Pursuant to Senate Joint Resolution No. 60 which directed the Board of Education to conduct a study of all laws pertaining to compulsory school attendance and related matters, a Committee of diverse membership was appointed and the Committee report was presented to the Board at its meeting in June, 1975.

The Resolution required that the report be submitted to the Governor and General Assembly not later than September l, 1975.

After considerable discussion of the eight recommendations presented in the report, the members concluded that the Committee report should be considered as an interim report and that additional time, at least two years, should be requested so that the report could be evaluated fully and the recommendations considered in terms of the general problem of school attendance and student withdrawal from school. The Board members seem to feel that many recommendations of the report needed to be implemented on a trial basis before consideration could be given to lowering the compulsory school attendance age on a statewide basis. Consequently, motion was made and adopted unanimously that the interim report should be submitted to the Governor and General Assembly and that an additional period of two years be granted in order to make definite recommendations.

Further, by motion made and passed unanimously, it was recommended that legislation be enacted that would allow a locality to reduce the compulsory attendance age to 15 for the next biennium only and that the locality, before lowering the compulsory attendance age, must have developed and submitted for approval by the Board of Education a program indicating how the locality intends to implement reduction of the compulsory school attendance age to 15.

The program which the Board of Education envisions is one that would provide alternative education programs, part-time or evening school education, a report on the availability of jobs, plans for utilization of other youth agencies in the community, and so on.

During the discussion at the Board meetings, it was noted that attention had been directed only to the compulsory school attendance aspect of the report and not to other significant recommendations which necessarily must accompany a reduction in the school attendance age. Consequently, in the months ahead, the Board is hopeful that all concerned will study the entire report so as to understand the rationale supporting the recommendations.

Finally, the Board is aware of much study and work being done in localities throughout the Commonwealth that have a direct bearing on the ·study report. More time will enable the Board to have benefit of the research and findings of the local school divisions.

Respectfully submitted,

W. E. Campbell
Superintendent of Public Instruction