California is serious about truancy

In California, a parent can be fined up to $2000 if his or her child is found to be truant more than 10% of the time. People are getting serious about this very large problem in the Golden State.

Sacramento Understands Truancy Impact

Sacramento understands the direct financial cost as well as the indirect social cost of truancy. See this article.

Good Truancy Podcast

An interesting 20 minute podcast with Jessica Pinson Pennington, executive director of the Truancy Intervention Project in Georgia, and Barbara Babb and Gloria Danziger of the Truancy Court Program at the Center for Families, Children and the Courts at the University of Baltimore School of Law.

Also a good overview article on Truancy can be found at EducationNext by June Kronholz.

New York is Getting Serious About Truancy

New York City is getting serious about truancy.

Good to see!

Louisiana Parish Focused on Truancy

Caddo Parish, like many areas, is under budgetary pressure. As such, it is struggling to come up with the funds to support its otherwise successful anti-truancy efforts.

It seems clear to these folks, that you can pay now or pay later. Invest in truancy and dropout prevention with small dollars today or pay big dollars later through the criminal justice and social services departments.

As an article in the Shreveport Times observes:

Researchers from Harvard, Johns Hopkins, Clemson and the University of Chicago, have researched this issue for decades. They have universally identified three early warning factors — school absences, behavior referrals, and academic failure — that highlights when a student is at greatest risk to drop out of school. Of those three, school absences are the easiest to identify and address. Simply put, by 9th grade missing 20 percent of the school year is a better predictor of dropping out than test scores.

Alabama Drop Out Epidemic

The state's number one problem is truancy and the droupout epidemic.

A good video tells the story here.

And the reporter has a fantastic voice!

Journey To Excellence Starts with Graduation

The Janesville, Wisconsin school district is concerned that their graduate rates under perform other Wisconsin districts. To their credit, they realize that their "Journey to Excellence" will not be fulfilled if they do not combat truancy and the dropout epidemic. The district names change, but every day we read the exact same story. Communities realize that they must increase their graduation rates or fail trying. Truancy, of course, is the first step on the road to dropping out . . . tackle truancy and the "Journey to Excellence" becomes a highway.

Middletown, OH Axing Truancy Court

I understand the pressure that state and local governments feel from shrinking budgets, but cutting anti-truancy efforts virtually guarantee astronomically higher social and education costs in the future. That is what Middletown, OH will discover.

Attendance Counts

A very nice website called Attendance Counts describes many of the important reasons why school attendance is so critical and what we can do to encourage good behavior and discourage the bad.

3 in 10 Texas workers to not have high school diplomas by 2040.

According to an article in the Houston Chronicle, by 2040, 30% of Texas workers will not have a high school diploma. This will make average family incomes $6,500 per annum lower than they are today. Very scary.

Michigan Conference on Reducing State Budgets

At the Mackinac Policy Conference in Michigan, keen minds looking for state budget savings have honed in on the issue of truancy.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said:
"

We're talking about illiteracy, we're talking about truancy. Truancy is probably one of the biggest issues when it comes to juvenile delinquency. Truancy is huge. But people don't want to talk about spending money in those truancy programs. If we can get people in school we can correct some of the issues."

Truer words have rarely been spoken. . .

A Tale of Two Students

The Wall Street Journal today published an interesting essay comparing the experiences of two Hispanic students, one boy and one girl, growing up in two different Oklahoma City schools.

The boys who succeeds is clearly the recipient of mentoring and direction from concerned, supportive and non-judgmental adults. It is the power of relationship that can and will save these students.

Wisconsin Learns That Counseling is Critical to AntiTruancy Success

An interesting article in a Wisconsin newspaper, the Racine Journal Times.

Locking up students for truancy (where they miss more school) does not work. Programs need to engage the student and draw them back to school. Mentoring and structure are the most effective components of a working program.

Lower rates of Hispanic GED Completion

There is no denying the ethnic correlation to dropout statistics. Today I read in Diverse Issues in High Education that only 10% of Latino dropouts go on to complete their Graduate Equivalency Degree ("GED"). That compares to 20% of African Americans or 30% of whites. Given that a disproportionate share of Latinos dropout, this is a very alarming statistic.

Social support works with exercise programs, why not school attendance?

A Wall Street Journal article cites the importance of social support (a mentor, coach, friend who checks in with the exerciser to encourage compliance and activity) in the successful following of a diet or exercise program.

So it is with students who would otherwise be truant. By having a concerned adult (we call it a Mentor/Coach) who checks in regularly, students are far more likely to attend regularly and do well in school.

We call it accountability and relationship.

Simple Math . . .

Lower Truancy = Fewer Dropouts = Better Lives


It is that simple . . .

Worse Than Even the Numbers Show

We've all heard the terrible statistics about the number of high school dropouts. Now it seems that, far from assuming those numbers must be too high, they may be too low!

The Houston Chronicle tells us that some Texas districts may be classifying dropouts as "home schooled" to decrease the number of dropouts in their districts.

As if it was not bad enough already . . .

Kids Stay in School When They Connect Education to a Vocation

Kids stay in school when they see a future and connect their school efforts to attaining that goal. Interesting article at Lubbock Online.

Commitment to Wounded Warriors

I have until recently been proud to serve on the Board of US Naval Institute. (I am still proud of the Institute: my term just expired) . . .

A recent article in the US Naval Institute Proceedings Magazine reminds me that we can never do too much for our Wounded Warriors. They have given so much and yet have so much more to give.

I can't help but wonder the great things we could accomplish by putting these great Americans to work fighting truancy and the school dropout epidemic. More to come on that idea.

Idaho Juvenile Prosecutor

Interesting article on a juvenile justice prosecutor in Idaho named Ian Service.

I appreciate his observation that

“If you’re skipping (20 days of) school, you’re probably doing something else illegal,” he said. “But I’ve got kids as young as 8, 9 and 10 that are missing that many days of school. Then we know it’s the parents that are sleeping in or doing drugs and stuff. So we can start to nip that in the bud so that they don’t grow up, 16 or 17, and shoot people.”

That is why it is so important to take early action on truancy.

Collin Powell on the Drop Out Crisis

Collin Powell speaks out on the subject of the moral catastrophe of America's Drop Out Crisis.

Truancy

I just learned that there are over 9,000 adjudiacted truants in Dallas County alone. That is a lot!