Why are there "Inactive" Students in my Canvas Course

When a student drops a course, they will become "Inactive" in Canvas.

We keep them as inactive, to retain student data in the event that a student was removed from the course due to an error.  If we were to remove the student entirely from the platform it's possible student data would be removed.

People who are "Inactive" in a Canvas course cannot access the course, and instructors can no longer see them anywhere but the "People" section of the Canvas course.