This report provides information on the high school dropout rate and the number of students who drop out of the Wake County Public School System (WCPSS), North Carolina. The high school dropout rate during 1999-2000 in the WCPSS was 4.1% (2.7% for grades 7 through 12), the lowest since the start of annual reporting by the WCPSS. The WCPSS dropout rate has declined steadily from 1994 to 2000, a decline interrupted in the 1998-1999 school year, the year that students going directly to junior or community college general equivalency diploma (GED) programs began to be included as dropouts. The decrease in dropouts in the Wake County schools corresponded to a decrease across the state. The sharpest decline was for African American students, a drop from 5.4% to 4.4%. Since 1994-1995, the dropout rate for African American students has fallen nearly three full percentage points, and a decline in dropout rate was evident for all minority groups. Each year since 1991-1992, the largest proportion of dropouts had been in the ninth grade. Nearly 40% of all dropouts (1,098 students in 1999-2000) are ninth grade students. The 438 dropouts from the ninth grade represented 5.2% of the WCPSS ninth grade population. Data suggest that the dropout pattern among ninth graders may be more persistent and harder to change than that of other grades. Of the ninth grade dropouts, 66% were age 16 or older, and the most common reason students are older than their grade level is retention in a prior grade. Poor attendance was cited as the reason for 72% of all dropouts, but poor attendance is likely to be a symptom of more specific issues as well as the reason given in cases in which school officials do not know why the student dropped out. Academic problems were reported as the reason for 7% of the dropouts, down six percentage points from the previous year. Attachments include an overall high school dropout summary and summaries for the system's individual high schools. (Contains 10 figures.) (SLD)