This book by practitioners, policy analysts, and young people, for practitioners, policy makers, and researchers, captures up-to-the-moment experience and as yet unresolved issues in a newly emerging field: dropout reengagement. Key elements in this field include reaching out to young people who have left school for a myriad of reasons, and providing individualized supports and services all the way through to successful re-enrollment.

The development of coordinated citywide efforts to re-engage out-of-school youth on positive educational pathways – in several dozen cities in recent years – spurred the effort to
document practice and policy. Readers will come away with an understanding of results to date, as well as a sense of the variety and continuous improvement and innovation underway.

This book describes the impressive early accomplishments of reengagement efforts in several cities, provides practical advice from a variety of perspectives for those seeking to launch or formalize local reengagement programs, and describes how reengagement at scale could help solve the crisis of unfulfilled potential represented in America’s millions of young people without high school credentials.