BRANDYWINE (CBS) — Delaware County, Pa. is taking on the problem of high school dropouts, in a two-day forum at the Brandywine campus of Penn State University.

It’s thought there are some 3,700 dropouts throughout the county between the ages of 16 and 24. Not only are they unattractive to potential employers, they’re a drain on county resources.

Frank Carey, executive director of Delaware County’s Workforce Investment Board, says the idea here is to give these young people viable options:

“This is not a sharing-of-experiences type of activity. This is more along the lines of creating an action plan we can put out into the commuity.”

Parents, educators, business leaders, and others will work on two fronts. One, trying to keep kids in school if they’re already there.
And for those who are not, developing plans to either get them back into the classroom or get them better training for the jobs they might not otherwise qualify for.

Reported by: David Madden, KYW Newsradio