State Reports Slight Decline in County’s Dropout Rate : Education: Only Santa Ana Unified registers fewer students leaving school than statewide average. Officials credit programs.

A slightly lower percentage of Orange County students are dropping out of school, as local school districts continue to boost efforts to keep students in school, according to state dropout figures released Tuesday.

During the 1993-94 school year, 3.2% of Orange County’s 116,615 students in grades 9 through 12 left school without completing their senior year or re-enrolling elsewhere. That translates to a four-year dropout rate of about 13%.

But the 1993-94 figure represents a decline from 3.5% during the 1992-93 school year and from 3.7% the previous year, figures show.

Every school district in the county, except for Santa Ana Unified, registered fewer dropouts than the statewide average. In Santa Ana, the dropout figure was 7.8%, which is a drop from 9.1% the previous year.

“I think the numbers are declining because we’re developing a lot more alternative programs,” said Georgiann Boyd, coordinator of student services for the Orange County Office of Education. “Very exciting and creative programs are taking place throughout the county that help identify kids who are at risk of dropping out.”

Last year, the Garden Grove Unified School District began working with the city’s Police Department and Orange County Youth and Family Services to help reduce the number of truants.

When police officers spot youths on the street during school hours, they bring them to the district’s truant center at Lake High School, where the students work with counselors, said Ron Forsyth, director of student services at the Garden Grove school district.

“Continued truancy contributes to the dropout rate because kids who don’t come to school get behind in their schoolwork and sometimes drop out,” Forsyth said. “The key to reducing the dropout rate is to make it a community effort. Separate agencies should work together to solve problems.”

Statewide, 4.9% of the 1.4 million ninth through 12th graders dropped out, which is slightly less than the previous year’s figure.

As in previous years, the state report revealed significant differences in the dropout rates among whites and minorities. About one third of black students and 28% of Latino students fail to stay until graduation day, while about 10% of Asian students and 12% of white students drop out in high school, the report said.

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Class Acts

Overall, Orange County’s school districts have seen decreases in annual dropout rates. Figures are percentage of total students:

School District 1991-92 1992-93 1993-94 Anaheim Union High 3.4% 3.0% 3.7% Brea Olinda Unified 1.3 1.9 1.3 Capistrano Unified 2.3 1.4 1.1 Fullerton Joint Union High 2.8 2.3 1.5 Garden Grove Unified 5.4 3.1 2.3 Huntington Beach Union High 2.4 2.7 2.8 Irvine Unified 3.1 .8 .7 Laguna Beach Unified 1.6 1.5 1.0 Los Alamitos Unified 3.0 2.2 2.0 Newport-Mesa Unified 2.6 3.2 3.6 Orange Unified 5.1 4.7 3.5 Placentia-Yorba Linda Unified 1.2 2.6 .8 Saddleback Valley Unified 2.0 1.8 1.5 Santa Ana Unified 7.0 9.1 7.8 Tustin Unified 2.4 2.3 1.9 County total 3.7% 3.5% 3.2%

Source: State Department of Education