The transfer to a new school or grade has been identified as a typical transition period for students that is usually characterized by declining academic performance and increased absences. At the close of the 1991-92 academic year 26% of 9th-grade students in a large urban high school were failing 50% or more of their courses. A preventive network of student assistance programs was designed to increase the level of available student supports within the social environment of the school and thereby reduce the number of students experiencing failure. The preventive approach attempted to reach out to a cohort of transitioning 9th-grade students (N=67) considered to be at-risk for continued school failure and dropout. Intervention components included: technological support; student-centered support; instructional support; community-focused outreach; school governance; and teachers' professional staff development. During the course of the year 39% of the 67 students targeted for study withdrew from the high school to re-enroll elsewhere. Records show that as expected with the transition from middle school to high school attendance figures dropped for this group, resulting in an increase in absences from an 8th-grade average of 19.1 to a 9th-grade average of 22.26. Overall, an analysis of grades for all freshmen showed that the programmatic efforts resulted in a reduction in the incidence of freshmen failure from 26% to 14%.