Check & Connect is a comprehensive student engagement intervention developed at the University of Minnesota in partnership with the Minneapolis School District, starting back in 1990. This is an evidence-based dropout prevention program that uses trained mentors to engage marginalized students in grades K-12 and keep them on track to graduate.

Demonstrated outcomes of Check & Connect include: increased attendance, persistence in school, accrual of credits and school completion rates; and decreased truancy, tardies, behavioral referrals and dropout rates.

Check & Connect is data-driven and grounded in research on resiliency and home-school collaboration. Student referral criteria include alterable warning signs of school withdrawal — primarily attendance indices (absences, tardies, skipping class) — in the context of academic performance and emotional or behavioral problems.

Check & Connect is structured to maximize personal contact and opportunities to build trusting relationships. Student levels of engagement (as reflected in their attendance, grades and behavior) are “checked” regularly by mentors and used to guide their efforts to increase and maintain students’ “connection” with school.

According to the What Works Clearinghouse, Check & Connect is the only dropout prevention intervention found to have positive effects on staying in school.