Dropouts from rural school districts have not received the same scrutiny as given to those from urban ones. The reasons behind this lack of knowledge about the experience of rural school districts with dropouts are unclear. The purpose of the present study was to begin to close this knowledge gap. A first major study of rural dropouts in the United States has been done here in Colorado to help in planning for different kinds of programs and services needed in much of the state. This study used both quantitative and qualitative research methods. The former methods were used to compare dropout rates of rural and urban school districts and to select a sample of rural districts whose dropout rates were above and below average state dropout rates. The qualitative aspects of the study involved phone interviews with key informants in each of these rural districts. Authors identified five school districts in Colorado that were judged to be performing the best with respect to dropout rates and five districts judged to be performing the worst. These districts were dispersed throughout the state with no obvious geographical pattern. The authors spoke to key informants in these districts about their districts' experience with dropouts. The authors learned from this study that rural school districts have the lowest dropout rates of the five categories of schools identified by the Colorado Department of Education. They also learned that these rates are not correlated with such demographic factors as race or ethnicity, first language; not correlated with factors such as migrant status, mobility, or homelessness, nor are they correlated to student variables such as special education status, free and reduced lunch, and unrelated to district data as teacher and administrator turnover rates, teaching experience, teacher salaries, school revenue, or district expenditures. Appended are: (1) School Variable studied; and (2) Interview Questions. (Contains 3 figures, 5 tables, and 3 footnotes.)