Patterns of Multisystem Service Use and School Dropout Among Seventh-, Eighth-, and Ninth-Grade Students

Youth who receive services from public mental health, child welfare and delinquency, and homeless systems are often exposed to a number of overlapping child, family, school, and community risk factors. Minimal research, however, has focused on the extent to which single- or multiple-system involvement influences school dropout. Relying on an integrated data set, the associations between single- and multiple-system utilization and risk for dropping out, or actually dropping out of school, among youth in Grades 7 through 9 were examined. Results showed dropout rates more than doubled among public youth system users compared with those in the overall sample. With a few exceptions, use of combinations of services systems translated into somewhat higher likelihoods of dropping out of school when compared with single-system use. Future research is warranted to identify the underlying processes by which single- and multiple-system involvement influences school dropout rates.