This pan­el will explore some of the chal­lenges and oppor­tu­ni­ties that exist in regards to sup­port­ing young peo­ple in New Orleans who are dis­con­nect­ed from or at risk of becom­ing dis­con­nect­ed from the K‑12 sys­tem. Many of these young peo­ple exit school with­out hav­ing a high school diplo­ma or its equiv­a­len­cy, and oth­ers may grad­u­ate, but remain dis­con­nect­ed from post­sec­ondary or employ­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties. Accord­ing to the Cowen Insti­tute of Pub­lic Edu­ca­tion Ini­tia­tives at Tulane Uni­ver­si­ty, there are approx­i­mate­ly 26,000 of these ​“oppor­tu­ni­ty youth” in New Orleans metro area- young peo­ple who are between the ages of 16 – 24 and are nei­ther work­ing or in school. Behind Mem­phis, New Orleans has the high­est per­cent­age of oppor­tu­ni­ty youth in the nation. Pan­el par­tic­i­pants will include alter­na­tive and adult edu­ca­tion providers whose work focus­es on re-engag­ing young peo­ple with­in edu­ca­tion­al sys­tems; a pol­i­cy ana­lyst who is using data to help inform strate­gies that can increase invest­ment in oppor­tu­ni­ty youth; and young peo­ple who will share first­hand, the chal­lenges (both per­son­al and aca­d­e­m­ic) that they have faced and over­come since Hur­ri­cane Katrina.