Pursuant to rules of the State Board of Education, the Department of Education shall establish and maintain a student accounting system that has as its minimum goals:

(1) Providing a timely accounting of students who withdraw from school before graduating or completing the normal course of study;

(2) Providing reasons why students withdraw from school;

(3) Identifying patterns in the information and assessment of factors that may assist the department and the school district to develop programs addressing the problems of dropouts; and

(4) Providing school districts with management tools for assessing which students are dropouts and why they drop out. [1991 c.805 § 1]