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OJJDP News@ a Glance – Electronic Newsletter – January/February 2005 Click above to link to the latest issue of OJJDP’s electronic newsletter. The top story in this issue is the National Truancy Conference held last December. The newsletter also features the Girls Study Group web site and a new website on hate crimes involving juveniles. ++++++++++ Truancy Prevention – Empowering Students, Schools and Communities OJJDP has launched a new web site that draws on the expertise and resources of OJJDP and the U.S. Department of Education Office of Safe and Drug-Free Schools. The web site offers a range of truancy-related information to educators, law enforcement agencies, court personnel, and the general public. The page currently features the Rhode Island Truancy Court started in 2000 by Family Court Chief Judge Jeremiah, who is also a long time member of NCJFCJ. ++++++++++ Getting Tough on the Parents of Truants A number of programs that target the parents of truant youths are proving to be successful in dealing with cases of chronic truancy. This Christian Science Monitor story reports that there are a small number of parents who simply don’t respond until they are forced into court. Some of them have served short jail terms for contributing to their children’s truancy and others perform community service or pay fines if they fail to respond to less punitive measures. In Citrus County, Florida, where arresting parents is sometimes used as a last resort, chronic truancy (21 or more unexcused absences) in middle schools dropped from 16.3% to 10% between 1997 and 2003. For high school and elementary school students, the truancy rates were cut in half. ++++++++++ Strategies, Programs and Resources to Prevent Truancy OJJDP will broadcast this videoconference on February 23, 2005 from 1:30 to 3:00 PM EST. The broadcast can be accessed via satellite downlink and via streaming video on the Internet. It will showcase several promising, evidence-based program approaches to truancy and related issues presented at OJJDP’s December 2004 conference on truancy. The broadcast is jointly sponsored by OJJDP and OSDFS, the Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools in the Department of Education. Click on the link above for more information, to register for online viewing, to locate a host downlink site near you, or to register to host the program. ++++++++++ Truancy Resources Partnering to Prevent Truancy Conference – Materials from the conference, held in Washington, D.C. December 6-8, 2004, are available online. They include a collection of documents from the conference and a list of online resources. National Truancy Prevention Association – Member judges of NCJFCJ were instrumental in creating this organization. National Center for School Engagement (NCSE) Truancy Program Registry – On these pages you will find a list of truancy programs registered with the site. Click on a program to review the program, where it is located, cost, and other descriptive information as well as a contact person. You can also register your truancy program information here. TRPA has partnered with NCSE in this project. ++++++++++ BUFY (Boston Urban Youth Foundation) Educational Initiative With three program components, BUYF’s Educational Initiative has succeeded in substantially reducing truancy rates for its population of African-American and Latino students and supporting them throughout their school years.  | School Success is an integrated in-school/after school year round initiative that helps chronically truant youth in grades six through eight improve school attendance and performance. | | College Vision motivates, mobilizes and equips low-income minority youth in grades nine through 12 to gain entry to college. The program continues to support and track these students to help them attain a degree. | | Academic Enrichment Center builds the academic skills of students in grades six through 12. |
Another program, Watcha Looking For?, focuses on developing faith, identity and leadership with opportunities for learning through service projects. ++++++++++ Changing the Status Quo for Status Offenders: New York State’s Efforts to Support Troubled Teens A New York State program for status offenders, now in place for three years, is helping get disobedient, but not delinquent, children back on track while yielding significant cost savings. The program, a joint venture between child welfare and probation, relies on a variety of models to divert children and their families back to the community and away from courts and law enforcement. 8 page pdf file. ++++++++++ Boston Urban Youth Foundation Study of Truancy Prevention Program The BUYF Building Futures Educational Initiative achieved a 41% reduction in truancy last year. Among those truants not in BUYF’s caseload, the reduction was 7%. BUYF focuses on truant youth, working with students from middle school and tracking them into college. Once the students are in college there is a support system to help them complete it. The study, titled “Engaging Urban Youth through Community-based Action: How the ‘School Success’ Truancy Prevention Program Motivate Middle Graders,” was conducted by the Harvard University Graduate School of Education and is available as a pdf file. About 50 pages. ++++++++++ National Truancy Prevention Association Resources and Activities National Truancy Program Registry – All types of truancy reduction programs nationwide are invited to list programs on this new registry. It is intended to be the biggest on-line database of efforts to improve school attendance. It will be used as a catalogue of programs and will be distributed at the upcoming national truancy conference in December. Partnering to Prevent Truancy, A National Priority will be conducted in Washington, D.C. December 6-8, 2004. As part of this project, the NTPA will also provide training and technical assistance on development and implementation of court-based or heavily court-involved truancy prevention programs throughout the country over the next 2 ½ years. ++++++++++ Truant Teens Lose Licenses Georgia high school students who miss 10 days of school this year may lose their driver’s license. Georgia ranks 48th among states in the percentage of high school graduates. In Rhode Island, a law gives family court judges the ability to revoke licenses of chronically truant students. At least 16 other states have similar laws. ++++++++++ Strategies for Responding to Truancy in Youth Courts The latest issue of In Session, the newsletter of the National Youth Court Center, is now online and this is its lead article. If you visit the National Youth Court Center web site you’ll find all kinds of resources, including a list of 25+ downloadable publications and an online training section. The link to the newsletter is on the home page. ++++++++++ Louisiana’s Truancy and Assessment Service Center (TASC) Louisiana ’s statewide truancy project was created by the state’s legislature to reduce truancy among children in K-5th grade by screening them to identify those at high risk for truancy and other academic/behavioral problems. TASC conducts assessments to determine the needs of the child and family and mandates participation of the child and family in appropriate interventions. The purpose of the project is to intervene with truants early to address the problem before the behavior becomes entrenched and intransigent. ++++++++++ Abandoned in the Back Row: New Lessons in Education and Delinquency Prevention A summary of the 2001 Coalition for Juvenile Justice Annual Report is available for download on the Coalition’s web site. The complete hardcopy report is $10. It ties in very nicely with the truancy report above. Statistics from the summary of this national report: | Youth who drop out of school are three and a half times more likely than high school graduates to be arrested. | | Between 70 and 87 percent of incarcerated youth suffer from learning or emotional disabilities that interfere with their education. | | In the adult criminal system, 82 percent of prison inmates have dropped out of high school. | | For juveniles involved in quality education programs, reoffense rates can be reduced by 20 percent or more. | | Approximately 35 percent of young adults who dropped out of high school are unemployed. | | Each year the nation is drained of more than $200 billion in lost earnings and taxes because of the high rate of youth dropping out of school. |
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++++++++++ Youth Out of School: Linking Absence to Delinquency The Colorado Foundation for Families and Children has published this report that links truancy with delinquency. The report's statistics include these. In Colorado: | 70% of suspended youth were chronically truant in the last six months | | 50% of expelled students have been chronically truant in the last year | | 80% of drop-outs were chronically truant |
Every dropout costs the government over $200,000 in public spending. |
From the Introduction to the report: | “Every school day in Colorado more than 70,000 students are out of school. It should be obvious that if students are not in school they are not learning and probably will not achieve academically. | | “Schools typically discipline student’s misbehavior by excluding them. This sends a message to students, who are often already struggling, that they are in fact not wanted. | | “Sending a student home for not coming to school provides little or no intervention to the underlying causes of the absences and is counterproductive to the educational process. | | “A predictable negative cycle of behavior is becoming very clear and requires immediate attention. The cycle begins with early truant behavior that leads to later school suspensions, expulsions, and delinquency. Unexcused absence is our first, best system of student problems that lead to poor outcomes.” |
The report includes sections on promising programs and strategies. ++++++++++ Truancy Reduction Initiative In Onondaga County, New York the County Law Department, the Syracuse City School District and the Safe Schools/Health Student Grant, have come together to create a program to reinforce the importance of school attendance. The Youth Initiative Project is a three-pronged strategy of prevention, intervention and enforcement: | The REAP Program (Realizing Educational Attendance Priorities) – This program seeks to increase parental and child accountability and to address attendance problems at the earliest possible time. | | SMART (School Mandatory Attendance Review Team) – Parents whose children continue to have attendance problems may be engaged with their child, school representatives, service providers, and a Deputy County Attorney for a SMART meeting which will culminate in a document to be signed by all that will outline the responsibilities of each of the participants. | | REWARDS - an incentive program open to all students in the 12 participating city schools. |
Click on the link above for the details. If you have any questions or would like to know more about the program, send me an email and I’ll put you in touch with Dan Robb who sent me this program description. ++++++++++ National Center for School Engagement NCSE promotes truancy prevention and school success and has a plethora of materials and information available. NCSE is supported by OJJDP, DOE, Weed and Seed and the Colorado Foundation for Families and Children. | Click on the Tools for Truancy page to link to model truancy prevention programs, best practices in truancy reduction, research on out-of-school youth and more. | | The Programs Page will link you to information and statistics about each of the seven model site programs funded by OJJDP. |
++++++++++ Truancy Courts – A Selection from Around the Country Clark County Juvenile Court Truancy Project– Intervention/prevention services to chronically truant students in the nine school districts of Clark County , Washington in partnership with the juvenile court and the community. Maricopa County CUTS Program – A truancy diversion program designed to keep children out of the formal court system. Administered by juvenile probation, in this program the juvenile probation officer goes to the school, rather than the youth going to court. St. Louis County Truancy Court – The court intervenes with elementary and middle school students displaying a pattern of absenteeism (10-15 absences) before the students need to be referred to the Family court for truancy. Rhode Island Truancy Court– As a result of the Rhode Island truancy courts in middle schools throughout the state, the average attendance rate of the students who went through the truancy programs jumped from 49 percent to 89 percent. ++++++++++ Approaches to Truancy Prevention Another new report from the Vera Institute, this one examines three approaches to truancy: | prevention and early intervention (Pre-PINS) | | Alternatives to filings a PINS petition – Diversion from Family Court | | After a PINS petition has been filed – Alternative Court Sanctions |
The report includes descriptions of seven operating truancy programs across the country. About 15 pages, downloadable. ++++++++++ Truancy Intervention Project TIP (Truancy Intevention Project) and KIND (Kids In Need of Dreams) serve 250 children annually in Fulton County , Georgia . The programs are a collaboration of the Atlanta and Georgia Bar Foundations and community-based outreach programs for children and families. TIP was developed in 1991 by former Fulton County Juvenile Court Chief Judge Glenda Hatchett and Terry Walsh, then President of the Atlanta Bar Association. TIP was started with the understanding that truancy was a symptom of underlying problems in a child’s life. KIND was formed in 1993 to coordinate the efforts of TIP by recruiting and training attorney and non-attorney volunteers and facilitating utilization of community resources. KIND now offers training and resource manuals, on-site start up assistance and ongoing planning and implementation support. This web site describes these programs in detail, leads you through an assessment of your community and identifying community resources. It will also help you evaluate progress, develop a budget, and provides a first-year checklist. ++++++++++++ Jailing Parents for Their Children's Truancy The St. Petersburg Times reports on the practice of most Tampa Bay area counties to jail a handful of parents for educational neglect of elementary-age children. Many more have been placed on probation. Last year in Hillsborough County 37 parents were prosecuted, and four of them went to jail. In Pinellas County 62 parents were charge and two were jailed last year. School officials and prosecutors say charging parents is a last-ditch effort in a long process of getting problem parents to make school a priority. Click here to go to the St. Petersburg Times home page. At the search box type in "truancy" then scroll down to article #3. ++++++++++ Keeping Kids in School The Hennepin County, Minn. County Attorney’s Office has published two guides for parents on its web site: one on Truancy, the other on Educational Neglect. They’re both short, informative, and to the point. A Parent’s Guide to Truancy A Parent’s Guide to Educational Neglect ++++++++++ New Truancy Publications This publication from the American Bar Association features the truancy diversion program in Louisville, Kentucky established by Judge Joan Byer, a member of the National Council and a member of our teaching faculty. Judge Byer, as a Family Court judge, noticed that often members of truants’ families were in court on other matters. Over time she concluded that truancy often arises out of familial conditions and that one of the reasons truancy was so difficult to reverse was that the court orders did not address those issues. The result was a program that addresses the core reasons for truancy and offers truants concrete help in getting back on track in school. In the past year the program has been established in Baltimore, Phoenix, and Kansas City, Mo. This 18 page manual is downloadable at the ABA’s Standing Committee on Substance Abuse site. Once there click on "Literacy Programs in the Courts," which will take you to the pdf file for this document.
This 15 page bulletin from OJJDP reviews the problems associated with truancy and describes the correlations of family, school, economic, and student factors with truancy. It notes truancy’s role as a predictor of delinquency, including juvenile daytime crime, and it tallies truancy’s social and financial impacts. The bulletin features the ACT Now Program operated by the Pima County Attorney’s Office in Tucson, Arizona and the Truancy Reduction Demonstration Program association with Weed and Seed and the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program. Downloadable.
Truancy Truancy is a status offense. A status offense is an act that is only against the law when it is performed by a juvenile. Smoking, drinking, skipping school, running away, and not obeying the lawful orders of one’s parents are all status offenses. They are behaviors prohibited only to juveniles, not to adults, because of the juvenile's "status." | A 1990 publication of the National Council, A New Approach to Runaway, Truant, Substance Abusing and Beyond Control Children, * has this to say about truancy: The early teen and pre-teen years are the ages at which truancy and other minor misbehaviors appear. The underlying causes for these school problems most often are the result of home or family conditions, problems or dysfunction. In later adolescence, the truant may become the dropout, the pregnant teen, or the runaway, and the minor misbehavior may escalate into delinquent or criminal activity. By late adolescence minor problems have become major problems and the chances for intervening effectively are substantially reduced. This link will take you to our Publications Catalog. Once there, click on "Single Topic Journals" |
Truancy is very often the first sign of trouble in a young person’s life. A variety of research data over the past twenty years have consistently shown that truancy precedes dropping out of school, delinquency, and drug abuse. It can be a precursor to adult crime. Parental neglect is a common cause of truancy. Children are kept at home to work or to babysit. There may be no responsible adult at home to see that they get up and get off to school. Some kids stay home because they are afraid to go to school. Whatever the reason may be, it is rarely due to teenage high jinks. Truancy is a gateway to crime. High truancy rates are linked to daytime crime rates by juveniles. A report by the Los Angeles County Office of Education on factors contributing to juvenile delinquency concluded that chronic absenteeism is the most powerful predictor of delinquent behavior. Here are some resources about truancy and truancy programs. If you need more information, email me. I have an entire folio of information on truancy programs I’ll be happy to share with you. Truancy: First Step to a Lifetime of Problems – OJJDP publication provides background on truancy and descriptions of several truancy programs. Manual to Combat Truancy – This how-to manual tells you how to set up a truancy program. A joint product of the U.S. Departments of Education and Justice. At School, On Time, Ready to Work - a Kansas program to increase attendance of children at school and to prevent the removal of children from their homes. This program won the 1995 Bill Koch Community Safety Award. Truancy, A new Twist - comes from the Millbrae PD in the San Francisco Bay Area. Includes a set of forms. Stay in School Program - News article about a truancy initiative from the mayor of New Haven, Conn. creating a truancy court. Includes programming and materials for elementary age children. Guide to Community-Based Alternatives for Low-Risk Juvenile Offenders - This product of the Koch Crime Institute contains a section on Truancy featuring two outstanding truancy diversion programs. K.C. In-School Truancy Prevention Project - A truancy program of some complexity. Its component parts include a parent-school liaison, tutors, a truancy assessment center, and the involvement of the prosecutor's office. |
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