Re-enrolling students is the easy part — getting them to graduation day is the real challenge

Cumberland County, N.C. school officials have a lot of work ahead of them as they try to find and re-enroll more than 600 high school dropouts. We can say from experience, though, that the efforts are well worth it.

A lot of effort goes into keeping students in school — and too little energy is spent trying to get students back into school once they've dropped out. So when we reach out to dropouts on behalf of school districts across the country, we find that many are shocked to learn that someone still cares about their education — and having experienced life as a dropout, many are eager to get started again.

That makes re-enrolling students a relatively easy endeavor.

The hard part is confronting the issues that led these students to drop out in the first place. That includes housing, safety, child care, food assistance and education-friendly job placement. It also includes giving students the flexibility, accountability and support they need to finish their studies in spite of their individual obstacles.

We applaud Cumberland County's efforts and wish them — and especially their students — the best of luck.

Gregg Rosann and Rebekah Richards are president and chief academic officer, respectively, of The American Academy, which works with school districts nationwide to help dropouts complete their high school educations. For more information on The American Academy and its services, visit NoDropouts.com