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. . .