Preventing early school leaving: risk factors, effective interventions and policies

Preventing early school leaving represents a key priority in European and Italian policy. The Council Resolution 2021/C 66/01 established a target of reducing school dropout below 9% by 2030, while Italy’s National Recovery and Resilience Plan (PNRR, 2021) highlighted dropout reduction and educational poverty prevention as strategic objectives within Mission 4 and Mission 5. With Italy’s current dropout rate at 13.1%, significantly above EU targets, addressing this issue is crucial given its documented individual, social, and economic consequences (European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice/Cedefop, 2014). The general objective of this panel aimed to focus on three areas related to the phenomenon of early school leaving: investigations of risk factors; evaluations of interventions; and analyses of international, national, and local policies.