Facts about Dropping Out of School

The choices that you make right now can drastically impact the rest of your life.

If you choose to stay in school now, it will be:

• Easier for you to find work
• You will be more likely to enjoy the work you do
• You will earn more money
• You will be more likely to buy a car or rent an apartment

How Much Money Will You Earn?

• High school dropouts are four times as likely to be unemployed as those who have completed four or more years of college.
  • In 2001, 55 percent of young adult dropouts were employed, compared to 74 percent of high-school graduates and 87 percent of college graduates.
    
    
• Graduating from high school will determine how well you live for the next 50 years of your life.
  • High school graduates earn $143 more per week than high school dropouts.
  • College graduates earn $336 more per week than high school graduates ($479 more per week than high school dropouts).

What Will Be Your Quality of Life?

• Dropouts are more likely to apply for and receive public assistance than graduates of high school.
  
  
• Dropouts comprise a disproportionate percentage of the nation's prison and death row inmates.
  • 82 percent of prisoners in America are high school dropouts.
    
    
• Dropouts live on the average 9.2 years less than someone with a high school diploma.
  
  
• 74 percent of students who had dropped out of school said that if they were able to relive the experience, they would have stayed in school. Can you blame them?

Statistical Information taken from:
National Dropout Prevention Center/Network
Newsvine - The Cost of Dropouts
The Silent Epidemic Report

The Office of Dropout Prevention and Recovery can help you find the school and the resources that will help you meet your goals. We can connect you to many educational options from alternative settings, an adult high school, online programs, community colleges, career programs, and to the GED.