For many years, the Catholic school system within the United States was considered the preeminent educational institution, particularly for poor and marginalized students that live in low income, inner city areas. Now, given the large number of school closures, the Catholic school system's long-standing goal of educating economically disadvantaged…

Although the Illinois school attendance statute does not allow youth to drop out of school before the age of 16 years, many of the students listed as chronic truants are actually dropouts. Computer analyses of school records in the Chicago Public Schools were conducted to assess the number of eighth graders who never entered ninth grade. Later,…