SD Senate votes to let 17-year-olds drop out with parental consent
South Dakota Sen. Michael Rohl, R-Aberdeen, listens to testimony in the House Judiciary Committee on Jan. 17, 2024. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)
South Dakota teenagers with parental consent could test out of high school at age 16 or opt to withdraw without testing at 17 under the terms of a bill advanced by the state Senate on Thursday in Pierre.
Senate Bill 71 was born of entreaties from administrators who struggle to manage certain students in the face of South Dakota's requirement that all kids stay in school until age 18, according to its sponsor, Sen. Mike Rohl, R-Aberdeen.
Lawmakers endorsed compulsory attendance for those younger than 18 in 2009.
Visit our 2025 South Dakota Legislature page.
That stricture causes problems for students who are ready to test out of high school but are too young to do so without administrative permission, Rohl said, as well as for the teachers who may find themselves wrangling students who don't want to be there and intend to exit the school system as soon as they're able.
'They're making it so these other kids can't learn, and they're honestly wasting both our time, their time, and the teacher's time,' Rohl said.
The choice to allow a student to leave school before adulthood, Rohl told the Senate on Thursday, belongs with parents.
Legislative efforts to undo the school attendance rule have bubbled up and fizzled out multiple times since 2009. Most recently, former Watertown Republican Sen. Lee Schoenbeck tried to convince his colleagues to lower South Dakota's compulsory attendance age to 16. That 2023 iteration of the bill failed to clear a Senate committee.
Unlike the 2023 version, SB 71 requires parental consent, and opens the door for an exit at age 17, not 16. It also clears a path for parents to let their children leave school to pursue a general equivalency degree (GED) once they reach age 16 without seeking a waiver from the state Department of Education, provided they pass the test.
SB 71 passed the Senate 34-1 and now heads to the House. The lone no vote came from Sen. Curt Voight, R-Rapid City, a former school administrator who made no remarks about the bill on the Senate floor.
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