Alabama Department of Youth Services reports increase in graduation rates

Officials with the Department of Youth Services (DYS) said Friday that the district saw an increase in graduation rates for the 2024-25 school year.

DYS is a state agency that regulates juvenile justice programs and services.

DYS saw 16 students graduate with their high school diploma in the most recently completed academic year. The 2023-24 school year saw seven students graduate with a high school diploma, while the 2022-23 and 2021-22 school years saw one student and eight students obtain their diplomas, respectively.

“That means there were like [16] kids graduating high school,” DYS Schools Superintendent Tracy Smitherman said Friday. “So we’re just bouncing off of the rooftops down there, around here, about what all our kids are doing.”

In addition to students getting more high school diplomas, Smitherman also reported that 57 students enrolled in the Training and Advancement Center passed all three parts of the General Educational Development (GED), bringing the DYS passing rate to 65%.

“These students are diligently working toward their GEDs, post-secondary courses, and acquiring career readiness skills in over 20 areas, including [National Center for Construction Education and Research] and Microsoft certifications,” Smitherman said in a statement on Aug. 6.

In a phone interview on Tuesday, Smitherman said the increase in graduates is due to DYS School System guidance counselors checking transcripts for students.

“Our counselors are almost like private investigators trying to piece [student records] together so that the children don’t take the same class multiple times and make sure that they’re actually taking the classes that they need to take with us instead of something that they don’t need,” she said. “We have really put a lot of effort and a lot of meetings in with counties and with the specialized treatment centers and with the State Department of [Education] trying to get every one of the players to utilize the PowerSchool [software] as it’s set up to be used so that we can actually look at a child holistically and piece all the pieces together and make sure he meets the standards for graduation.”

PowerSchool is a software used by school systems to track grades, attendance and other data.

Forty-one students total at the DYS Mt. Meigs campus obtained industry certifications with 19 students being certified by Express Employment Professionals in Career Preparedness. Mt. Meigs serves male youth up until the age of 21 with most being between the ages of 16 to 19 years old.