School staff hopes students will continue with school.
ALBANY, GA -- Albany High School has initiated a program to try and encourage students to stay in school.
On Sunday, the freshman class graduated from the ninth grade in the school's very first freshman graduation ceremony.
Parents and friends packed the school's auditorium to see the teens mark the milestone in their high school careers.
School officials said high school freshman have the highest dropout rate and they hope the freshman graduation will promote enough interest in school so that the students will continue.
"We think that too many of our students drop out," said Anita Tunstall, Albany High freshman coordinator, "Albany High is unique. We have a lot of students that are in poverty. Many of them Come to us already dropped out. So we wanted to ignite some flame in them for them to want to do something."
Students were not the only ones excited about the ceremony, Tunstall said so were parents.
TV Station Profiles & Public Inspection Files forWFXL