and the positive effects it could have on education for all students in Clinton County.

The Clinton County Board of Education approved the policy increasing the local drop-out age from 16 to 18 last year and the new compulsory age limit will take effect with the next, 2015-16, school year. A few other states also have higher drop-out age limits and York noted that Commissioner Holliday has been pressing for such a change for some time.

The Kentucky Department of Education provided each district with a $10,000 grant to plan for implementation of the higher drop out age.

Those grant funds in Clinton County were used primarily to fund a mentoring program called “check and connect,” which focuses on dropout prevention for at-risk kids in grades K-12, plus some other related smaller incentives, York noted. “We help set up the program to support at risk students and put most of the resources on personnel to provide more one-on-one student to adult teaching intervention, she added.

York said the new Graduate Kentucky initiative would help put more focus on at-risk students and keep more students in school to earn a diploma. “It will better prepare and better educate students to enter into the work force,” she said.

On the issue of keeping students who may have wanted to drop out earlier in school the additional two years, York said the district would identify at risk kids and provide support, with the use of the Youth Services Center at the high school as well and do such things as extend the co-op program, provide after school support services, targeted intervention during school days, among others.

The local DPP also sees the new law as helping to improve both the high school graduation rates as well as the percentage of students who reach the college-career readiness levels, both of which have already been improving over the years both statewide and in the local district.

“It sets a higher standard,” said York. “It almost takes the term ‘drop-out’ from the educational vocabulary, as the school district will be able to instruct students at all levels up to graduation.”

The Clinton County graduation rate last year was 82.6 percent and the career and college readiness rate was above the state average standing at 74.8 percent.

“This is truly a great day for our students and the Commonwealth of Kentucky,” said Mrs. Beshear. “We have worked with legislators and education leaders for more than seven years to promote the passage of the Graduate Kentucky bill and are thrilled that statewide implementation of this long-overdue policy finally is at hand.”

“This is the right thing for Kentucky students,” said Commissioner Holliday. “But for the true impact to be felt, we cannot simply warehouse these students in classrooms until they turn 18. Our schools must engage these students, to connect academic content to real-world skills and opportunities, to find out what students are passionate about and as one of our educators put it, ‘to help them connect school work to a skill set that gives meaning to their goals and dreams.’”

It is expected that the higher compulsory school attendance age will help drive up Kentucky’s already high graduation rate. According to the National Center for Education Statistics, for the 2012-13 school year, Kentucky had the fourth highest graduation rate in the county at 86 percent, placing Kentucky as tied for ninth-highest among all states. The most recent date from the 2013-14 school year shows Kentucky’s graduation rate improved to 87.5 percent. In recent years, the state also has increased the college/career-readiness rate of its students, which now stands at 62.4 percent, up from 34 percent in 2010.

“Our goal is for every one of our students to graduate from high school ready for college, career and life,” Holliday said.