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JUVENILE JUSTICE BULLETIN JUVENILE JUSTICE BULLETIN

U.S. Department of Justice

Office of Justice Programs

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE

OFF ICE OF JUSTICE PROGRAMS

BJA NI J OJJDP BJS OVC

From the Administrator

Although truancy’s financial burdens

are considerable, its cost cannot be

measured in dollars alone. For a

growing number of youth, truancy may

be a first step to a lifetime of unemployment, crime, and incarceration. As

this Bulletin illustrates, truancy often

leads to dropping out of school,

delinquency, and drug abuse. It may

even be the precursor to adult crime.

Classroom absentee rates in our cities

are as high as 30 percent. Challenged

by this problem’s mounting social and

economic burden, communities are

fighting back. Truancy: First Step to a

Lifetime of Problems describes seven

promising community programs that

are reducing truancy and juvenile

delinquency by enlisting and coordinating a broad array of local resources.

All of the initiatives emphasize the

need to intensively monitor, counsel,

and strengthen the families and

communities of truant and delinquent

youth. They also recognize that

parents must be involved and held

responsible for their children’s school

attendance. By aggressively intervening when students are young and

targeting problems before they start,

these programs are making a

significant difference in the lives of

children and the neighborhoods in

which they live.

Shay Bilchik

Administrator

Shay Bilchik, Administrator October 1996

Truancy: First Step to a

Lifetime of Problems

Eileen M. Garry

This Bulletin is one of a series of OJJDP

Bulletins focusing on strategies in the Youth

Out of the Education Mainstream (YOEM)

initiative. YOEM is a joint effort of the

Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency

Prevention and the Safe and Drug-Free

Schools Program, U.S. Department of Education, to address the needs of youth who

attend school irregularly because they are

afraid or intimidated, truant, suspended or

expelled, school dropouts, or in need of

help transitioning back into mainstream

schools from juvenile detention and correctional settings.

For most students, skipping school

used to be a one-time lark. More often

than not, the antics were short-lived because shopkeepers, neighbors, and family

friends were quick to report them to parents or school authorities.

Today, truancy has become a major

problem in this country that negatively

influences the future of our youth and

costs taxpayers thousands of dollars.

With daily absentee rates as high as 30

percent in some cities, it is not surprising

that truancy is rated among the major

problems facing schools. The statistics

speak volumes:

• In New York City’s public school system, the Nation’s largest, about 150,000

of 1 million public school students are

absent on a typical day. School officials

do not know how many of them are

absent without a legitimate excuse.1

• The Los Angeles Unified School District, the Nation’s second largest public school system, reports that an

average of 62,000 students, or 10 percent of its enrollment, are out of school

each day. Of these, only half come back

with written excuses.2

• In Detroit, 40 public school attendance

officers investigated 66,440 chronic

absenteeism complaints during the

1994–95 school year.3

Truancy may be the beginning of a lifetime of problems for students who routinely skip school. Because these students

fall behind in their school work, many drop

out of school. Dropping out is easier than

catching up.

Truancy is a stepping stone to delinquent and criminal activity. A report

compiled by the Los Angeles County Office of Education on factors contributing

to juvenile delinquency concluded that

chronic absenteeism is the most powerful

predictor of delinquent behavior.4

Truant students are at higher risk of

being drawn into behavior involving drugs,

alcohol, or violence. A California deputy

assistant attorney who handles truancy

cases says he has “never seen a gang member who wasn’t a truant first.”5

 Several

studies have documented the correlation

between drug use and truancy. A report

from the University of Maryland found that

51 percent of female juvenile detainees not

in school at the time of their arrests tested

positive for drug use.6 Another study by

the U.S. Department of Justice’s Drug Use

Forecasting (DUF) program reported that

more than half (53 percent) of a group of

403 male juvenile arrestees in San Diego,
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California, tested positive for drug use

when taken to juvenile hall. Not surprisingly, those who did not attend school

were more likely (67 percent versus 49

percent) to test positive for drug use than

those who did attend.7

Many police departments report that

daytime crime rates are rising in part because students are committing crimes

instead of going to class. They are vandalizing cars, shoplifting, and scrawling graffiti on office buildings. When police in Van

Nuys, California, conducted a 3-week truancy sweep, shoplifting arrests fell 60 percent.8

 Police in St. Paul, Minnesota, report

that crimes such as purse snatching

dropped almost 50 percent after police

began picking up truants and taking them

to a new school attendance center. Officials in Roswell, New Mexico, say daytime

burglaries and other reportable crimes in

neighborhoods surrounding the town’s

two high schools have decreased significantly since a daytime curfew ordinance

was enacted in 1994.

Society Pays the Price

Truancy is costly. It costs students an

education, resulting in reduced earning

capacity. It costs school districts hundreds

of thousands of dollars each year in lost

Federal and State funds that are based on

daily attendance figures. It costs businesses, which must pay to train uneducated workers. It costs taxpayers, who

must pay higher taxes for law enforcement

and welfare costs for dropouts who end up

on welfare rolls or underemployed.

Frustrated by this social and economic

burden, communities across the Nation are

fighting back. Some counties are contemplating fining students if they are not in

class during school hours. Others are fining or jailing parents who permit their children to continually miss school. (Note: In

this Bulletin, the term “parent” refers to

either a parent or other legal guardian.)

 Parental neglect is a common cause of

truancy. Many parents of truant students

do not value education. Some children are

kept at home to work or babysit preschool siblings. Others are prevented

from attending school because of problems at home, at school, or in their neighborhood. One truant officer described a

student whose parents kept him home so

that he would not have to walk past the

neighborhood crack house, and immigrant students in Minnesota reported

staying home because they fear students

at their schools.

Because truancy often indicates bigger

problems in a child’s life, many communities are designing truancy reduction

programs that involve schools, law enforcement, families, businesses, judicial

and social service agencies, and community and youth service organizations.

Seven programs, located in Arizona,

California, Kansas, Minnesota, New

Jersey, New Mexico, and Oklahoma, are

achieving good results through innovative approaches that:

• Recognize that parents must be involved and held responsible for their

children’s school attendance.

• Provide intensive monitoring, counseling, and other family-strengthening

services to truants and their families.

 Each program described below has

addressed the truancy issue by developing a coordinated response that takes advantage of programs in their community.

One uses probation officers to intervene

with students, while another depends on

the county attorney. Several have targeted their efforts at middle school students, while others are working with

children as young as 5 years old.

Truancy Program

Thriving

Public and private agencies in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, have pooled resources and expertise for a program that

has successfully removed truant juveniles

from the streets during school hours and

reduced absenteeism, dropout rates, and

daytime crime rates.

Truancy Habits Reduced Increasing

Valuable Education (THRIVE)—a consortium of law enforcement, social service,

and community agencies—was initiated by

the Oklahoma County District Attorney’s

Office. THRIVE fills a gap in services to

youth by dealing with community problems that need a coordinated strategy.

The program began its efforts by convincing the Oklahoma State legislature to

enact a tougher antitruancy law that allows misdemeanor charges to be filed

against parents if their children miss

more than 10 consecutive days of school.

The law also authorizes local law enforcement professionals to act as attendance

officers, detain truant juveniles, and

transport them to a specified location

after agreement with a school district.

The consortium’s next challenge was

to open a truant processing center, which

began operating in 1989. Consortium

members provide staff, facilities, supplies,

and equipment, and they have since

opened a second center. Open full-time

during the school year, the centers are

staffed by professional volunteers from

the district attorney’s office, police department, and public schools. A private,

nonprofit organization, Youth Cornerstone, was established in 1990 to provide

greater opportunities for funding.

Police officers transport truant students to the centers, where they are interviewed and their parents are contacted.

School officials also are contacted to confirm students’ school status and to determine if a pattern of absences exists. This

information is provided to parents when

they arrive at the center. Referrals for additional services are provided as needed.

Students are released directly to a parent

or relative within 1 hour or turned over to

the Youth Services Shelter. The district

attorney’s office sends parents a letter

informing them of compulsory school attendance laws and the consequences of

nonattendance. Followup attendance

checks are made after students have had

contact with THRIVE.

With an annual budget of $75,000, the

program served 848 children (with an average age of 13.8) during the 1994–95

school year. The program was patterned

after the Truancy Abatement and Burglary

Suppression (TABS) Program in San Jose,

California, a community similar demographically to Oklahoma City. The THRIVE

model has been used to implement similar

programs in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, and in

other cities.

THRIVE is making a difference in the

lives of children. Since 1989, the program

has dealt with more than 3,600 truants.

During this time, the Oklahoma City Police

Department reports a 33-percent reduction in daytime burglaries. Oklahoma City

schools report a 1.3-percent reduction in

dropout rates and a 1.7-percent increase

in daily attendance. More than 75 percent

of truants are released to parents, who

generally react positively to the opportunity to address the issue of school attendance with their children.

For more information about THRIVE,

contact:

Pam Harrell

Executive Director

P.O. Box 18674

Oklahoma City, OK 73154

405–841–0675
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Truancy Program

Targets Problems

Before They Start

Children who continually miss school

often are placed in the custody of social

service agencies, a move that is traumatic

for children and their families and expensive for taxpayers. Recognizing the need

to address this problem and find a way to

keep these children in school, officials in

Neosho County, Kansas, developed a program that helps prevent a child’s removal

from home, increases school attendance,

and strengthens families.

The program began in 1993 when Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services (SRS) officers in the city of

Chanute noticed a correlation between

truancy and crime. With the Neosho

County Attorney and local teachers, they

initiated the At School, On Time, Ready to

Work program. It recognizes that truancy

is a problem not only for children, but

also for families, schools, and communities. Schools, SRS, and courts work together to provide intensive supervision

and therapy for children and support and

education for parents.

Under Kansas law, all children under

the age of 16 not attending school are reported to SRS or to the county attorney.

Pending a referral from the school, the

county attorney invites the truant child

and his or her family to enter the program. If they agree, parent and child are

required to sign a contract to participate

in the program for 90 days. During this

time, the program provides:

• Intensive supervision of the child. An

intensive supervision worker is assigned for the entire 90-day period,

verifying the child’s school attendance

daily and meeting several times a week

with him or her during the first 30 days

of the contract. The worker serves as

the liaison between SRS, the county

attorney, the school, and the family.

• Support and group therapy services

to the child. Students in the program

meet regularly to share life experiences

with a licensed family therapist and to

learn skills to build self-esteem and

confidence in school. Children in need

of individual therapy are referred to

the appropriate agency.

• Support and education services to the

parents of the child. Parents are required to attend group meetings that

focus on effective parenting techniques

and the importance of their child’s

education.

After a family completes the program,

students are tracked, with particular attention given to ensuring their attendance at school.

Of the 9 families and 12 middle school

children enrolled in the project during the

1994–95 school year, only 1 child became

the subject of a court petition. The remaining children stayed out of SRS custody, and

none were reported to have committed

offenses during the summer. The families

who “graduated” from the program reported that they improved family communication and better understood and

worked with their children’s behavior.

The program was so well received that

it moved to elementary schools last year

(1995–96), where it served an additional

12 to 15 families and approximately 20

children. Graduates of the program will

be tracked to determine if intervention at

an earlier stage prevents truancy and juvenile offending.

Neosho County Attorney Sheryl A.

Beagley, pleased with results from the

first 2 years of the program, reports that

the county has received inquiries from

other communities interested in implementing it. She believes it can be replicated because it is so cost-effective. The

cost of the project for the nine families

served in 1994–95 was $3,000—the cost of

placing one child in SRS custody for 90

days. The program received private insurance, Medicaid, and State Family Services

funds. The program used $1,600 in Family

Services funds, which is much less than

the cost of keeping a child in foster care

for 30 days. Before the truancy project

was established, SRS routinely placed

children in foster care because of truancy. Taxpayers may have saved as much

as $30,000 in custody expenses by spending only 10 percent of that amount on prevention.

For more information about At School,

On Time, Ready to Work, contact:

Sheryl A. Beagley

Neosho County Attorney’s Office

Judicial Center

P.O. Box 370

102 South Lincoln

Chanute, KS 66720

316–431–5750

Program Offers a

Helping Hand

Officials in Atlantic County, New Jersey, are preventing truancy through a program that encourages parents to work

with schools to keep their children in

class. Project Helping Hand is an early

identification and intervention program

that provides counseling for parents and

elementary students at risk of developing

chronic truancy problems. It began in

1989 with Title II Formula Grants Program

funds from the Office of Juvenile Justice

and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) in

the U.S. Department of Justice. (The Title

II Formula Grants Program provides

grants to States to prevent and control

delinquency and to improve their juvenile

justice systems.)

Students are referred to the program

by school officials, although referrals

from parents or social service agencies

are also accepted. Students who have 5 to

15 days of unexcused absence, excluding

absence due to illness or suspension, are

eligible to participate.

Once a student has been accepted into

the program, a counselor immediately

begins gathering student information

from school personnel and makes every

effort, including a home visit if necessary,

to contact parents.

After an in-person assessment of the

youth and family, the counselor meets

jointly with the family and school personnel to develop a plan to improve the

child’s attendance and address family

needs. The program offers weekly counseling for up to 8 weeks.

Counselors use a variety of intervention strategies and resources, including

signed cooperative agreements among

parents, youth, and the school; telephone

discussions with appropriate parties; and

other school resources such as child

study teams, tutoring, and parent-teacher

conferences. When necessary, counselors

also refer families to housing, food stamp,

day care, medical, substance abuse, psychiatric, parent support, and singleparent programs.

Counselors strive to use extended family members as a support system and to

involve the family with the school as often

as possible so that they understand school

procedures and are comfortable working

with the school on their child’s behalf.
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If a family fails to keep appointments,

counselors often make home visits to encourage cooperation. If parents continue

to resist participating or school attendance does not improve, the case may be

referred to the Family Court.

Once a student’s school attendance

improves and other needed services have

begun, the counselor closes the case and

places the student on aftercare status.

School personnel are then responsible for

monitoring attendance and communicating with parents. The counselor makes

phone or in-person contact with the family, school, and others at 30-, 60-, and 90-

day intervals, reinforcing the positive

work of the family and ensuring their continued participation in referral services.

The program operates in 12 schools.

Referrals are distributed equally between

males and females. In keeping with the

program’s focus on early prevention,

most students referred to the program are

in grades K–3.

The program was originally implemented in Atlantic City, the county’s main

urban area. It has been expanded to the

suburb of Pleasantville and to Egg Harbor

Township.

According to Sally Ann Williams, director of family counseling, 83 percent of the

290 children participating in the program

in the 1994–95 school year experienced

no recidivism. For the 1995–96 school

year, 84 percent experienced no recidivism. These numbers are consistent with

results from previous years.

For more information about Project

Helping Hand, contact:

Sally Ann Williams

or Colleen Denelsbezk

Atlantic County Division of

Intergenerational Services

101 South Shore Road

Northfield, NJ 08225

609–645–5862

Police and Youth

Services Work

Together To Fight

Truancy

Recognizing that truant students were

a growing concern in St. Paul, Minnesota,

four Ramsey County departments devised

the Ramsey County Truancy and Curfew

Violation Center program, which uses

school counselors, the county attorney’s

office, and police to help keep middle

school students in school. The program

began in 1994 and provides the following

intensive truancy reduction efforts:

• Intervention through the school. Students with 3 to 5 days of unexcused

absence are referred to the St. Paul

Youth Service Bureau (YSB) for assistance with problem solving, counseling, family intervention, and other

social services. A YSB staff person

spends 4 days a week at the school,

meeting with the student and parents

to determine why the student is missing school and what services are

needed to resolve the problem. The

staff member monitors the student’s

attendance daily and, if necessary, refers the case to the county attorney’s

office for further legal action.

• Intervention through the county

attorney’s office. First-time truants

and their parents are given an educational presentation by a Ramsey

County attorney. If a student continues

to be truant, the county attorney

schedules a meeting with the student,

parents, and school staff to develop a

contract for improved attendance. If

the contract is not followed, an expedited court hearing is scheduled.

• Intervention through St. Paul Schools

Attendance Center. Police officers pick

up truants and deliver them to the

Attendance Center, which is staffed by

educational assistants and staff from

YSB. Students are released only to parents or guardians.

The program’s counseling services are

funded with OJJDP Title V funds for local

delinquency prevention and by the city of

St. Paul, YSB, the St. Paul Police Department, and local schools. YSB counselors

offer student and family counseling; peer

and parent support groups; tutoring, recreational, and enrichment activities; and

referrals to community resources to help

families address issues contributing to

truant behavior.

St. Paul’s Attendance Center is an important part of the program because it

gives police a place to take truants and

offers students access to intervention services. It accepts 10 to 15 students a day.

Last year the Center served more than

1,100 truants and their families, the majority of whom were from the Hmong (North

Laos) community. These students reported

boredom or fear as the major reasons they

did not attend school. In these cases,

project counselors work with schools to

alleviate the problem and reach out to parents through local parent-teacher organizations. The program plans to develop a

mechanism to track the 250 students who

were directly served by YSB counselors at

the middle schools during 1994–95.

The program has had a positive impact

on the court system. Because truants are

taken to the Attendance Center instead of

being handled through the courts, the

backlog of court processing has been reduced drastically. Local law enforcement

officials like the program because it gives

officers a place to take truants without

requiring cumbersome paperwork at the

police department. Police also report that

truancy enforcement is having a noticeable impact on the crime rate. According

to Police Chief William Finney, between

1994 and 1995, the Attendance Center’s

first year of existence, crimes such as

purse snatching were reduced nearly 50

percent.

For more information about the

Ramsey County Truancy and Curfew

Violation Center, contact:

Sgt. John Harrington

St. Paul Police Department

100 East 11th Street

St. Paul, MN 55101

612–292–3612

Helping Neglected

Children Stay in

School

Probation officers and school officials

have joined together in Kern County, California, to help children, many of them

neglected, stay in school. The Truancy

Reduction Program works to increase

average daily school attendance by

reducing the risk factors contributing to

children’s behavioral, delinquency, and

substance abuse problems.

Funded by the Kern County Superintendent of Schools through a consortium

of independent school districts, the program uses two deputy probation officers

from the Kern County Probation Office to

work with students and their families.

Students are referred to the program

by consortium member schools after intervention efforts have failed to improve

their school attendance. Once a student

is referred, a probation officer contacts

his or her parents by mail and then meets

with the family at least four times.

The officer also makes unannounced

home visits, checks attendance at the

school each week, counsels parents and

students, and refers the families to social
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service agencies. The attendance of

every student referred to the program is

tracked by the school for 1 year. When

students continue to skip school, the

probation officer refers them back to the

school for possible referral to the district

attorney’s office.

These interventions are designed to

improve attendance, increase academic

performance, and improve social functioning by meeting the diverse needs of

children and their families.

The majority of students referred to

the program receive assistance from one

or more of the county’s social service

agencies, and the probation officer frequently networks with caseworkers from

these agencies. This networking, as well

as followup monitoring, contributes to

the program’s success.

During the 1993–94 school year, 626

students participated in the program; 347

participated in 1994–95. These students

represent less than 1.5 percent and 1 percent, respectively, of the student population in their school districts. Twenty-one

percent of the students in the program in

1993–94 had no unexcused absences after

entering the program, compared with 14

percent in 1994–95.

The number of students participating

decreased from 1993 to 1994 because of

significant changes in the program’s

referral process between 1993 and 1995.

Starting in the fall of 1994, student referrals

were reviewed by a school student assistance team before their acceptance, resulting in more appropriate identification of

truant students and decreased caseloads.

Data for the 1995–96 school year will be

available in late 1996.

 For more information about the Truancy Reduction Program, contact:

Steve Hageman

Kern County Superintendent of

 Schools Office

1300 17th Street–City Centre

Bakersfield, CA 93301–4533

805–636–4757

Coalition Works To

Save Kids

Alarmed by a noticeable rise in juvenile

crime during school hours and a large increase in the number of school dropouts

and children referred to the juvenile court

for status offenses, a broad-based coalition

of citizens and businesses in Arizona initiated a program that addresses truancy

through community interventions.

The Save Kids Partnership was modeled

after Operation SAVE KIDS, a successful

truancy program in Peoria, Arizona. The

Partnership comprises 10 cities and towns

and 15 school districts serving more than

63,000 students in western Maricopa

County, which includes part of Phoenix.

The Partnership is sponsored by

WESTMARC, a coalition of businesses, utilities, education institutions, development

firms, property owner organizations, industries, cities, and towns in the county.

The Partnership program targets youth

6 to 16 years old. It requires school personnel to monitor school attendance

closely and notify parents promptly if

their children have 3 days of unexcused

absence. The parents must respond, outlining measures they have taken to ensure

that their children are attending school. If

a child continues to be truant (as evidenced by 5 days of unexcused absence),

the school forwards the matter to the city

prosecutor’s office. The prosecutor sends

a second letter to the parents. If a sixth

unexcused absence occurs, the school

notifies the prosecutor or law enforcement agency to request that criminal

charges be filed against the parents.

In lieu of formal criminal proceedings,

the prosecutor can offer families a

deferred prosecution diversion program

designed to strengthen family relationships and encourage youth to go to school.

The program includes a risk assessment

and evaluation of every participating

youth and parent and requires them to

complete a counseling program approved

by the juvenile court and Office of the

City Attorney. The program requires students to attend school and participate in

teen or adolescent group counseling and

educational programs while their parents

complete a parenting skills support group.

If parents and juveniles complete the

terms of the diversion program’s stipulated agreement, the case is dismissed.

If the terms are not met, the matter is reviewed for purposes of proceeding as a

criminal violation and may be referred to

court.

The original Peoria program, Operation

SAVE KIDS, has demonstrated solid results.

When the program measured its impact on

12 elementary and 2 high schools within

Peoria’s city limits, it found that after parents were notified by mail of their child’s

absence, attendance increased for 72.2 percent of the students and only 27.8 percent

were referred for prosecution.

The program is conducting a comparison study of three groups: juveniles who

are criminally charged with a status offense and fail to appear in court (the control group); juveniles who are criminally

charged with a status offense, appear in

court with their parents, and opt for, but

fail to complete, the diversion program;

and juveniles who complete the diversion

program with their parents.

Ninety-two percent of Peoria juveniles

who completed the diversion program

with their parents did not recidivate. Program officials also found that 95 percent

of juveniles referred to court for status

offenses committed their first offense at

an average age of 14; 82 percent of all truancy referrals were first-time offenders;

and 48 percent of juveniles cited for status offenses were from broken homes.

 Operation SAVE KIDS began in 1994

with Title II Formula Grants Program

funds from OJJDP and a matching grant

from the city of Peoria. The western

Maricopa County program received 1995

Title V delinquency prevention funds

from OJJDP.

For more information about the Save

Kids Partnership, contact:

Diane McCarthy

WESTMARC President

9017 North 57th Drive

Glendale, AZ 85302

602–435–0431

For more information about Operation

SAVE KIDS, contact:

Terry Bays Smith

City of Peoria

Assistant City Attorney

8401 West Monroe Street

Peoria, AZ 85345

602–412–7347

Roswell Curfew

Program Makes a

Difference

Hoping to make a difference in a truancy problem that had become almost

epidemic in areas of Roswell, New Mexico,

the city’s mayor instituted a curfew during school hours in 1994. The primary

goal of the ordinance is to strictly enforce

school attendance. It allows police to

question students who appear to be truant in the community and requires school

officials to notify parents or guardians

when students are tardy or absent. Those

students who continue to be truant may

be assigned community service, and their

parents may be fined up to $100.
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Roswell’s initiative illustrates how the

mayor, police, city agency leaders, city

council members, educators, and citizens

can effectively deal with a major problem

by working together. The program’s results are impressive, and cities in Arizona,

California, and New Mexico have requested information about the curfew

from the Roswell Police Department.

Since the curfew began, Roswell police

report that daytime burglaries and other

reportable crimes in neighborhoods surrounding the city’s two high schools have

decreased. Police also found that:

• Students who commit burglaries or

other crimes generally commit them

during school hours and then return

after school to retrieve the hidden stolen property.

• Many students detained for daytime

curfew violations had been involved

with criminal activities such as substance abuse, burglary, larceny, and

vandalism.

• Many detained truants had records

indicating an escalating pattern of delinquent behavior.

• Most detained truants were aware of

and understood the consequences of

breaking the law.

School officials are pleased with the

results of the daytime curfew because it

has reinforced the school district’s policy

of placing truant students into in-school

suspension (ISS). Students in ISS are not

allowed to sit at home or roam the

streets. Instead they must perform community service such as removing graffiti

or picking up trash.

Area businesses are reporting truant

students to police more frequently than in

the past. Before the curfew was enacted,

police instructed callers to contact the

Children, Youth and Families Department.

However, little was done to intercede with

truant children on the spot. The curfew

provides an effective way for police to intervene immediately and show youth the

consequences of their offending behavior.

Parents are pleased with the program

because, until the police contact them,

they often are unaware of their child’s

absence from school. Although the

schools attempt to contact parents in the

evening to report unexcused absences,

the computer-generated calls are easily

intercepted by truant students.

Chaves County, which includes Roswell,

is adopting a similar ordinance for county

students. The city of Roswell is especially

pleased because the county curfew will

deter truants from leaving the city to avoid

the Roswell Police Department.

For more information about the Roswell

Daytime Curfew Program, contact:

Mayor Thomas Jennings

City of Roswell

P.O. Drawer 1838

Roswell, NM 88202–1838

505–624–6700

Acting Police Chief Mike Jurecek

Roswell Police Department

P.O. Box 1994

Roswell, NM 88202–1994

505–624–6770

County Sheriff Terrell Tucker

Chaves County

P.O. Box 1396

Roswell, NM 88202–1396

505–624–6500

Summary

As these varied programs indicate, the

issue of truancy has captured the attention of communities across the Nation.

Whether establishing truancy centers,

providing parenting classes, or making

unannounced home visits, these seven

communities have chosen to intervene

before truancy leads to more serious

problems for youth and the community.

These communities are wise to be concerned. Students who miss school frequently are often unable to develop

interpersonal relationships or gain the

knowledge and skills they will need for

future employment. Frequent absence

affects school performance and can lead

to delinquent behavior. A Department of

Justice study found that students with

low reading achievement show delinquent

behavior more often than students with

higher reading scores.9

Many chronic truants are also likely to

drop out of school. U.S. Department of

Education statistics indicate that dropouts have lower earnings, experience

more unemployment, and are more likely

to end up on welfare and in prison than

students who complete high school or

college.10

However, positive factors can protect

youth either by reducing the impact of

risks or by changing the way they respond to risk factors. Examples of protective factors include positive adult and

peer relationships, healthy beliefs, and

clear standards of behavior. These factors

will not only result in students attending

school regularly, but, once in school, atrisk youth will benefit from exposure to

such protective factors.

Truancy prevention and intervention

efforts protect youth from risk factors and

help reduce juvenile delinquency and

other related problems. Programs that prevent a young person from becoming involved in the juvenile justice system save

taxpayers money, prevent more people

from becoming victims of crime, and help

prevent the development of future criminal

offenders. For the Nation’s next generation,

preventing truancy may mean the difference between a lifetime of problems or a

lifetime of accomplishments.

Resources

Nearly half of the 50 States have implemented truancy prevention and intervention programs using funding from the

Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention

Act Formula Grants Program, administered by OJJDP, Office of Justice Programs. For more information contact

the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse at

800–638–8736.

In addition, the U.S. Departments of

Justice and Education have created a

manual to help parents, school and law

enforcement officials, and community

leaders combat truancy. The guide describes how successful antitruancy

initiatives across the country were

planned and implemented. For copies,

call 800–624–0100. The full text of the

document is available through the

Department of Education Web site at

http://www.ed.gov.

Other Sources

of Information

Abolish Chronic Truancy

Los Angeles County District Attorney’s

Office

Bureau of Special Operations, Juvenile

Division

300 South Park Avenue, Room 621

Pomona, CA 91766

909–620–3330

Alternative Center for Truancy

823 West Central Boulevard

Orlando, FL 32805

407–836–8800

Fulton County Juvenile Court Truancy

Intervention Project

4455 Capitol Avenue SW.

Atlanta, GA 30312

404–730–1122
7

National Association of School Resource

Officers

P.O. Box 3379

Sarasota, FL 34230–3379

941–951–5010

National Center for Education Statistics

Office of Education Research and

Improvement

U.S. Department of Education

555 New Jersey Avenue NW.

Washington, DC 20208–5721

202–219–2221

National Dropout Prevention Center

Clemson University

205 Martin Street

Clemson, SC 29634–0726

864–656–2599

National School Safety Center

4165 Thousand Oaks Boulevard, Suite 290

Westlake Village, CA 91362

805–373–9977

Stop and Cite Program

Rohnert Park Department of Public Safety

Youth and Family Services Division

500 City Hall Drive

Rohnert Park, CA 94928

707–584–2699

Truancy Abatement Burglary Suppression

Crime Prevention Unit

San Jose Police Department

San Jose, CA 95110

408–277–4133

Truancy Intervention Program

Office of the Ramsey County Attorney

50 West Kellogg Boulevard, Suite 315

St. Paul, MN 55102–1657

612–266–3125

Truancy Mediation Program

Mediation Center of Gaston County

401 North Highland Street

Gastonia, NC 28052

704–868–9576

Truancy Prevention Service

Juvenile Court of Memphis and Shelby

County

Volunteer Services

616 Adams

Memphis, TN 38105

901–528–8400

In addition, many resources are available online when searching truancy, including State legislation and other

programs.

Endnotes

1. B. Shuster, “L.A. School Truancy Exacts

a Growing Social Price,” Los Angeles

Times, June 28, 1995, sec. A, p. 12.

2. Shuster, p. 1.

3. J. Richardson, “Searching for Answers

to Student Absenteeism,” Detroit Free

Press, February 7, 1996, sec. NWS, p.

1A.

4. Shuster, p. 1.

5. J. Kass, “Curfew Mulled as Way to Stem

Truancy, Crime,” Los Angeles Times,

March 31, 1996, sec. B, p. 1.

6. E.D. Wish, T.A. Gray, and E.B. Levine

(1996), Recent Drug Use in Female Juvenile Detainees: Estimates from Interviews, Urinalysis, and Hair Analysis

(College Park, MD: Center for Substance Abuse Research, University of

Maryland), p. 4.

7. “Drug Use Among San Diego

Arrestees,” SANDAG Info, Special Issue

1996 (San Diego, CA: San Diego Association of Governments).

8. Shuster, p. 1.

9. D. Huizinga, R. Loeber, and T.

Thornberry (1995), Urban Delinquency

and Substance Abuse (Washington, DC:

U.S. Department of Justice, Office of

Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention), p. 15.

10. M. McMillen, P. Kaufman, and S.

Whitener (1994), Dropout Rates in the

United States: 1993 (Washington, DC:

U.S. Department of Education, National

Center for Education Statistics).

The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes

the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Bureau

of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of

Justice, and the Office for Victims of Crime.

This Bulletin was prepared by Eileen M.

Garry, special assistant to the Administrator,

OJJDP, with the assistance of Marc Jackson of

the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse and Kay

McKinney, OJJDP consultant.
8 NCJ 161958

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