ABA Focuses on At Risk Youth in 2006-07

ABA President Karen Mathis has chosen to focus on at-risk teens and the legal issues that affect them during her term of office. Recommendations from the ABA Youth at Risk Initiative Planning Conference are available for download. The recommendations include:

• Better Hearing the Voices of Youth in Court
• Reforming the Juvenile “Status Offender” Process
• Enhancing Teen Access to Safe and Appropriate Prevention and Treatment Services
• Assisting Youth Who Are “Aging Out” of Foster Care

There is also a downloadable outline for establishing and running a truancy program available to you online from the Spring 2006 Criminal Justice Section Newsletter. These two pages will give you the bare bones for setting up a program. More detailed information available online. See note at the end of page two.

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Model Truancy Prevention Programs

ABA President Elect Karen Mathis will focus on at risk youth during her term in office. As part of the new president’s initiative members of the ABA’s Juvenile Justice Committee were surveyed regarding knowledge of truancy prevention initiatives. This downloadable report briefly describes constructive approaches to truancy intervention from locales across the country as reported by members. See also, "How to Establish and Run a Truancy Program."

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National Truancy Program Registry

There are currently 116 programs registered at the National Center for School Engagement (NCSE) web site. They can be sorted by state or by grade level and come with contact information and a wealth of detail. If you run a truancy program you can register it at the site too.

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Georgia Revokes Drivers Licenses of Students With High Absentee Rates and Other Disciplinary Problems

Students in Georgia can lose their licenses if they rack up 10 or more unexcused absences in a semester, commit a violence crime, or are arrested for drug, alcohol or weapons possession. Overall, the state revoked 11,422 drivers’ licenses for the 2005-06 academic year. Of those, 8,665 were for excessive absences and 2,757 were for students with other disciplinary problems. The Teenage and Adult Driver Responsibility Act was passed in 1997.

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Louisville Truancy Court DVD

I came home from Denver with about a hundred of these DVDs on the Truancy Court in Louisville, Kentucky run by Judge Joan Byer. The National Truancy Prevention Association presented at the conference and had these left over. I got them and I’m making them available to you. The DVD is about 25 minutes in length, in full color, and capably presented. If you’d like a copy, send me an email with your USPO mailing address and I’ll send you one. I’ll give them away until they run out. First come, first served.

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Reporter Looks at Truancy in Colorado Schools

Tina Griego, a columnist for the Rocky Mountain News, has written a series of articles about truancy and its costs to students, citizens and communities. If you click on the link above you will be taken to the last column in the series. You will find links to all previous columns on the subject on the right side of your screen. They focus on potential solutions for truancy problems, including two truancy courts.

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