It never goes unnoticed, that each year, every fall students are gearing up to start once again, a new journey. This is most cases is an exciting time for students. Getting to see all your friends who you didn’t keep in contact with over break, or starting new classes, with new teachers. Most look at it as being one year closer to finishing high school and being done. Once those bells ring, it seems reality then sets in. Along with friends and teachers, comes new subjects and learning something that at often times can be foreign to you. While some keep up with curriculum, there are those who are lost, and start to fall between the cracks. Whether it is from having a difficult time transitioning, or even a lack of engagement, it is all too unnoticed. Children dropping out of high school has been an epidemic for far too long. If a child at the time of dropping out is under the age of eighteen, legally it is not their choice. There are rules in Washington state put in place to ensure that the child stay in school. With their parents support and cooperation, this alone can be done. There are several solutions to help prevent this, which in return will give the child a better chance at the future. There are a number of different reason people continue day after day to end their education and drop out of high school. They may think that they don’t need school to make enough to suffice. Although that may be true, according to statistics, a high school graduate will earn on average 260,000 more in a lifetime then that a person who decides to drop out. Alliance for Excellent Education. Although most don’t take into account the amount of money they will miss out on, they tend to not accept that not only are they costing themselves money, they will most likely cost the united states money too. With lost wages, and the cost of medicare alone, the class of 2010 will amount to the nation losing over 350 billion dollars over a lifetime. Alliance for Excellent Education It is quite frightening to think that is just one graduating class, and it will have such a dramatic impact on the nation as a whole. Although there are several solutions in regards to helping decrease the drop out rate, “Higher expectations and more challenging curriculum” Student dropout retention are not one of them. By raising the bar, to most likely already lost students, we are giving them more of a reason to withdraw. In a classroom full of thirty plus people, nobody wants to be the one to ask the teacher to repeat something, or tell them they are completely lost. There is curriculum put in place, that has been followed year after year, and is unfair for us to expect teacher and/or instructors to conform to every students different form of learning. In the state of Washington there is whats called a Becca Law. A Becca Law is put in place to provide tools for schools, parents and Juvenile Court to keep children in school as well as to hold children and parents accountable to the order of the Court. Becca Law If a child in the state of Washington is continuing to skip school, the school along with the parents or guardian of the child can put the Becca Law into place seeing as the child is under the age of eighteen. This process starts when a child has had more than 5 unexcused absences in a month, or ten in a school year. The school must petition the court, which in return will petition the parents of that child. The state of Washington makes school attendance mandatory for all children from the ages eight to eighteen, unless the parents of the minor agree that the child need not to attend school. This is where the epidemic lies. It seems to be a trickle down effect. The school is doing its job by petitioning the court for the Becca Law which is required by state, but if the parents choose not to engage, it is all for nothing. For parents who are engaged in their child's life, and want the best for them by seeing them graduate, this would in fact be