Embarcadero YMCA

Education for the Next Generation

The San Francisco District Attorney estimates that more than 5,000 students are truant in the San Francisco Unified School district every day, with truancy defined as chronic absence from school for 10% or more of the school year. According to the U.S. Department of Education, truancy is the first indicator that a young person is giving up and losing his or her way. Students with the highest rates of truancy have the lowest academic achievement, greater school discipline histories, and are most at risk of dropping out. In fact, 75% of all chronically truant high school students drop out and have trouble ever gaining a high school diploma. Research from the U.S. Census Bureau indicates that a high school dropout will earn $200,000 less than a high school graduate over his lifetime, and almost a million dollars less than a college graduate. Furthermore, many dropouts may turn to crime, where studies show that 75% of crimes in the U.S. are committed by high school dropouts.

Thankfully, due in part to the emergence of alternative high schools and programs like Youth Chance High School, dropout rates have been decreasing across the country. The U.S. Department of Education reports that the rate has fallen 5% from 2000 to 2015 (10.9% to 5.9%). However, the dropout rates remain higher for African American and Hispanic/Latino youth. Furthermore, the 5.9% dropout rate still equates to over 1.2 million American youth who are not finishing high school. Therefore, in spite of this progress, we are still needlessly losing too much of the talent and potential of our young people to the high school dropout epidemic.

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