children out of school in america - University of Tennessee Digital ...

CDF Survey of Children Out of School
In our own door-to-door survey we knocked on
more than 8,500 doors and obtained interviews in
over 6,500 households in 30 areas around the country,l1
We visited at least every fourth household in
the areas surveyed, gathering information on all children
between the ages of 6 through 17 living in each
household,12 Information on a sample of 7,483
children was collected, accounting for 21,644 children
ages 6 to 17 in the areas surveyed,
We first analyzed our survey data according to the
Census definition of nonenrollment: three or more
consecutive months out of school. Table VIII shows
the percent of children out of school in our survey
areas based on this definition. But we believed this
definition was too narrow and did not include the
broad range of children we found out of school. We
therefore reanalyzed our data on the basis of children
who had missed 45 or more days (which in
most places is one-quarter of the school year),
whether or not the days were missed consecutively,
but who were out of school less than three consecutive
months. Table IX presents these percentages.
Table X is the sum of Tables VIII and IX, i.e., children
out of school 45 or more days.
Though this is still conservative, it is evident that
there is a severe problem of children out of school.
We found 5.4 percent of children 6 through 17 years
old out of school 45 or more days. We found 19.6
percent of 16 and 17 year olds out of school 45 or
more days. See Table XII for those areas with more
than 25 percent of their 16 and 17 year olds out of
school.
Table XI ranks all 30 areas surveyed by the total
percentage of children found out of school. In 13
of the 30, over 5 percent of all children were out of
school 45 or more days.
11 Specifically, we visited parts of Autauga County and
Montgomery, Alabama; Denver, Colorado; Hancock
County and Macon, Georgia; Davenport, Iowa; Floyd
County, Kentucky; Portland, Maine; Cambridge, Holyoke,
New Bedford, Somerville and Springfield, Massachusetts;
Columbia and Sumter County, South Carolina; and'Wash·
ington, D.C. For a more detailed description of the areas,
the numbers of households, persons and school-age children
surveyed, see Appendix A.
12 The methodology CDP used in its survey is outlined in
Appendix A.
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