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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
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Results for school attendance
18 results foundAuthor: Cahill, Meagan Title: Interim Report on the Truancy Court Diversion Program in the District of Columbia, 2011–12 Summary: The Truancy Court Diversion Program (TCDP) is a voluntary program for at risk students and their parents. It combines involvement of a Family Court judge in group and individual sessions with service provision. During the 2011-12 school year, a pilot TCDP was implemented at Kramer Middle School (M.S.) and at Johnson M.S. The program attempts to simultaneously address participants’ motivations and attitudes, as well as barriers to attendance. Attitudes are addressed by the involvement of judges in the program, whose role includes meeting with individual families, and via the program’s curriculum. The curriculum is intended to promote the personal responsibility of students and parents; increase parents’ level of positive involvement with their children and the school; improve attitudes toward school achievement, graduation, and career aspirations; and improve parent-child communication. Barriers to attendance are addressed through family needs assessments, case management, and service referrals provided by a community collaborative and coordinated though a meeting with the judge and program team. The approach of the program is to address the “whole child.” This interim report is focused on implementation. The report reviews the logic and design of the program, implementation successes and challenges, and makes recommendations to enhance the program and its implementation. A final report will also examine the services delivered through the program. Key findings from the pilot TCDP include implementation challenges as well as some encouraging findings. Implementation findings include: • Successful program implementation requires a strong partnership between the courts and schools. • The current pilot encountered challenges concerning recruitment and program participation. • A limiting factor to integrated service provision in the current pilot was the lack of regular team meetings to assess family needs and services as well as academic progress, or a strong structure for regular information-sharing. Despite such implementation issues, the program seems to have improved attitudes and school aspirations of students, as well as parent-child communication, for those students and parents who participated regularly. The program also was successful in reaching needy families with services. This interim report is not able to speak to the program’s success in improving attendance. Based on our study of the program’s implementation in this pilot, we recommend the following modifications to strengthen the program: • Use prior year’s school attendance as eligibility criteria. • Formalize additional program eligibility criteria. • Strengthen the use of incentives and consequences to improve program attendance. • Provide increased training for all partners, especially judges new to the program. • Allow sufficient time for planning, recruitment, and intake prior to beginning weekly program sessions. • Hold regular team meetings. Several additional modifications would be needed in order to expand the program designed to address truancy more broadly, rather than just the truancy of a few individual students. Because each TCDP is inherently limited to 10 to 15 participating students per school per semester, expansion to address considerably more students involves expansion to more schools. To achieve consistent implementation across multiple schools would require: • More formalization of the program, including eligibility and recruitment criteria, program curriculum, procedures for the judge-family individual meetings, and incentives and consequences for program attendance. • Dedicated resources, including a formal program director. • Additional support from both the school and the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS). In conclusion, the TCDP seems to hold promise for positive intervention in the lives of students at risk for chronic truancy and their parents, and improving their school attendance and academic performance. However, the pilot suggests that program implementation could be considerably improved, and that structural changes would be necessary for the TCDP to have the potential to impact the truancy of a more substantial number of students. Details: Washington, DC: Urban Institute, District of Columbia Crime Policy Institute, 2012. 33p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 5, 2012 at: http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/412664-Interim-Report-on-the-Truancy-Court-Diversion-Program.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/412664-Interim-Report-on-the-Truancy-Court-Diversion-Program.pdf Shelf Number: 126561 Keywords: At-risk YouthProblem Solving CourtsSchool AttendanceTruancy (U.S.) |
Author: Liberman, Akiva Title: Variation in 2010-11 Truancy Rates Among District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) High Schools and Middle Schools Summary: This report provides a snapshot of truancy in District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) high schools and middle schools in 2010-11. School data on student absenteeism was combined with Census and crime data on school neighborhoods and students' residential neighborhoods. Key findings include: The average truancy rates vary so much between schools that the average across all students in all schools represents neither a typical nor representative school, nor a typical student. Informative analysis of truancy must focus on the variation among schools, and the truancy rates of particular schools. Across schools, about 2,500 high schools students were chronically truant. Truancy rates are very high at several high schools, with four schools showing chronic truancy for the majority of their students, and another three showing over 40 percent chronic truancy. These numbers mean it is simply not feasible for the primary response to be based in the Family Court. Actually referring all of these chronic truants to Family Court would swamp the Court's resources. For high schools: Overall absences and truancy are so highly correlated with each other that either measure produces equivalent findings in comparing high schools. As a result, any of these measures can be used to explore why schools vary and the findings will be equivalent. High school (HS) absenteeism rates are strongly predicted by their students' 8th grade truancy. Therefore, most of the differences in truancy among high schools are not due to differential success among HSs in preventing truancy. Put another way, the continuation and escalation of truancy behavior from middle school to high school seems equivalent across schools. This suggests that lowering middle school absenteeism may be the most efficient and effective approach to lowering high school truancy rates. The high school's immediate neighborhood is a weaker predictor of truancy than the residential neighborhoods of its students, although violence surrounding the school is moderately related to truancy. HS truancy rates are moderately related to student poverty and poverty in students' residential neighborhoods. Crime in high school students' residential neighborhoods is moderately related to truancy. For middle schools: Middle school overall absences and truancy are somewhat distinct. The immediate neighborhood of middle schools has little relationship to its truancy. Neighborhood relationships for middle school truancy are weaker than for HS truancy. Middle school students' poverty, residential neighborhood poverty, and residential neighborhood crime are moderately related to truancy, but at one-third to one-half the strength of HS truancy. Residential neighborhood features are more strongly associated with truancy in HS than MS. This is consistent with a general developmental pattern: The family context and parents are the most important influences for younger children; with age, broader social contexts, including peers and neighborhoods, exert more direct effects on children's behavior. Truancy interventions that are primarily family-based are more likely to prove effective at earlier ages, while truancy interventions at older ages need to also involve broader social contexts. Exploring community-level risk variables is an important addition to analysis of truancy data alone, but it only begins to explore the important risk factors for truancy. For example, family factors are widely believed to be important risk factors for truancy, and are central to two pilot interventions launched by the Interagency Truancy Task Force in 2011-12. The current report does not explore such family risk factors, although some "family factors" such as single parenthood are explored at the neighborhood level. Similarly, school factors such as teacher relationships are undoubtedly important factors for truancy, but were beyond the scope of the current study. Details: Washington, DC: Urban Institute, District of Columbia Crime Policy Institute, 2012. 31p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 25, 2013 at: http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/412712-Variation-in-2010-11-Truancy-Rates-Among-District-of-Columbia-Public-Schools.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://www.urban.org/UploadedPDF/412712-Variation-in-2010-11-Truancy-Rates-Among-District-of-Columbia-Public-Schools.pdf Shelf Number: 127397 Keywords: EducationNeighborhoodsSchool AttendanceTruancy (Washington, DC) |
Author: Courage Partners Title: Final Report: Final Evaluation of Youth in Communities Summary: Courage Partners was engaged by the Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs to conduct an evaluation of the Youth in Communities program. The evaluation commenced in July 2010 and was finalised in June 2012. The final evaluation of the program showed participants are more engaged at school and with their peers, are involving themselves more in cultural programs, sport and leadership activities, and are benefiting from higher self-esteem. The evaluation also found that organisations supported by Youth in Communities had successfully strengthened their service models to deliver better outcomes for young people. This includes developing more gender-specific programs to improve participation among young males, offering youth work traineeships to help create sustainable local employment opportunities, and strengthening relationships with local elders. Details: Canberra: Department of Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs, 2012. 110p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 9, 2013 at: https://www.fahcsia.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/02_2013/youth_in_communities_final_evaluation_report.pdf Year: 2012 Country: Australia URL: https://www.fahcsia.gov.au/sites/default/files/documents/02_2013/youth_in_communities_final_evaluation_report.pdf Shelf Number: 128322 Keywords: Aboriginal YouthDelinquency PreventionEducational ProgramsIndigenous YouthJuvenile Offenders (Australia)School Attendance |
Author: Ludwig, Jens Title: Preventing Youth Violence and Dropout: A Randomized Field Experiment Summary: Improving the long-term life outcomes of disadvantaged youth remains a top policy priority in the United States, although identifying successful interventions for adolescents – particularly males – has proven challenging. This paper reports results from a large randomized controlled trial of an intervention for disadvantaged male youth grades 7-10 from high-crime Chicago neighborhoods. The intervention was delivered by two local non-profits and included regular interactions with a pro-social adult, after-school programming, and – perhaps the most novel ingredient – in-school programming designed to reduce common judgment and decision-making problems related to automatic behavior and biased beliefs, or what psychologists call cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). We randomly assigned 2,740 youth to programming or to a control group; about half those offered programming participated, with the average participant attending 13 sessions. Program participation reduced violent-crime arrests during the program year by 8.1 per 100 youth (a 44 percent reduction). It also generated sustained gains in schooling outcomes equal to 0.14 standard deviations during the program year and 0.19 standard deviations during the follow-up year, which we estimate could lead to higher graduation rates of 3-10 percentage points (7-22 percent). Depending on how one monetizes the social costs of crime, the benefit-cost ratio may be as high as 30:1 from reductions in criminal activity alone. Details: Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2013. 81p. Source: Internet Resoruce: NBER Working Paper 19014: Accessed May 9, 2013 at: http://www.nber.org/papers/w19014 Year: 2013 Country: United States URL: http://www.nber.org/papers/w19014 Shelf Number: 128689 Keywords: At-risk YouthCost-Benefit AnalysisDelinquency Prevention (U.S.)Education and CrimeSchool AttendanceSchool Dropouts |
Author: Aird, Elyse Title: Impact of ICAN Flexible Learning Options on Participant Offending Behaviour Summary: Innovative Community Action Networks (ICAN) is a Department for Education and Child Development (DECD)-led community driven social inclusion initiative that aims to re-engage young people who have disengaged from school or are at risk of doing so. An ICAN developed learning strategy known as a Flexible Learning Option (FLO) provides funding and support for young people to engage in different accredited learning and engagement activities while still enrolled in their school. OCSAR was approached by ICAN representatives and asked to investigate the offending behaviour of FLO participants. Anecdotal evidence suggests that involvement in ICAN and FLO may be associated with a reduction in offending behaviour (ARTD Consultants 2012, Atelier Learning Solutions 2007). Although preventing offending is not a primary objective of ICAN, it is known that disengagement from education is associated with an increased risk of contact with the justice system (Henry, Knight & Thornberry 2012), and it is therefore possible that an improvement in engagement in education would be associated with a reduction in contact with the justice system. The aims of the current study are to: - determine the offending profile of a group of ICAN Flexible Learning Options (FLO) participants before, during and after enrolment in FLO; and - examine the impact of the ICAN FLO strategy on participant offending behaviour. The specific research questions for the study are: - What proportion of FLO students had a record of recent formal contact with the police and/or a proven conviction/s prior to FLO enrolment? - For those who had recent formal contact with police or had been convicted of an offence/s, what is the nature of the offending? - How did the offending profile of FLO students change during and after their FLO enrolment, in terms of rate, type and severity of offending? - How do outcomes following FLO vary according to student characteristics such as Indigenous status, disability status, geographical area and Guardianship status? - How do the age-specific offending rates for FLO-enrolled young people compare with those of the South Australian population? Details: Adelaide, SA: Office of Crime Statistics and Research, Strategic Policy and Organisational Performance, South Australian Attorney-General's Department, 2014. 41p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 11, 2014 at: http://www.ocsar.sa.gov.au/docs/evaluation_reports/ICAN.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Australia URL: http://www.ocsar.sa.gov.au/docs/evaluation_reports/ICAN.pdf Shelf Number: 132746 Keywords: Delinquency PreventionEducationJuvenile Offenders (Australia)School AttendanceSchool Dropouts |
Author: Sapp, David Title: Counterproductive and Wasteful: Los Angeles' Daytime Curfew Pushes Students Away From School Summary: In 1995, the Los Angeles City Council passed an ordinance establishing a daytime curfew for the city's youth. Promulgated as Los Angeles Municipal Code (LAMC) 45.04, the law as currently written makes it unlawful, with limited exceptions, for any youth under the age of 18 to be in a public place during hours of the day when the youth's school is in session. Between 2005 and 2009, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and the Los Angeles School Police Department (LASPD) issued more than 47,000 tickets under the ordinance. This report - based on a review of scientific research, interviews with and surveys of thousands of students, and data obtained from LAPD, LASPD, and other public agencies - argues that LAMC 45.04 is a fundamentally misguided policy. The curfew, which has increasingly been used as an enforcement tool to improve student attendance, in fact causes students to miss school. The curfew's economic burdens - which include hefty fines, missed days of school to attend court hearings, and lost earnings by parents who must accompany their children to court - fall most heavily on low-income communities and families that are least able to afford them. And the law has been applied in a manner that disproportionately affects black and Latino youth, who have been issued curfew citations under LAMC 45.04 in numbers that far exceed their percentage of the population - a fact which, among others, exposes the city and other agencies to legal liability. Moreover, substantial research shows that curfew laws are ineffective in achieving their stated purpose of reducing crime. LAMC 45.04 diverts resources away from addressing serious crime, forcing police to address student attendance matters which are properly addressed by schools and families, not the penal system. In response to a multi-year campaign by community organizations, LAPD and LASPD have agreed to modify their enforcement protocols for the daytime curfew to address some of the law's most deleterious consequences. These changes, reflected in recently issued guidance directives, represent meaningful steps forward. The law enforcement agencies with primary responsibility for enforcing the daytime curfew have demonstrated leadership by curtailing the unnecessary criminalization of youth and ensuring that their limited resources are instead focused on investigating and preventing crime. Nonetheless, serious problems remain. Among other things, the new enforcement protocols are internal guidelines and thus can be revised at any time; they leave substantial discretion to individual officers (for example officers maintain discretion to handcuff and cite students who are simply running late to school); and they do not apply to the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, which also has authority to cite students under the ordinance. The reality is that as long as LAMC 45.04 is on the books, the potential for youth to be caught up unnecessarily in the penal system remains and limited resources for addressing real crime will continue to be misallocated. As we discuss in these pages, the time has come to repeal this failed and counterproductive policy and to establish in its place a sensible and sustainable approach for ensuring that children stay in school. In place of the current approach, we encourage the City of Los Angeles to work with the many agencies within Los Angeles County with a stake in ensuring that our youth are engaged in school - school districts, county agencies such as the Department of Children and Family Services and the Probation Department, the juvenile courts, and law enforcement officials and prosecutors - to implement a research-based approach to engage students in school and to ensure that students are connected with appropriate resources if they begin to disconnect from the education system. This report concludes with recommendations for a comprehensive set of reforms drawing from evidence-based practices and research evaluating the effectiveness of various programs from around the country. Details: Los Angeles: ACLU of Southern California, 2012. 16p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 20, 2015 at: http://www.publiccounsel.org/tools/assets/files/Counterproductive-and-Wasteful-Los-Angeles-daytime-curfew-report_FINAL.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://www.publiccounsel.org/tools/assets/files/Counterproductive-and-Wasteful-Los-Angeles-daytime-curfew-report_FINAL.pdf Shelf Number: 135723 Keywords: Juvenile CurfewsSchool AttendanceStudentsTruants |
Author: Heilbrunn, Joanna Zorn Title: The Costs and Benefits of Three Intensive Interventions with Colorado Truants Summary: In recent years, truancy has become a focus of policy discussions across the country. School districts, juvenile court, and police departments across the map are trying new methods to keep children in school1. There are several good reasons for this. At a minimum, a truant child is likely to be ill-prepared for skilled work, an increasingly serious problem given the shrinking demand for unskilled labor in the United States. One undereducated individual has a personal problem, but when urban areas are home to large numbers of residents who lack a high school diploma, the problem becomes both social and economic. On one hand, the business community has been vocal about the difficulty of finding an adequately trained workforce. On the other hand, United States residents who are unable to earn an adequate living look to various welfare programs for help, such as income assistance (TANF), Medicaid, Food Stamps, and Women, Infants and Children (WIC). These programs are funded by taxpayers, many of whom are reluctant contributors. Furthermore, research has consistently shown problems with school to be a risk factor for drug and alcohol use and for involvement with the juvenile justice system. Although it would be inaccurate and unfair to characterize all, or even most, truants as delinquents, it is quite accurate to recognize that a majority of criminals begin their careers of social deviance with truancy. Truancy is a red flag that may signal any of a number of problems in a child's home, ranging from poverty, to mental health, to physical abuse. And it warns of a child who is undaunted by breaking the social convention of school attendance, and who has time on his or her hands. Such a youth may be ripe for induction into criminal or self-destructive activity. Despite the new trend toward truancy reduction, and the general belief that truancy is a precursor to other more serious problems, little research has been done regarding the effectiveness of truancy reduction approaches, or their relative costs and benefits. Most published information to date tends to be more descriptive than analytical. This paper begins to fill that gap by reporting the costs and the estimated benefits of three truancy reduction programs in Colorado: The Adams County Truancy Reduction Project, the Denver Truancy Reduction Demonstration Project, and Pueblo's Project Respect. These three programs are of interest both for the diversity and the similarity of their approaches. All three treat truancy as a family problem, and rely on intensive case management intervention with the family. All try to be advocates for the families, and build upon the families' strengths, rather than take a punitive approach. All make frequent use of referrals to outside agencies, such as health clinics or drug and alcohol rehabilitation providers, and they make communication with these service providers part of their regular process. Yet they differ markedly in terms of their budget, scope, and where they fall in the larger picture of school, district, and court policy. The Adams County project is court-initiated. It is available to all the school districts in the county as an alternative to the regular court system; some of the districts choose to use the program, and some do not. The Denver project is run by the Community Assessment Center, and is an add-on to a much larger district-run truancy reduction effort. Both these interventions follow several levels of school and district-sponsored efforts, and come as a last resort before initiating court proceedings. The Pueblo project is wide-scale, with a large budget, and is active in every Title One school in Pueblo's urban school district. This project is school-based, and constitutes the universe of intervention efforts made prior to a court appearance. The Denver program focuses on middle school students, while the other programs are available to children of all grade levels. A thorough description of each of these programs may be found in Appendices A through C at the end of this report. This paper shows that the costs of each of the three truancy reduction projects, and each of the three court systems, pale in comparison to the enormous costs of high school failure and of juvenile delinquency. In light of the benefits of high school graduation, all the approaches to truancy reduction reviewed here likely pay for themselves many times over. Neither the court approach nor the case management models are shown to be demonstrably better than the other. It is most likely that the best model includes a court system that works in conjunction with social workers and school districts to provide a coherent and consistent approach to truancy in which children are not allowed to slip through the cracks. Details: Denver, CO: National Center for School Engagement, 2003. 42p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 26, 2015 at: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.509.453&rep=rep1&type=pdf Year: 2003 Country: United States URL: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.509.453&rep=rep1&type=pdf Shelf Number: 130048 Keywords: Delinquency PreventionFamily InterventionsSchool AttendanceStatus OffendersTruancyTruants |
Author: Williams, Natalie Title: Lessons to learn: Exploring the links between running away and absence from school Summary: Every year, 100,000 children run away from home or care in the UK. They often run from serious problems at home such as family breakdown, abuse, neglect or problems at school such as bullying or unmet special educational needs. When children run away they are at risk of physical abuse, sexual exploitation or being forced to resort to highly dangerous survival strategies such as stealing or begging to survive. Our research shows that children who run away are three times more likely to be absent from school. Children spend more time at school than anywhere else. It is crucial that school and education professionals are able to recognise running away as a cry for help. This report explores the link between problems at school, including absences and exclusions, and running away. It makes a series of recommendations about how young people at risk should be supported and how professionals can better meet their needs. Key messages - Children who are absent from school are more than three times as likely to have run away. - Young people usually run away because of problems at home or school. Others may run away because they are being sexually exploited or become involved in crime. - Schools professionals need to have a better understanding of the risks faced by children when they run away and the warning signs that they may be running away. - Schools and local authorities must ensure that absences are correctly recorded and analyse data for patterns of running away. - Schools should ensure they initiate an assessment of need when a young person is running away or is persistently absent from school. - Schools need to have access to multi-agency teams that can intervene early and provide holistic support to young people who run away and their parents. Details: London: The Children's Society, 2012. 14p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 18, 2015 at: http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/tcs/lessons-to-learn_final.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.childrenssociety.org.uk/sites/default/files/tcs/lessons-to-learn_final.pdf Shelf Number: 136810 Keywords: RunawaysSchool AttendanceStatus OffendersTruancy |
Author: Finlay, Krystina A. Title: Final Evaluation Report: Gulfton Truancy Reduction Demonstration Project, Houston, TX Summary: This report details the evaluation outcomes of two components of the Gulfton Truancy Reduction Demonstration Project: police visits to the homes of truant students and case management for truants. The goals of this portion of the evaluation were to 1) assess the effectiveness of these two components in reducing absences and improving grades, 2) assess the effectiveness of case management in improving school engagement, 3) to a lesser extent examine the relationship between grades and attendance in general, and 4) compare the costs and benefits of case management. The majority of data for this report came from 2004-2005 school year records, student and parent surveys, and police records. The Gulfton area, and specifically the target high school, Lee, is primarily Hispanic. More than 70% of Gulfton students have limited English proficiency, compared with 27.6% in Houston Independent School District and 13.4% statewide. A large part of the community is made up of Mexican immigrants. In addition, Gulfton's median family income of $18,733 is nearly 30% below the city's median. In the 97-98 school year, 75% of Gulfton students were eligible for free/reduced lunch. Two main components of the truancy reduction effort in Houston were examined. The first, the practice of police visiting a truant students' home, was found to be effective in improving attendance, especially within the two weeks immediately following the visit. Long term effectiveness was not established, although it is possible that for some students this practice has a long term effect. Students who received these visits typically missed school for a variety of reasons. For instance, 40% percent of students reported being new to the school, and thus may have had difficulty with the enrollment process or simply getting into the routine necessary for daily attendance. Sixty-five percent said they were failing classes and 58% said they had difficulty understanding homework and assignments. In addition, 71% said they needed academic help. Most often, officers referred students to academic tutoring and did not issue tickets for truancy. Case management services were not effective for the majority of students. The current study found that case management was primarily targeted at students who were most at-risk. Truants receiving case management were compared to truants not receiving case management to explore the effectiveness of case management. Findings suggested that truants who did not receive case management were not struggling as much as those receiving services. In general, attendance, grades and school engagement were worse for truants receiving case management than for truants who were not given the services. Nevertheless, it was found that case management did not improve attendance nor did it improve grades or school engagement for the group as a whole. However, this is not to say that case management was ineffective for every single student. The effect of improving just one student's attendance and grades resulted in an estimated return of investment of over $4.00 for every $1.00 spent in providing case management. This fact is reason enough to continue the Houston Truancy Reduction case management efforts. Given that home visits from police are successful in improving short-term attendance, it is recommended that follow-up with the student occur within two weeks of the visit. Academic tutoring and other activities to increase school engagement should be provided immediately to ensure long term success. In general, case management may be more successful for truants if provided earlier in their school careers. Achievement levels were very low for the students involved in case management. Reaching these students before school failure is eminent would likely improve the outcomes of services. Details: Denver, CO: Colorado Foundation for Families and Children, 2006. 58p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 25, 2015 at: http://schoolengagement.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/FinalEvaluationReportGulftonTruancyReductionDemonstrationProjectHoustonTX.pdf Year: 2006 Country: United States URL: http://schoolengagement.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/FinalEvaluationReportGulftonTruancyReductionDemonstrationProjectHoustonTX.pdf Shelf Number: 136886 Keywords: At-Risk YouthSchool AttendanceStatus OffendersTruancyTruants |
Author: National Center for School Engagement Title: Innovations in Truancy Prevention Practice: An Inventory of Selected Collaborations from around the United States Summary: In June 2004, The National Center for School Engagement (NCSE) was commissioned by the National Truancy Prevention Association (NTPA) to examine truancy programs nationwide1. The purpose of doing this research was to inform NTPA about best practices in court-based truancy reduction programs, identify truancy efforts that are currently in existence nationwide, and determine training needs for truancy programs. To do this, NCSE completed three phases of work which included creating and marketing an online database of truancy programs, completing in-depth programmatic exploration of court involved truancy efforts, and dissemination of results. The first phase of the NTPA project began with the development of an online database to capture information about truancy programs across the country and to aid in the identification of court involved truancy programs. NCSE actively marketed the online registration system, which appeared on the NCSE website at www.truancyprevention.org (currently named www.schoolengagement.org). As of March 20, 2005, 65 programs/projects were registered. Fifty-four percent (35) of the programs in the registry provide direct services to truants. Sixty-two of the 65 programs reported taking a family-wide approach to serving their clients. The three most common barriers these programs reported are poor parental involvement and communication, difficulties collaborating with schools and school staff, and funding and budget concerns. One-third of the programs in the registry receive funding through a combination of sources and 22% receive federal grants. The second phase was to gain an in-depth look into court-based truancy programs. To do this NCSE conducted 12 interviews with judges and staff of selected promising programs that were specifically court involved. The goals of these interviews were to obtain more detailed information of court-based programs, identify challenges they face, ascertain effective practices, and find out whom the programs serve. These programs serve truant youth in a variety of ways. However, seven of the 12 programs included in this study are similar in that the main practice is to identify truant youth who are typically not delinquent and hold weekly truancy courts with Judges at the students' schools. These programs are similar in many ways and are discussed as a group called "Truancy Court Programs". Each program addresses truancy in a unique way, but all attempt to identify and help meet the needs of the family as a whole, rather than just the student. The judges and program staff often perform similar roles. For instance, the judges and other court personnel in NE, GA, and both programs in WI primarily provide referrals to the program, participate in collaboration and are seen as partners, but do not necessarily lead the program. The judges in the "Truancy Court Programs" are more often seen as leaders of the program, are active weekly participants, act as catalysts for change, and coordinate the program. In all programs, collaboration with entities outside of the courts exists. Partners vary widely, but often include the schools, superintendents, law enforcement, and social and community services. Identifying best practices is difficult because most court-based truancy reduction efforts have neither time nor staff to engage in formal external evaluation. In fact, funding and evaluation needs, in addition to program development and stakeholder buy in, were the most common challenges identified by these programs. Regardless of the lack of formal evaluation, many programs do have access to attendance and court records, and some track these as indicators of success. The majority report improved attendance since the programs' inceptions, and all have anecdotal data about individual students' successes. Best practices were identified mainly through what the interviewees have experienced to have worked. Details: National Center for School Engagement, 2005. 107p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 8, 2015 at: http://schoolengagement.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/InnovationsinTruancyPreventionPracticeAnInventoryofSelectedCollaborationsfromaroundtheUnitedStates.pdf Year: 2005 Country: United States URL: http://schoolengagement.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/InnovationsinTruancyPreventionPracticeAnInventoryofSelectedCollaborationsfromaroundtheUnitedStates.pdf Shelf Number: 136973 Keywords: At-Risk YouthDelinquency PreventionProblem-Solving CourtsSchool AttendanceStatus OffendersTruancy |
Author: Texas Appleseed Title: Class, Not Court: Reconsidering Texas' Criminalization of Truancy Summary: This report continues Texas Appleseed's school-to-prison pipeline work by delving into how Texas' approach to truancy is driving more children away from school and into the adult criminal courts. The report explores causes of truancy, evaluates the current approaches to addressing truancy, highlights the disproportionate impacts of truancy charges on certain groups of students, and makes recommendations for ways that the Texas Legislature, the Texas Education Agency (TEA), and school districts can increase attendance and help children in a meaningful way. - Details: Austin, TX: Texas Appleseed, 2015. 100p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 24, 2015 at: https://www.texasappleseed.org/sites/default/files/TruancyReport_All_FINAL_SinglePages.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: https://www.texasappleseed.org/sites/default/files/TruancyReport_All_FINAL_SinglePages.pdf Shelf Number: 137322 Keywords: At-Risk YouthSchool AttendanceSchool-to-Prison PipelineStatus OffensesTruancy |
Author: National Center for School Engagement Title: Jacksonville, Florida Case Study: Evidence of Effectiveness in Reducing Truancy Summary: In recent years, truancy has become a focus of policy discussions across the country. School districts, juvenile courts, and police departments across the map are trying new methods to keep children in school (Cantelon and LeBoeuf, 1997). The business community has been vocal about the need for a workforce with a more solid foundation in the basic skills that public education is expected to provide. In response to concerns about school attendance and achievement, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention funded several model community-based truancy reduction programs to operate in various cities nationwide. One of these programs is located in Jacksonville. This chapter reports the results of a six-year evaluation of that program. Subsequent chapters will report on the progress being made in two other OJJPD-funded programs in Houston, TX and Seattle, WA. It is "common knowledge" among those who work in the field of juvenile justice that truancy leads to a number of undesirable outcomes, yet the body of research on truancy - its causes, outcomes, and methods of prevention - is still limited. Retrospective studies of juvenile delinquents show th at truancy is common among that group, and attitudes toward school are poor. However, the only prospective study - one that begins with the population of truants and investigates th eir propensity to be involved with delinquent behavior - is being conducted by the Study Group on Very Young Offenders, sponsored by OJJDP. This longitudinal study, conducted in Denver, CO; Rochester, NY; and Pittsburgh, PA, shows that truancy is one of the early behaviors that may eventually lead to serious delinquency (Loeber and Farrington, 2000). They identified truancy as a "disruptive behavior" a nd found that one quarter to one half of disruptive children are at risk of becoming juvenile delinquents. Results of the recent National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health show that frequent problems with school work is the single greatest risk factor for four of the five risky behaviors studied: cigarette smoking, under-age alcohol use, weapon-related violence and suicidal thoughts and attempts (Blum, Beuhring, and Rinehart, 2000). With the new trend toward truancy reduction and the general belief that truancy is a precursor to other more serious problems, the National Center for School Engagement has been conducting one of the few longitudinal studies regarding the effectiveness of truancy reduction approaches, and their relative costs and benefits. The National Center for School Engagement has conducted a proc ess evaluation of seven community-based truancy reduction programs, and an outcome evaluation of three of the sites; Jacksonville is one of these. Specifically, the comprehensive process, outcome and cost-benefit evaluation have been conducted with the Truancy Arbitration Program in Jacksonville, Florida. The following research questi ons were used to guide this study: Research Questions 1. What is the relative cost effectiveness of these interventions given their propensity to produce high school gradua tion and deter criminal activity? 2. What specific parent, school, and community interventions are consistently effective in improving school attendance, attachment, and academic achievement for truant youth? Details: Denver, CO: Colorado Foundation for Families and Children, 2005. 18p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 4, 2016 at: http://schoolengagement.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/JacksonvilleFloridaCaseStudyEvidenceofEffectivenessinReducingTruancy.pdf Year: 2005 Country: United States URL: http://schoolengagement.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/JacksonvilleFloridaCaseStudyEvidenceofEffectivenessinReducingTruancy.pdf Shelf Number: 130049 Keywords: School AttendanceStatus OffensesTruancy |
Author: Coker, Elizabeth Title: Truancy in Washington State: Filing Trends, Juvenile Court Responses, and the Educational Outcomes of Petitioned Truant Youth Summary: Truancy and its correlates, school disengagement and failure, negatively impact life chances for children, the well-being of communities where they live, and the vitality of the state as a whole. The Washington State legislature passed the 1995 "Becca Laws" in response to the case of Becca Hedman, whose chronic truancy and running away from home led to her tragic murder at the age of 12. The Becca Laws are intended to empower families, schools and students to jointly address and overcome barriers to attendance with support from the juvenile courts as necessary1. Since that time, local juvenile courts and school districts across Washington have implemented a variety of programs and practices designed to fulfill the requirements of the Becca Laws while respecting the unique strengths and challenges present in their own communities. Some of these attempts have failed while others have survived and even shown promise over time. All are potentially instructive. Twenty years later, it is time to capitalize on these experiences in order to develop effective truancy intervention programs that reach the students they are meant to serve. Research has demonstrated the effectiveness of Community Truancy Boards (CTBs), and yet these model programs are available in only a handful of Washington State juvenile courts. The truancy petition process is meant to provide families, schools and communities with the legal backing needed to enforce school attendance by identifying and removing barriers to attendance, yet barely one-third of eligible students receive truancy petitions. Of those who do receive truancy petitions, few attend school districts that have quality court-school truancy intervention programs in place. The truancy petition process represents the letter of Washington's truancy laws, but ignores their spirit and intent. The intent of the Becca Laws is to unite schools, courts, communities and families in an effort to provide the services needed to help students to overcome their own personal barriers to school attendance. Truancy petitions are a means to this end, if used in that spirit. This is the second in a series of WSCCR reports describing statewide trends in truancy petition filings, school performance and outcomes for petitioned youth, and current truancy prevention and intervention programs in juvenile courts across the state. This report describes the current condition of truancy practices in Washington State from the perspective of the juvenile courts; outlines recent and historical trends in truancy petition filings; and reports on the educational progress and 3-year outcomes of students who were petitioned truant during the 2010/11 academic year (AY). Drawing from a statewide survey of juvenile courts, linked juvenile court and education data, and other sources, the two studies reported herein describe the common educational pathways of truant youths, both before and after court contact, and provide an overview of the current range of juvenile court responses to truancy in Washington State Details: Olympia, WA: Washington State Center for Court Research, 2015. 86p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 22, 2016 at: https://www.courts.wa.gov/wsccr/docs/WSCCRTruancyUpdate2015.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United States URL: https://www.courts.wa.gov/wsccr/docs/WSCCRTruancyUpdate2015.pdf Shelf Number: 140422 Keywords: Juvenile CourtSchool AttendanceStatus OffensesTruancyTruancy Court |
Author: George, Thomas Title: Truancy in Washington State: Trends, Student Characteristics, and the Impact of Receiving a Truancy Petition Summary: Using multiple research methods, this study examined recent trends, student characteristics, and the impact of receiving a truancy petition on youth outcomes over the past several years and from a variety of perspectives. It draws on numerous published reports, a newly created educational research database containing nearly one million student records, over 1,000 responses on a recently developed risk and needs assessment administered to youths and their parents, and a comprehensive court contact and recidivism database detailing youths' court histories Details: Olympia, WA: Washington State Center for Court Research, 2011. 50p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 22, 2016 at: https://www.courts.wa.gov/wsccr/docs/TruancyEvalReport.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: https://www.courts.wa.gov/wsccr/docs/TruancyEvalReport.pdf Shelf Number: 145576 Keywords: Juvenile CourtSchool AttendanceStatus OffensesTruancyTruancy Court |
Author: Crumpton, C. David Title: Assessing School Attendance Problem and Truancy Intervention in Maryland: A Synthesis of Evidence from Baltimore City and the Lower Eastern Shore Summary: The Maryland Judiciary shares responsibility with Maryland's Executive Branch and local school systems in enforcing the state's mandatory school attendance and truancy laws. An innovation to address the truancy issue was introduced in 2004 when the General Assembly authorized the establishment of the Truancy Reduction Pilot Program (TRPP) in the First Judicial Circuit comprised of four counties located on Maryland's Lower Eastern Shore. The authorizing legislation also required the Judiciary to perform an evaluation of the program. This initiative stimulated an intensive process of policy and program analysis by the Judiciary concerning the most appropriate, efficient and effective roles of courts and judges in responding to truancy. This effort was given additional impetus as the result of the State Justice Institute's (SJI) award of a grant to the Judiciary in 2008. Under the SJI grant, the Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) evaluated three alternative approaches to truancy intervention in Baltimore City and the First Judicial Circuit (including TRPP), assessed the context of truancy in Baltimore City and the First Judicial Circuit and synthesized the findings from this research to support an assessment of the school attendance and truancy intervention policy and program framework from the perspective of the Judiciary. The current report represents this synthesis. The Maryland programs discussed in this report represent a continuum of court involvement, with no judicial presence in BSMART, participation of judges in an unofficial capacity in TCP, and judges exercising their full authority in TRPP. Process and outcome evaluations provide some level of support for continuing the BSMART, TCP, and TRPP interventions. Research has shown that truancy is related to a number of negative social and behavioral outcomes, including poor school performance, high dropout rates, and increased involvement in juvenile and adult criminal behavior. Truancy is typically caused by factors from four levels: the individual, the family, the school, and the neighborhood and community. Recommended approaches to reducing truancy emphasize family involvement, interagency collaboration, provision of services that address the needs of students and their families, and incentives and sanctions. The contextual analysis provided documentation of the levels of truancy in school districts across Maryland and the relationship of truancy levels to other variables. Qualitative information provided by respondents involved in school attendance issues in the study jurisdictions mirrored the national perspective that truancy is related to a complex, multi-level set of factors and requires holistic solutions. Statewide in Maryland, 2.25% of students (or roughly 20,000 students) were identified as habitually truant during the 2009-2010 school year because they were absent without a valid excuse for more than 20% of school days. The rate of habitual truancy varies by jurisdiction. Among the jurisdictions that are the focus of this report, the counties on the Lower Eastern Shore (Dorchester, Somerset, Wicomico, and Worcester) have habitual truancy rates ranging from 0.29% to 1.49%, whereas Baltimore City has a habitual truancy rate of 8.00%. Although the overall rates for the counties on the Lower Eastern Shore are relatively low, in three of the four counties, truancy rates in individual schools exceeded the state average. Analysis of data across Maryland school systems revealed the following relationships between truancy and other variables: strong positive correlations between rates of habitual truancy and dropout rates, African American students as a percentage of school enrollment, special education students as a percentage of school enrollment, and teen birth rates strong negative correlations between rates of habitual truancy and white students as a percentage of school enrollment and percentages of adults in the community who are high school graduates moderate positive correlation between rates of habitual truancy and poverty rates weak positive correlation between rates of habitual truancy and percent of children living in poverty weak negative correlation between rates of habitual truancy and median household incomes no significant correlation between rates of habitual truancy and unemployment rates or rates of referrals for juvenile delinquency With a few exceptions, Baltimore City and the counties on the Lower Eastern Shore rank among the highest in the state in those variables for which positive correlations with truancy were found (e.g., dropout rates, poverty levels, and teen birth rates) and among the lowest in the state in those variables that have negative correlations with truancy (e.g., median household income and high school completion rates). Knowledgeable informants, including parents, school officials, legal officials, and service providers, identified the following factors as contributing to truancy problems in the five study jurisdictions: impact of poverty, value placed on education, individual needs of children, inadequate monitoring, transportation challenges, safety, and family difficulties, While acknowledging the need to hold parents accountable, respondents generally favored non-punitive solutions to truancy that address the needs of families. The Dropout Prevention Resource Guide published by the Maryland State Department of Education identifies 265 initiatives in Maryland schools that address many of the issues that can impact school attendance. These initiatives include alternative programs, alternative school schedules, alternative schools, attendance accountability, clinical interventions, community service, enhanced counseling, graduation preparation, holistic intervention, justice system coordination, life skill development, mentoring, student parenting, specialized staff, tutoring. The Dropout Prevention Resource Guide does not present school attendance as a central issue to be addressed in reducing dropouts, however, and MSDE does not appear to have a policy or operating focus on truancy and school attendance problems. The three Maryland programs that were evaluated are Baltimore Students: Mediating About Reducing Truancy (BSMART), Truancy Court Program (TCP) and Truancy Reduction Pilot Program (TRPP). BSMART is operated by the University of Maryland School of Law's Center for Dispute Resolution in conjunction with Baltimore City Public School System (BCPSS). TCP is operated by the University of Baltimore School of Law's Center for Families, Children and the Courts (CFCC) in conjunction with BCPSS. TRPP evaluated in these reports are operated in the Circuit Courts for Dorchester County, Somerset County, Wicomico County and Worcester County. These programs reflect the national literature concerning the intent and design of truancy interventions. They have a problem-solving orientation, involve both parents and students, and are progressive responses involving interagency collaboration. These programs also represent a continuum of court involvement, with no judicial presence in BSMART, Details: Baltimore: Maryland Administrative Office of the Courts, 2011. 111p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 16, 2017 at: http://www.igsr.umd.edu/applied_research/Pubs/Truancy%20Intervention%20Synthesis%20Report.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United States URL: http://www.igsr.umd.edu/applied_research/Pubs/Truancy%20Intervention%20Synthesis%20Report.pdf Shelf Number: 131205 Keywords: Delinquency PreventionPovertySchool AttendanceSchool DropoutsTruancy |
Author: Bakken, Mary Joleen Title: Exploring Effective Practices of a Midwest Truancy Intervention Program Summary: It is not known how the court, schools, and community partners of a Midwest truancy intervention program perceive the effectiveness of non-punitive practices to increase school attendance and graduation rates. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to understand how participants from each agency of a Midwest truancy intervention program perceived the effectiveness of non-punitive practices on school attendance and graduation rates. To determine this, each participant's interview questions were used to answer the research question regarding their agency's perception of the effectiveness of the Midwest program to increase attendance and graduation rates. The theoretical framework addressing the barriers impacting student attendance were General Strain Theory and Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. To gain an understanding of how non-punitive interventions were viewed, the sample was gathered from a large metropolitan area, and consisted of staff from participating schools, community agencies, and the court overseeing the program. The methodology was qualitative and the design was case study. Thematic analysis was performed on data gathered through interviews, field notes, and archival sources, resulting in collaboration, accountability, relationships, and barriers as the main themes impacting student attendance and graduation rates. The results of this study suggested the non-punitive practices of the court, community agencies, and schools were effective to increase attendance and graduation rates. As this study focused only on grades seven through 12 in a traditional setting, the researcher recommends future research be conducted to include elementary students, alternative settings, and school transitions. Details: Phoenix, AZ: Grand Canyon University, 2017. 260p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: accessed August 25, 2017 at: https://search.proquest.com/docview/1886071368?pq-origsite=gscholar Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: https://search.proquest.com/docview/1886071368?pq-origsite=gscholar Shelf Number: 146896 Keywords: School AttendanceStatus Offenses Truancy |
Author: Barch, M. Title: Evaluation of the 2016 Truancy Prevention and Intervention Act: Initial Report Summary: The 2016 Washington State Legislature modified several of the state's compulsory school attendance laws, which require school-aged children to attend school and establish the steps that schools and courts take in response to unexcused absences. The act made a number of changes to those requirements, including mandating the use of community truancy boards (CTBs). The legislature directed WSIPP to evaluate the effectiveness of the 2016 act by January 2021. The final report will include the following: 1) descriptive analyses, 2) interrupted time series analyses (with a comparison group, where possible) and 3) meta-analysis. Descriptive analysis will be used to describe truancy prevention and intervention efforts by schools. A combination of descriptive and interrupted time series analyses will be used to describe changes in CTBs, truancy petition characteristics and outcomes, and student academic outcomes. The meta-analysis will review the evidence for truancy intervention programs. WSIPP identified three categories of data gaps that will limit the analysis, including the possible lack of: historical data on truancy interventions and previously established CTBs; prospective data on general school prevention efforts and some CTB characteristics; and rigorous research on effective truancy prevention and intervention programs. Details: Olympia: Washington State Institute for Public Policy, 2017. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 16, 2018 at: http://www.wsipp.wa.gov/ReportFile/1678/Wsipp_Evaluation-of-the-2016-Truancy-Prevention-and-Intervention-Act-Initial-Report_Report.pdf Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: http://www.wsipp.wa.gov/ReportFile/1678/Wsipp_Evaluation-of-the-2016-Truancy-Prevention-and-Intervention-Act-Initial-Report_Report.pdf Shelf Number: 149164 Keywords: At-Risk Youth Delinquency Prevention School AttendanceStatus Offenders Truancy |
Author: Losen, Daniel J. Title: Suspended Education in Massachusetts: Using Days of Lost Instruction Summary: Missed instruction can have a devastating impact on educational outcomes. Scholars have found that missing three or more days of school in the fourth grade predicts a reduction in reading achievement by one full grade level on the National Assessment of Educational Progress (Ginsburg, Jordan, & Chang, 2014). Of course, some reasons for missed instruction are beyond the control of schools and districts: some students miss school due to mental or physical illness or injury, and transportation problems sometimes are to blame. These external reasons for missed instruction contribute a great deal to chronic absenteeism, but they are difficult for schools to address because they are not caused directly by a school policy or practice. One major reason for missed instruction that schools can directly influence is the decision school administrators make to suspend students, as well as the length of suspensions. In 2015-16, students in Massachusetts missed an estimated 156,793 days of school, or approximately 16 days per every 100 enrolled students, all due to suspension. School policy and practice varies widely in Massachusetts, but because the majority of schools use suspension as a measure of last resort, most parents don't realize the massive amount of instruction time children lose due to disciplinary removal in some schools and districts. Discipline reform efforts have been built around extensive research that has tracked individual students over many years, which shows that suspensions are among the leading predictor of failing to graduate high school and involvement in the juvenile justice system. (Fabelo et al., 2011). In fact, leading scholars estimate that suspensions can lower graduation rates by six to 14 percentage points, depending on the state (Balfanz, Byrnes, & Fox, 2015; Marchbanks et al., 2015; Rumberger & Losen, 2016). This is critically important given that after controlling for race, poverty, students' prior behavior, and 80 other variables, the factors schools control are powerful predictors of whether suspensions are used frequently or rarely (Fabelo et al., 2011). Another leading predictor of disparities in suspension rates was found to be the school principals' attitudes toward school discipline. (Skiba et al., 2014). Specifically, after controlling for demographic differences in enrollment, in response to a statewide survey, principals of schools that embraced harsh discipline as a needed punitive response and blamed parents and children for problematic behavior had higher suspension rates and lower achievement scores than those principals that framed their discipline approach as part of their school's educational mission, to help ensure that students learned appropriate behavior, rather than a punitive response. As this report will demonstrate, numerous schools in the Commonwealth regularly remove a high number of students, culminating in large amount of lost instruction time. Furthermore, the impact of discipline has more to do with the conditions of learning than of safety, as most missed instruction is the result of suspensions for minor behaviors that do not involve violence, drugs, or criminal activity. Details: Los Angeles, Center for Civil Rights Remedies, 2017. 20p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 7, 2018 at: http://schottfoundation.org/report/suspended-education-massachusetts Year: 2017 Country: United States URL: http://schottfoundation.org/report/suspended-education-massachusetts Shelf Number: 150078 Keywords: School AttendanceSchool CrimeSchool DisciplineSchool SafetySchool Suspension |