TO RECOGNIZE GRADUATE SC AND ITS GOAL OF INCREASING AWARENESS OF HIGH SCHOOL DROPOUTS AND OF PREVENTING HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS FROM DROPPING OUT IN THE FUTURE AND TO PROCLAIM THE SECOND WEEK OF SEPTEMBER 2015 AS "GRADUATION AWARENESS WEEK OF 2015".

Whereas, more than 1.2 million students in the United States (approximately seven thousand students per day) drop out of high school every year; and

Whereas, roughly seventy-five percent of students in South Carolina actually graduate from high school; and

Whereas, seventy-five percent of state prison inmates and fifty-nine percent of federal prison inmates are high school dropouts; and

Whereas, South Carolina's children are faced with incredible obstacles to learning because one in three children will grow up in poverty; and

Whereas, in South Carolina, only one-third of high school students will graduate on time, and absent awareness and action, that number is not expected to increase; and

Whereas, South Carolina should have a program designed to help raise awareness of high school drop-out rates and to lower the drop-out rate; and

Whereas, GradUate SC, a program established by the Leadership South Carolina Class of 2015 in conjunction with key partners, seeks to raise awareness regarding dropouts in South Carolina by: informing the business community about its role in both providing jobs and helping decrease the drop-out rate; educating middle school and high school students about how they can stay in school and why they should earn a high school diploma; and encouraging legislators to affect change in public policy for drop-out prevention. Now, therefore,

Be it resolved by the Senate:

That the members of the Senate, by this resolution, recognize GradUate SC and its goal of increasing awareness of high school dropouts and of preventing high school students from dropping out in the future and proclaim the second week of September 2015 as "Graduation Awareness Week of 2015".

Be it further resolved that a copy of this resolution be forwarded to Leadership South Carolina.