A path to success opens quietly for dropouts

It's a big boost for a city with one of the highest dropout rates in the country.

The Philadelphia School District yesterday threw open the doors of its new Re-Engagement Center, a one-stop spot that matches students who have left school with appropriate programs and services and provides support after they enroll.

Housed in the district's North Broad Street headquarters, the center has shepherded nearly 200 students back to school since it quietly began operating in May. It can serve up to 1,200 students.

At any time, about 30,000 students who should be in high school are on Philadelphia streets, officials said.

Staffed by district and city personnel, the center not only focuses on academics, but also connects students with the social and emotional services whose absence might have caused them to leave school in the first place.

Once placed, students get 120 days of monitoring from a center staffer.

The office was begun with government and nonprofit donations, and the district has set aside $300,000 annually in permanent funding.

"It's going to make a difference," said Larhonda McCoy, a 20-year-old who dropped out and found it difficult to find the right placement. "People like me deserve a second chance."

The city's dropout rate is among the highest in the nation - about 8,000 Philadelphia students leave school every year, and roughly 5,000 more attend less than half of the time.

News of the Re-Engagement Center comes as Philadelphia Police Commissioner Charles H. Ramsey and District Attorney Lynne M. Abraham will today tout prekindergarten programs as a long-term way to fight violent crime in the city.

Increasing graduation rates by 10 percentage points will prevent 75 homicides in Philadelphia and 150 in Pennsylvania every year, according to a study by Invest in Kids Pennsylvania, a statewide crime-fighting group.

Since the landmark Johns Hopkins/Project U-Turn study detailing the dropout crisis was released two years ago, the district has received grants to help stem the tide. It has doubled the number of seats in accelerated programs and added a program at Community College of Philadelphia to help dropouts earn diplomas and college credits simultaneously.

Though the efforts are a good first effort, "we obviously need more seats," said Courtney Collins-Shapiro, the district's director of Multiple Pathways to Graduation. "There's a waiting list at most of our schools."

Since 2006, more than 1,800 dropouts have returned to school. But district officials quickly discovered they didn't have the support they needed to help all the students they need to.

"Now, you can come in, we can figure out where you are in reading, whether you need social-support services, whether you need child care," said Collins-Shapiro.

Rather than the forbidding system McCoy found, Collins-Shapiro promises "the Nordstrom of student services. Every young person is going to be greeted with a smile and treated like the adults they are."

Citywide partnerships are a big boon, officials said. Employees from the Philadelphia Youth Network and the Philadelphia Departments of Human Services and Behavioral Health work on-site, as do student peer advisers.

There's a bank of computers for assessing where students are scholastically, and a waiting room with comfy furniture and artwork chosen by students. With no advertising, the center has helped nearly 200 students return to school since opening in May.

Lori Shorr, the city's chief education officer, hailed the center's work. Mayor Nutter has named reducing the dropout rate by 50 percent within five to seven years and doubling the percent of those who finish college as two of his biggest priorities, Shorr reminded those gathered to celebrate the new office.

"As a city, we are not going to be able to get where we need to go without fixing this problem," Shorr said. "The message that 30,000 kids on the street today need to hear is: We've created a place for you. We're not going to say, 'Here's a phone number, now go away.' "

That's good news for Victalicia Rodriguez, who left Edison High in ninth grade after growing disenchanted with an overcrowded, impersonal high school.

One year, she attended just 18 days of school.

She righted herself with the help of a cousin who successfully reenrolled in high school, and now Rodriguez, 17, is a star student at Fairhill Community High School, on track to graduate and enter nursing school.

She's excited at the thought of other students like her getting back on track.

"This is a necessary program for Philadelphia," Rodriguez said. "Just imagine how many young adults need a hand to move forward."