The preloaded Leaver Survey List is a starting point for your final verified list. After cross-referencing your local school records, you may need to add or delete surveys. Surveys can be deleted if the student’s age, exit year, and/or IEP status do not meet the leaver criteria. They should not be deleted for former students who dropped out, enrolled but did not attend, transferred without the school receiving confirmation that they enrolled elsewhere, or passed away.

Common Reasons to Delete Leaver Surveys
Leaver Critera	Explanation
Age	If there’s a survey for a former student who was under the age of 16 or over the age of 21* when they exited, it can be deleted from your Leaver Survey List.
Exit Year	If a student did not permanently exit high school in the 2023-24 school year, their survey can also be deleted from your list. They may have reenrolled and are now an active student, or they may have exited in a previous year.
IEP Status	If you have a survey for a former student who was not receiving special education services at the time they exited, it can be deleted. That leaver may have had an IEP earlier in their education, but by the time they exited, the IEP was not active; the family may have revoked services at some point along the way; or perhaps they never received special education services and are on your list by mistake.

Summary

Youth was not age 16-21* at the time of exit
Youth did not permanently exit high school in the 2023-24 school year
- e.g. reenrolled; exited in a different year
Youth was not receiving special education services at the time of exit
- e.g. IEP was not active; services were revoked or never received

*Age criteria will change to 16-22 for the 2026 survey (2024-25 leaver year).

Common Reasons Surveys are Mistakenly Deleted
Reason	Explanation
Dropped out	If they were aged 16-21* when they dropped out, dropped out during the 2023-24 school year, and had an active IEP at the time of dropping out, they are considered leavers and should be surveyed.
Enrolled but did not attend (Dropped out)	If they were age 16-21*, enrolled for the 2023-24 school year, had an active IEP, but did not show up for school, they’re categorized as having dropped out, and are considered leavers.
Unconfirmed Transfer (Dropped out)	If a former student moved out of your school, district, or the state, and you do not have confirmation in your school’s records that they reenrolled elsewhere, they’re also categorized as having dropped out and are considered a leaver. (If you have a confirmation code and the student transferred out of state, the survey can be deleted. If they transferred within Washington state, please reach out to CCTS so we can move the survey to another school.)
Deceased	It's always sad to hear that a former student passed away. Those former students are considered leavers, and surveys should be submitted for them indicating that they could not be contacted. You do not need to contact the family if you know ahead of time that the student is deceased. (Leavers who are deceased will appear on your Leaver Survey List as nonrespondents, but they will not count against your response rate. For instructions on correctly submitting these surveys, please see the Module 4 Guide: Submit Survey for Former Student who is Deceased.)

Summary

Dropped out
Enrolled but did not attend
Transferred to another school, district, or state without confirmation
Are deceased (ok to submit survey without contacting the family)

*Age criteria will change to 16-22 for the 2026 survey (2024-25 leaver year).

Why it matters

As part of the data reporting and analysis that CCTS does for Washington state, we examine how representative the post-school outcome data are of populations that are often underrepresented. We review representativeness by different disability categories, gender categories, and race/ethnicity categories.

In Washington state, our data are historically representative of all the categories that we examine—except for students who dropped out. However, for the 2022 survey, we started collecting the reasons leaver surveys were deleted and adding back surveys that were mistakenly deleted. Since then, we’ve had representative data for all populations, including students who dropped out.

Students who drop out tend to have lower levels of engagement in postsecondary education and employment activities. Our hope is that by collecting better data on students who drop out, we can have better insights into how to support these students while they’re in school, decrease the likelihood that they will drop out, and improve their post-school outcomes.

Summary

Representation!
Students who drop out are historically underrepresented in Washington state’s post-school outcome (PSO) data.
Students who drop out have lower levels of PSO engagement.
A better understanding of their PSO data could provide insights into ways to support this vulnerable population while they’re still in school, potentially increasing engagement.

Next – Verify the Leaver Survey List