Seventeen-year-old Phylicia Stevens left school last year when repeated bouts of illness landed her in the hospital for a month at a time.

Stevens suffers from an ailment that is relatively rare, Crohn's disease, but she has a lot in common with a growing number of Georgia teenagers. Like Stevens, increasing numbers of them are forgoing a high school diploma and enrolling in classes to earn a General Educational Development Diploma, commonly known as the GED.

Teens and adults 24 and younger now make up nearly half of all participants in state adult literacy programs, up from 33 percent in 1998, according to Georgia's Department of Technical and Adult Education. Of the 114,008 students enrolled in adult literacy classes last year, most were in GED preparation classes. Nationwide, the percentage of people 24 and under in adult literacy programs was nearly 40 percent in 2003.

Georgia's influx of students comes as adult literacy programs are being forced to downscale. The state cut almost $600,000 from the department's $10.9 million budget for literacy programs for the coming year, and officials say they have no indication the funds will be restored despite a recently announced surplus in state funds. The cuts, which eliminated 17 out of 159 full-time teachers from the state payroll, come on top of about $300,000 in reductions the previous year.

Literacy program directors cite a litany of possible causes for the influx of younger students: stricter standards in schools under new federal guidelines, the lure of jobs, the perception that a GED is a quick and easy alternative to high school.

The funding cuts will mainly affect programs where demand is low, mostly in rural areas, said Jean DeVard-Kemp, assistant adult literacy commissioner.

But programs like DeKalb County's, the state's largest, say they can scarcely accommodate all the students who want classes. Many marginal students --- including those with low IQs, mental illnesses and learning disabilities --- could fall by the wayside. Director Martha Coursey has recently started referring more would-be students to other social welfare programs.

The DeKalb program served 21,500 students last year. To make sure students are committed, Coursey is considering making them sign a contract pledging to attend classes a minimum number of hours each week. Experts do not agree on a single cause for the surge in younger students, but in some cases, they say, tougher standards in schools are having an effect.

Daphne Greenberg, associate director of Georgia State University's Center for the Study of Adult Literacy, said No Child Left Behind legislation has made some school officials so afraid of their school performing poorly that they encourage at-risk students to drop out and enroll in GED programs.

"You have guidance counselors pleading with adult literacy programs to let these kids in," Greenberg said.

Mattie Eley, who heads the Atlanta nonprofit Literacy Action, which is funded primarily through charitable contributions, faults Georgia's high school graduation test for deterring students from continuing their schooling.

Titus Weems, 24, who attends a GED class at Literacy Action, said the graduation test was one of several factors that prompted him to drop out. Literacy Action's class is the first ever to hold his attention, he said.

State officials said they had no evidence that either No Child Left Behind or the graduation test is to blame for the influx of students to adult literacy programs. But they acknowledged the percentage of students younger than 24 has risen almost every year since 1998, when high schoolers were first required to pass all five sections of the state test to receive a diploma.

Some literacy experts worry that students may be too eager to give up on high school.

"Word got out on the street that you can go to an adult literacy program for two hours, three days a week, and get your GED," Greenberg said. "To them, it's a no-brainer."

Teal Cooper, 17, sees GED classes as a welcome alternative to the rigidity of high school. Cooper said she was expelled from 10th grade last fall for assaulting another student at Stockbridge High School in Henry County and came to DeKalb's literacy program after seven months in juvenile boot camp.

She said she likes the fact that the literacy teachers treat her as an adult. Boredom with easy high school classes and frustration with bossy teachers pushed her to the breaking point, she said.

Cooper, who has been attending classes for about four weeks, said she hopes to pass the GED test within a month or two. Afterward, she plans to attend cosmetology school.

She said she wishes she had been aware earlier of the option to get a GED. "If I had known about this program, I'd have been in this and out of school," Cooper said.