Classrooms around Sacramento are coming back to life as the summer winds down and a new school year begins. As parents, we all have big goals for our children, and a good education is the foundation needed to realize many of those dreams.

Some kids will finish school and go to college while others will go straight to work. But too many kids never complete school. They drop out, are left with few options and too often end up handcuffed in the back seat of my officers' police cars and sleeping in our jail beds.

High dropout rates pose a risk to public safety because dropouts are less likely to make an honest living and more likely to get involved in drugs, gangs and crime. According to the California Dropout Research Project, each year's dropouts cost California $12 billion in crime costs alone, not to mention costs from lower wages, fewer taxes owed and increased welfare dependency.

Beyond the fiscal impact, studies have shown that increasing graduation rates by 10 percentage points would prevent 22 homicides and more than 1,100 aggravated assaults in Sacramento County each year. The importance of a high school education cannot be overstated.

Fortunately, a lot can be done to bring dropout rates down. First, kids who start school ready to learn are much less likely to fall behind and off track. Quality preschool has been shown to boost graduation rates by as much as 44 percent and cut crime significantly. It's a place where kids learn to interact with each other, respect authority and become responsible for their actions before entering an academic school environment. For example, when a child takes a toy from a classmate and then gets reprimanded, that child learns the value of sharing.

Second, students often exhibit early warning signs for dropping out. The key is identifying these signs and intervening at the appropriate time and in the appropriate way. The Sacramento Police Department's Youth Advisory Committee has shed some light on this issue. The committee – which consists of student representatives from public, charter and private high schools in Sacramento – recently studied the paths their peers take both toward graduation and toward dropping out. The committee found the tipping point was often during middle school, which is where students begin falling behind and experiencing increased peer pressure.

One early warning sign among these students is truancy. My department partners with staff in three city-operated attendance centers to assist with truant students. At the centers, social service providers, community-based organizations and social workers determine why a student is not in school and help address the problem.

Sadly, reasons for non-attendance have been easily solvable issues like a student only owning one or two sets of clothes and not wanting to wear the same thing to school all the time. The areas served by these centers have witnessed reductions in property crimes, auto thefts and graffiti.

Finally, kids need to stay engaged in school. Career technical education can help, showing kids that what they learn in the classroom is relevant to the real world and giving them skills that will help them find a job. Unfortunately, one of the best tech programs that I know of operates inside Folsom Prison. As many schools are cutting back on these kinds of classes, a student shouldn't have to go to prison to get this kind of educational opportunity.

I recently testified about the connection between dropouts and public safety before the newly formed Assembly Select Committee on Lowering California's High School Dropout Rate. Despite ongoing budget troubles, discussion in the hearing focused on what the state can do to address the dropout crisis now. Senate Bill 651 – by Sen. Gloria Romero, D-Los Angeles, and Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, D-Sacramento – recently passed the Legislature with strong bipartisan support. It would require the state to produce an annual report on dropouts that would help identify early warning signs of dropping out, so that schools can effectively target interventions to help ensure that kids don't fall through the cracks at any stage of their development. Enacting this bill would be a step in the right direction.

Dropouts threaten public safety, and we can't arrest our way out of this problem. We must act proactively to help get kids on the right track early and keep them on the path toward success.