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Since the Massachusetts Compulsory Education Law of 1642, the nature of the public secondary school student body has undergone .widespread changes. Public education has broadened its base to include all educable students of school age. Attendance problems seemed to have increased with compulsory education. In the past, assumptions based upon limited observation have been drawn by educators concerning the individual students who constitute this attendance problem group. Since no specific study of attendance conditions existed for the Kern County Union High School District, this investigation has undertaken to meet that need.

This investigation of the Opportunity Class is to evaluate, compare, and derive, if possible, a method of relating to high school students with problems that affect their school attendance. Is the use of “reality therapy” as a counseling method helpful in aiding the student to establish a dialogue with his frustration and control his response to the stimulus causing his truant behavior?

The problem for the study of Corcoran Joint Union High School can be stated in its simplest form with three closely related questions: Why did the students drop out? Where are they living now? What are they doing now? Until these questions can be answered, until the various causes of drop-outs can be determined, little or beneficial changes can be made either in or out of schools to solve the problem or, at least, alleviate the tendency for students to leave high school before graduation. The problem which this particular study has attempted to solve is to determine why high school students dropped out of Corcoran Joint Union High School last year. This study attempts to answer what these drop-out students are doing now, where they are now living, and if school helped them in their present work.