Obama Rekindles State Debates on Dropout Age

But experts warn it will take more than new laws to put a real dent in dropout rates

President Barack Obama's call for every state to require school attendance until age 18 may spark a flurry of action in some statehouses, but changing attendance laws will do little by itself to drive down the nation's dropout rates, experts on the issue say.

In his State of the Union address last month, President Obama said states should require that "all students stay in high school until they graduate or turn 18," and said that when students aren't allowed to drop out, "they do better."

Twenty-one states and the District of Columbia already require students to remain enrolled until they are 18 years old, while 11 others require attendance until age 17, according to the Denver-based Education Commission of the States . The other 18 states still use the traditional age of 16 as their attendance requirement, though lawmakers in several of those states have tried unsuccessfully in recent...