Legislation is being considered to authorize grants from the Department of Education for dropout prevention programs, reentry demonstration programs, and high school programs for certain welfare recipients instead of mandatory work or job training. There is also a call for the use of Job Training Partnership Act Summer Youth Program funds to be used year-round for basic and remedial education for teenage welfare recipients. The need for federal involvement with the dropout problem is demonstrated by the difficulties in obtaining good data on dropouts. Comparisons are nearly impossible since states and local school districts have different definitions and counting procedures. The national estimates which are widely used place the dropout rate between 14 and 29 per cent. Often the students who drop out have not done well in school, but for each individual, a host of possible reasons may be identified. It is difficult to develop prevention efforts and reentry programs which will successfully address all of the possible factors. For some dropouts numerous social and personal problems are so severe that having a diploma may not make much of a difference in their ability to obtain and maintain employment. From this perspective, programs that attempt simply to get more students through school may be difficult to justify. (VM)