CHARLESTON — Dropouts are reaching epidemic proportions in America, but one West Virginia judge is making sure children stay in school.

In launching his stay-in-school program, Nicholas County Circuit Judge Gary Johnson conducted a roundup of any student who missed more than 10 days the previous term in Nicholas County.

Working in tandem with juvenile probation officer Mike Williams and attendance director Kathy Hypes, the judge placed the students on improvement periods and adjudicated them as status offenders.

This year, he told a combined legislative panel Tuesday, such students were supervised closely.

“As far as we can tell, our dropout rate has come down and our attendance rate has gone up,” Johnson told Education Subcommittee C and Judiciary Subcommittee C.

“We haven’t been successful with all, but with most,” the judge said.

Johnson pointed out 82 percent of people in prisons and jails are high school dropouts.

“If we don’t get these kids at this point, we’re going to spend more money on corrections.”

Not only are lives turned around to attain life’s potential, but the state ends up saving money on incarcerations he said.

“You can spend more money on the playpen or the state pen.”

Williams said nearly 30 students identified as truants are seen monthly, or more often if schools want his assistance.

Any medical or parental excuses for missing school must be turned in within three days.

Before the program began, some excuses didn’t reach officials for six months.

“It’s a work in progress,” he said.

“I think we have made strides.

“One boy had missed 60 days last year. He hasn’t missed a day this year.”

Citing another source, Hypes referred to the dropout problem as “a silent epidemic in America.”

Two years ago, some 6.2 million students quit school.

“Without a high school diploma, there’s not a lot of hope for children,” she said.

“To work at McDonald’s, you need a high school diploma.”

Even the armed services have almost quit accepting applicants with only a GED, she said.

Of the 65 students on supervised probation, the attendance director said, none was attending school regularly last year.

“So we are making progress,” she said.

“We needed the court system. We were always the lion that stood at the mouth of the cave. We would roar and say, ‘Get your kids to school. We’ll feed them and we will educate them.’ We would roar as loud as we could. But we had no teeth. But we have teeth now with our circuit court helping us out.”

One legislator, Delegate David Walker, D-Clay, suggested the Legislature could add even more teeth by raising the legal age for dropping out, pointing out no one in West Virginia can purchase alcohol until age 21, nor can you enlist in the military until turning 18.

“Why in God’s good grace do we think they’re capable of making a decision to quit school at 16?” Walker asked.