Bell

A $1-million dropout prevention program for Bell High School and 11 other high schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District has been proposed for adoption by the school board Monday, district officials said.

If adopted, the program would assign a team of counselors and psychologists to work at the 12 high schools with the highest dropout rates with the aim of helping 50 to 100 students stay in school at each site.

The proposal comes on the heels of a survey of nearly 5,000 administrators, teachers, parents and students and interviews with 370 recent high school dropouts to determine why students drop out of school.

Based on district data comparing the number of students entering school in the 10th grade to the number graduating from the same school in the 12th grade, the study found an average attrition rate of 42% in the district for the past three years. About 18,000 students leave Los Angeles schools without diplomas every year, the study found. The attrition rate for 10th-graders at Bell High School was estimated at 53%.

While it is the most accurate data on dropouts available to the district, the attrition rate does not take into account students who transfer to other schools or districts, officials said.