2019 Investigative Reporting (Smaller Staff) Winner

“Indiana’s Hidden Dropout Crisis”

About the Entry

After learning that more than 3,700 students left Indiana high schools to home-school, Dylan Peers McCoy started a reporting journey that ended in the revelation that some of Indiana’s most struggling schools are boosting their graduation rates by wiping students off their books and marking them as leaving to home-school.

Comments from the Judges

“Dylan’s work succeeded in finding a story that was hiding in plain sight. It was one that needed to be told.”

“Excellent investigative work that generated real results. The reporting relied on a number of investigative techniques. It put a human face on the story, something that’s not easy to do with data stories.”

Photo credit: Jennifer Dummett/Chalkbeat