When children leave school, they often do not vanish in a dramatic way. They fade out due to illness, family crises, paperwork barriers, or the quiet logic of needing to work.
Busca Ativa Escolar (School Active Search) was launched in 2017 by UNICEF and Undime, Brazil's National Union of Municipal Education Managers, to help municipalities find children who are out of school or at risk of dropping out and support their (re-)enrollment.
The strategy combines a local, people-centered methodology with a free digital platform that helps track cases and coordinate referrals to other public services, including social assistance and health.
After nine years of work, Undime reports the program has reached more than 2,800 municipalities across 21 states and helped secure more than 320,000 (re-)enrollments. It is the kind of progress that is easy to miss in national headlines, but life-changing at the scale of a classroom.
