title	authors	date
Youth Service Availability and School Dropout	Myeong Lee, Julia H.P. Hsu, Gie Myung Lee, Jinyi Kim, Gahyun Sohn	October 2025

Youth Service Availability and School Dropout

This repository contains data and analysis scripts for our paper publisehd in Research on Social Work Practice (Sage): Leveling Socoeconomic Disparities: The Role of Service Availability in School Dropout Rates.

Data Sources

Census Data

Census variables are downloaded using the R census package from the U.S. Census Bureau.

Geographic Data

Boundary shapefiles from the U.S. Census Bureau TIGER/Line Shapefiles. Aggregated by county and school district.

Clinic Data

Virginia Youth Clinic Locations and treatment types:

• Substance Use (SU)
• Mental Health (MH)
• Health Care Centers (HC)
• Buprenorphine Practitioners (BUPREN)
• Opioid Treatment Programs (OTP)
• Sources:
  • National Directory of Drug and Alcohol Abuse Treatment Facilities (2022)
  • National Directory of Mental Health Treatment Facilities (2022)
  • Psychology Today
  • Virginia Association of Free and Charitable Clinics
  • FindTreatment.gov

Files Description

Data Aggregation

• src/py/aggregation_average_values.ipynb - Aggregates census variables using average values
• src/py/aggregation_median_age.ipynb - Aggregates census variables using grouped median calculation for age
• src/py/aggregation_median_income.ipynb - Aggregates census variables using grouped median calculation for income

Analysis

• src/py/dropout_rate_pred.ipynb - Dropout rate prediction model and analysis

R Scripts

• src/r/drop_comm_agg.R – Aggregates geocoded clinic and community data by county.
• src/r/regression_Social_Work.R – Regression analysis examining relationships between service availability and dropout rates.

Outputs

• output/aggregation.geojson – Spatial aggregation of clinic locations.
• output/dropout_attached.geojson – Joined dataset combining community and dropout data for mapping.