Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated many issues that were not sufficiently addressed by Brazil’s public social policies. School dropout is one of these issues, disproportionately affecting young people from lower-income classes, particularly those who are poor and Black, demanding shared responsibility from various sectors and social actors.
Objectives: To investigate how active and democratic care provided by social occupational therapy can contribute to the process of re-entry and retention of young people in high schools.
Method: For this, based on participatory research and social occupational therapy, university students and student/researchers in their schools and/or communities followed, in a singular and territorial follow up, other young people who are out of school. Other methodological strategies included questionnaires, photovoice, interviews, expert panel.
Results: Marking the commitment to understanding certain realities in a way that is shareable with those who live them, we engaged 33 student-researchers as participatory and involved interlocutors in raising awareness among their peers inside and outside of school about school dropout processes. Key findings include: difficulties faced by the school staff in dealing with the phenomenon in the daily school routine; the advocacy for extending the school day to promote citizenship education; and the daily social needs of young people and their families.
Conclusion: It is necessary to expand the idea of “active search,” which has been demanded from education professionals, working towards the implementation of active and democratic care, with shared responsibility among all those who make up the support network for young people in their respective territories.The occupational therapist is a professional who can contribute to the provision of this care.