Responding to the high dropout rate in Providence, Rhode Island, public schools, community agencies, businesses, and teachers and administrators from the public schools joined together to form the Providence Dropout Prevention Collaborative. This document summarizes the study research, prevention plan, and implementation. The first chapter describes the city of Providence. The second chapter provides a profile of the characteristics of a typical at-risk student developed by examining the records of 250 recent dropouts and interviewing 100 dropouts and at-risk students. Policies and structures of the school system that work against at-risk students are examined in the third chapter. Funding for changes in the discipline system, its handling of low-achieving students, and increasing student counseling services are recommended. The fourth chapter lists and assesses the resources available to meet at-risk students' needs, noting that academic support services were well-represented; personal, emotional, health, and legal services were not. A resource directory organized according to nine types of services is provided in this chapter. The goals of the Collaborative's plan for reducing the dropout rate and providing opportunities for students to complete secondary school are discussed in chapter five. Three strategic interventions are described: (1) continuation and expansion of the Providence Dropout Prevention Collaborative; (2) creation of Providence's Community-Based Case Management Dropout Prevention Program; and (3) improvement of the Providence School Department's student data collection system. The sixth chapter describes the structure, functions, and staffing of the Collaborative's Plan. Appendices include goals and objectives of the New Ford Foundation Proposal to continue and expand the Collaborative; budgets for the three interventions for 1988-1989; subcommittee reports (including at-risk and droput interviews); and a list of the membership of the Collaborative. (ABL)