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Summertime…. Typically a time that we don’t worry about why our kids aren’t in school. Our set of featured articles takes a look at different types of truancy court and truancy reduction programs across the country.

Truancy court, in schools and in court rooms, is one strategy for reducing truancy and getting students back into the classroom. An often asked question is “What exactly is truancy court”? In its best intention, truancy court works to build relationships between the student, the family, and the school to reduce truancy and improve school attendance with minimal harmful consequences. Truancy court also strives to coordinate the needs of the student and their families with the appropriate community resources. All of these work in conjunction to address underlying factors of truancy and provide educational opportunities to students with attendance issues.

Programs specifically geared towards truancy reduction can be categorized as either school or district programs, community programs, or court programs. An example of each type of program is listed below:

School-based program: Denver Public Schools has focused its truancyprogram on middle school students, trying to reverse patterns of truancybefore they become ingrained in the high school years. School-based truancy court is most often held at the school during school hours or after school.
Community-based program: Communities in Schools, Inc. operates in 235 school districts in 30 states. They work not only improve schoolattendance, but to break down all barriers to high school graduation.
Court-based program: The At-Risk Youth Program of the Seattle County Court, though a court-based program, involves the community inproviding attendance workshops that are alternatives to standard truancycourt hearings, and case managers to work with the family of each truant youth. Court-based truancy courts have established dockets or have reorganized to form special truancy court dockets within the juvenile or family court.

Truancy court can be found in any of the above mentioned categories and is not always associated with the judicial system.

Some general characteristics of truancy court:

reliance on collaboration and partnership with other youth serving entities such as school districts, school staff, human services, social services, and child welfare
strong parent/guardian involvement
development of attendance plans/contracts for students and parents
requirements for participation/completion may include monitoring school attendance and grades, progress reports, community service, and counseling
truant students and their families may receive referrals to get help with tutoring, mental health, etc.
the use of incentives for rewarding progress

The Skill of Talking to Kids in Truancy Court

Talking to students in truancy court is an acquired skill. I learned a lot from watching Louisville Judge Joan Byer demonstrate her skill at this during a national truancy conference in Washington, D.C. a few years ago. Imitation is not only a form of flattery, it is a most efficient practice for a juvenile judge or anyone dealing with truants.

First, be compassionate and collaborative with the students. Remember, there is always an underlying reason for chronic truancy. Your job is not to punish but to excavate and find that underlying reason and put services in place to get the student back to school. This may take some digging from both the student and the parent(s). Don't accept, "I don't know". Ask again, or in another way. Patience, a sense of humor, and a little acting on your part will go a long way.

Rhode Island Truancy Court Program

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.

Ask the DA

Recently, the Kings County District Attorney, Charles J. Hynes was asked the following question by a Brooklyn parent, “My teenager was picked up by truancy officers, and I received a call about this from the District Attorney’s Office. Why is the D.A.’s Office contacting me?” District Attorney Hynes’ response follows:

My concern about the issue of truancy was first sparked in 1997 by the case of Justina Morales, an 8 year old child brutally murdered by her mother’s boyfriend. At the time of the discovery of her body, she had been absent from school for over 100 days. As a result of that case, I opened up a Grand Jury investigation to learn how it was that a child could be absent from school for such an extended period and have it go virtually unnoticed by the system. What I learned was that truancy amongst New

York City’s youth had reached unprecedented levels, that it was contributing in large part to youth victimization and daytime crime, and that on any given day in Brooklyn, as many as 50,000 students were absent from school.

The Track Program

In response to the well documented linkage between juvenile delinquency, day time crime and youth victimization, District Attorney Charles J. Hynes is New York City’s first DA to comprehensively address these issues by formulating an innovative program specifically designed to combat truancy.

In April of 1998, District Attorney Charles J. Hynes started the Truancy Reduction Alliance to Contact Kids, commonly known as the TRACK Program. The TRACK Program is a collaborative partnership between District Attorney Charles J. Hynes and the New York City Police Department, the New York City Department of Education, as well as a wide spectrum of community based organizations, houses of faith, and a wide array of New York City agencies.

Granite School District is located in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is a large urban school district consisting of 63 elementary school, 16 junior high schools and 8 high schools with approximately 69,000 students. The attendance program serves as a comprehensive k-12 truancy reduction program. This approach involves a uniform process entailing collaboration with school counselors and administrators, as well as the local District Attorney’s office and Juvenile Court. Each has its distinct role that drives the ultimate effectiveness of the program. The program is staffed with one district coordinator who oversees the program as a whole and one secretary to assist in the day-to-day operations of the program.

In addition, to a coordinator and secretary, the program has sixty attendance specialists. They are housed in selected schools through out the District to work directly with identified habitual truants and their parent/legal guardian.Habitual truancy is addressed by the attendance specialist in the school using specific interventions designed to engage both student and parent/legal guardian in active, regular school attendance. These interventions include direct contact with the identified student by a caring, positive individual, phone contacts, and requests for parent input, home visits, and attendance contracts. Each attendance specialist is encouraged to develop a “positive”, “engaging” relationship with the student and parent/legal guardian to increase school attendance and decrease student failure. The program utilizes graduated measures to address the habitual truancy issue.