Dropout recovery charter doesn't have space to meet demand

"Since he dropped out of high school at 17, Frederick Dixson has wanted to continue his education," writes Sarah Butrymowicz of The Hechinger Report. 

"Intermittently homeless, unemployed and locked up, he's struggled in a variety of programs for dropouts. Now 22, Dixson thinks he's finally found a way to graduate. The only catch is that too many other dropouts are thinking the same thing."

About 800 students are waiting for a spot in a classroom at Excel Center, a dropout recovery charter school that opened this fall in Indianapolis.

Dixson is number 104 on the waiting list.

"The center, operated by Goodwill Education Initiatives, set its enrollment at 200 students, then increased it to 300. But that isn't enough," Butrymowicz writes. "More than 1,000 dropouts of all ages have applied, and the applications keep coming."

Editor's note: While brick and mortar charters like the program described in this article are one answer to the dropout crisis, the hundreds-long waiting list makes it clear that no one answer is enough. With demand for dropout recovery services so clearly exceeding supply, school administrators will have to look to other programs to help these students. One suggestion: online academies that specialize in dropout recovery. (Full disclosure: This blog is sponsored by The American Academy, which partners with school districts nationwide to re-enroll dropouts through online programs.) 

These programs have a few added benefits over brick and mortar schools: Most notably they allow students to "attend" school 24 hours a day, 7 days a week — permitting students who can't attend school during daytime hours to continue their studies. That's an important distinction, because most dropouts don't leave school because of academics. Many have the grades to continue — particularly if they have access to caring and supportive adults — but are pushed out by other factors: They become a parent, they must work to support a sick family member, they are fearful of gangs and bullies, etc.

These students are "pushouts" as much as they are "dropouts" and they deserve as many opportunities to complete high school as we can provide to them (and preferably, without having to wait for years on a list.)