As suggested by the study into the effects of divorce and other emotional losses in the home, negative experiences outside of the educational environment have a profound influence on the risk of dropout as well (Gerein, 2009). Counselling Strategies:

Appropriate counselling strategies would be those that directly address the factors identified in increasing the risk of dropping out of high school. In that regard, different factors are addressable by different strategies appropriate to those specific factors. Unfortunately, some of the larger prevailing social issues implicated in increasing dropout risks are not readily capable of resolution by individual schools. Those factors would include the general effect of racial and ethnic minority status and economic status of the community or of individual students' families.

However, some of the factors most readily and directly amenable to improvement on a small scale include the effects of absenteeism, emotional loss outside of school, and the perceptions of students with respect to the economic and vocational opportunities available to them, as well as their beliefs about the concern of teachers and school administrators about their welfare. For example, the detrimental effects of absenteeism can be addressed by increasing the effort of teachers to provide necessary assistance to minimize the problems known to be associated directly and indirectly with missing class.

Similarly, the effects of emotional issues and family instability can be addressed by counselling programs in the school to help students cope with challenges outside of the school...