CHARLESTON — Boredom appears to be the leading reason why West Virginia high schoolers are dropping out before earning a diploma, a legislative panel learned Monday.

Hoping to eventually reverse a dropout rate that Sen. Randy White, D-Webster, has pegged at 22 percent, a Senate education subcommittee he anchors advanced a number of proposals to the full panel.

A key item is a bill that would raise the compulsory attendance law to 17. Existing law allows students to leave at age 16.

“The dropout rate is just unacceptable to all of us,” President Dale Lee of the West Virginia Education Association told the panel.

Besides raising the age at which a student may dropout, the subcommittee also approved resolutions that would encourage all counties to adopt a policy of using the courts, as Circuit Judge Gary Johnson has done in Nicholas County, to work with at-risk students.

Another resolution asks for a study of the correlation between substance abuse and the failure to graduate. Another seeks another study by the Joint Committee on Government and Finance.

White suggested the issue cannot be analyzed in one simple study.

“And it’s going to be one heckuva discussion,” he said.

Shelly DeBerry and Shelly Stalnaker, representing the state Department of Education, provided the subcommittee with a packet of data.

Among 84 dropouts surveyed in Calhoun, Jackson, Pleasants, Ritchie, Roane, Tyler, Wirt and Wood counties, 57 percent felt school was boring.

The same poll found 47 percent felt a lack of support from school staff, and 40 percent cited poor grades.

Thirty-five percent pointed to a lack of parental support, while 29 percent blamed alcohol and drugs, respectively, 20 percent said they got no help at home with studies, and 10 percent gave peer pressure as a reason.

Their figures also show that 2,236 dropouts ages 16 through 18 undertook the GED test in the 2008-09 school term, and 77 percent passed.

John Carey, representing Heritage Communications of West Virginia, took exception to raising the compulsory attendance law, saying a comparison of dropout rates shows states that allow students to quit at 16 have a higher average of completing high school that those requiring attendance to 17 or 18.

White provided some grim statistics for those leaving without a diploma. Dropouts earn on average $10,000 a year less than graduates, only 20 percent have health insurance, and are twice as likely to wind up in jail as those with diplomas, the senator said.

Another panelist, Sen. Dan Foster, D-Kanawha, wondered if the die is cast down in the elementary grades, long before a child reaches the upper levels.

Lee called for a study of how truancy plays into the dropout picture, tracing the problem from kindergarten on upward.

“Certainly, it doesn’t address the kids who have already dropped out,” he said.

“But it may give us a huge insight into future dropouts and the way we can address the problem at that early age.”

Lee feels there is a direct correlation between truancy at a tender age and behavior issues that flare once the child grows older.

“If you’re not getting the basics in K-3, falling behind because of truancy, and below grade level, that leads to the frustration later on,” the WVEA president said.

“It’s important that we not only identify this at the high school level but identify this truancy level at the early stages and put some accountability back on the parents and students. At that age, the responsibility is on the parents.”