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Oregon Senate Passes Bill to Help Transient High Schoolers Graduate

File photo of the Oregon Senate chamber
Cacophony
/
Wikimedia
File photo of the Oregon Senate chamber

The Oregon Senate passed a bill Tuesday that will make graduation easier for students who are homeless, in foster care or come from military families. The bill passed unanimously and is on its way to Gov. Kate Brown.

The state requires high schoolers in Oregon to obtain 24 credits to graduate, but Sen. Michael Dembrow, a Portland Democrat, said some schools tack on additional requirements, and that complicates things for kids who move around a lot.

Dembrow cited, “Foster children, homeless children, children who have run away from home, children in military families, children of migrant workers or children enrolled in the youth corrections education program or juvenile detention education program.”

Dembrow told colleagues the bill is unlikely to improve the state’s graduation rates, because the number of students affected is small. The bill includes kids who attend charter schools.

Copyright 2017 Northwest News Network

Emily Schwing
Emily Schwing comes to the Inland Northwest by way of Alaska, where she covered social and environmental issues with an Arctic spin as well as natural resource development, wildlife management and Alaska Native issues for nearly a decade. Her work has been heard on National Public Radio’s programs like “Morning Edition” and “All things Considered.” She has also filed for Public Radio International’s “The World,” American Public Media’s “Marketplace,” and various programs produced by the BBC and the CBC. She has also filed stories for Scientific American, Al Jazeera America and Arctic Deeply.