Charles Terrett, superintendent of Fulton County Schools in Hickman, Kentucky, describes how his school district set out to collaborate with different agencies in the community to deter the student dropout rate. Excerpted from the video series Schools That Work: The Research Advantage, videoconference #8, Integrating Community Services, (NCREL, 1992).
"You know the kid dropping out of school is not necessarily just a problem with that kid. There are circumstances of culture, environment, economics, family attitudes that cause kids to drop out, so maybe what we'd better do is to look at the family and focus on the needs of the family, and with that concept with the school administrators of Fulton county, I guess the idea of our concept of Kentucky integrated delivery of services, the kids project began. And we met with the agencies and we sat down and we talked about well we can't do this and we can't do that. And we finally said, wait a minute, we've been focused on what we can't do, let's focus on what we can do. What can we do as a group that won't violate your rights to privacy or anyone else's rights to privacy, but can focus on the needs of the family, and once we made that turn and started focusing on the can dos, then the collaborative agreement came together."
Date posted: 1996