Approximately 25 percent of ninth graders nationwide will not graduate "on time" in four years, and in some urban areas the rate may be as high as 40 percent. Fortunately, many graduate or get GED's later, so that only 15.3 percent of those aged 19 to 20 and 13.8 percent of those aged 21 to 22 have not graduated. School dropouts are more likely to be poor, have costly medical problems, require job training, and to be imprisoned. Although schools traditionally have borne the burden of stemming school failure, a consensus is emerging that the schools cannot do it all. Several experts urge that a comprehensive mix of social, health, and education services be offered to students in their schools. Existing school-linked programs vary in the services they offer because they are shaped to the needs and ages of the particular students they serve. Commonly provided services are academic tutoring and counseling, pre-employment skills and job training, and health and social services. This article examines community attitudes toward and common problems of such programs, as well as the major problem of uncertain and inflexible funding. After listing some common elements of the most successful school- linked programs, this article identifies various factors that have discouraged long-term and short-term evaluations of the impact of school-linked programs. Questions that should be answered about school-linked programs through evaluative research are listed, followed by suggestions about what could be done to assist school-linked programs at the Federal, State, and local levels. 2 references