The goal of the Truancy Court is to reach out to individual communities and families to help reduce the truancy rate. Its mission is to join together with local school departments, community mental health providers, families, and the courts to address the causes and solutions to fight truancy and provide youths with the opportunity for a better education.

The Truancy Court was created with the knowledge that a reduction in truancy has been shown to decrease crime, teen pregnancy, and drug and alcohol use as well as to change attitudes to enhance school readiness. The Truancy Court program started in September of 1999 with federal grant support.

During the last school year over 2,200 children, through participation in the Truancy Court program, have been given an opportunity to turn their lives around and have a real chance to have a successful future. Since its inception, an average of 76% of the children involved in the program have increased their attendance and an average of 62% have shown an increase in academics.

To date, there are 139 Truancy Courts held in 55 different locations in elementary, middle, and high schools within 33 communities including Bristol/Warren, Burrillville, Central Falls, Coventry, Charlestown, Cranston, Cumberland, East Greenwich, East Providence, Exeter/West Greenwich, Foster/Glocester, Hopkinton, Johnston, Lincoln, Middletown, Narragansett, Newport, North Providence, Pawtucket, Portsmouth, Providence, Richmond, Scituate, Smithfield, South Kingstown, Warwick, West Greenwich, Westerly, West Warwick and Woonsocket. Court sessions are held weekly at individual schools.

Since its inception in 1999, there have been over 6,500 participants in the Truancy Court program. The program’s intermediate goals are for 80 percent of the over 2,000 program participants to demonstrate an increased grade point average and for 70 percent to demonstrate increased attendance. The program goal is for all participants to graduate from high school.

The duties of the Magistrate are to conduct initial arraignment, explain court procedure, and review all options available to the student and parent(s). The Magistrate also conducts weekly reviews once a student has entered the Truancy Court Program. The Magistrate imposes sanctions for non-compliance and offers praise and encouragement for progress.

Additional court staff is responsible for maintaining all the files during the court session and documenting all reports that are presented to the court. Court staff is responsible for giving the parent(s) the necessary documentation when necessary for their employer, excusing them from work for court sessions. They are also responsible for keeping the Truancy Court running smoothly and working closely with school personnel to call the student out of class when their case is being heard. Court staffs are instrumental in maximizing the amount of cases that can be heard on any given day while keeping the flow of cases moving so the student’s time out of the classroom is minimized.