Fulton High School Principal Jason Whitt had good news to share with the school board at its regular meeting Wednesday night: The school's application to the Missouri Graduation Matters Project has been approved.
The program will be a joint effort between the district, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the National Dropout Prevention Center for Students with Disabilities. Graduation Matters will provide training - at no cost to the district - to Fulton staff with the aim to use data to help identify risk factors within the community and help students with disabilities to be successful.
"The training (the program provides) will help more students not only graduate, but graduate on time, with their cohort class," Whitt said. "What it'll do is decrease dropout rates. It helps our school accountability and prevents students from dropping out."
The training is intended to increase educators' awareness and understanding of dropout and its effects on students with disabilities and identify effective practices designed to increase student engagement, family engagement and school completion.