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Abstract

School building leaders have the potential to play a considerable role in dropout prevention. The purpose of this exploratory study was to have school building leaders from two Midwestern districts identify actions and barriers to preventing the dropout of students with disabilities. School building leaders participated in individual interviews, a focus group, and member checking. Inductive thematic analysis revealed a hierarchical coding structure that included six categories, 11 main themes, and several in vivo codes. School building leaders primarily reported actions specific to school level academic supports. Barriers originated from within and outside the school environment, and students’/families’/educators’ behaviors/beliefs.

Keywords

dropout school building leaders students with disabilities actions barriers

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