Despite policy efforts at the state and federal levels, the school dropout rate for students in the United States is estimated at a staggering 500,000-to-1,000,000 children and youth per year. And while school social workers and other professionals working with truancy and school dropout issues are well positioned to offer assistance as Dropout Prevention Specialists (DPSs), an overwhelming number of those who fill such roles go vastly undertrained and underprepared for the demands they face. Authored by a nationally leading specialist in dropout prevention, this workbook serves as a how-to guide for those in the helping professions who serve in an intervention or dropout-prevention capacity. Specifically, it guides readers through useful resources that address the varied and intersecting causes of student dropout while providing real-life anecdotal experience from the author's five-plus decades in the field. As school districts across the country continue to adopt DPSs in their schools, The Dropout Prevention Specialist Workbook aims to meet the demand of training and preparing them for the future while clearly defining needs of the work ahead.

""This workbook is intended for School Social Workers and others who find themselves in positions either in a school, or school district, working in the area of attendance improvement and dropout prevention and recovery. It is intended as a practical guide to going about actually doing this complex, multi-faceted, and very important job. Many books and articles have been written regarding why students drop out of school, along with numerous suggestions of how to address this nationwide problem, but none to the best of my knowledge have provided direction to actually going into a school and starting to tackle this challenging problem.""--