Book excerpt: For years, we have considered school dropout rates as a problem occurring at the high-school level. However, this is actually an issue that originates and develops in elementary school. In Do Children Drop Out of School in Kindergarten? Gregory Hickman and Randy Heinrich show how high school dropouts in many ways drop out of school long before they reach high school. Using a comprehensive systems approach, Hickman and Heinrich argue that our policy makers, educators, parents, and community members need to scrutinize our education system, moving past fixing short-term symptoms to engaging core, long-term problems for deep, effective change. For real change to take place, our national agenda needs to address the dropout problem at the elementary level, long before kids enter high school.