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106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 639

To prevent truancy and reduce juvenile crime.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

MARCH 17, 1999

Mr. BINGAMAN introduced the following bill; which was read twice and

referred to the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions

A BILL

To prevent truancy and reduce juvenile crime.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Truancy Prevention

5 and Juvenile Crime Reduction Act of 1999’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 Congress makes the following findings:

8 (1) Truancy is often the first sign of trouble—

9 the first indicator that a young person is giving up

10 and losing his or her way.

11 (2) Many students who become truant eventu12 ally drop out of school, and high school drop outs
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1 are two and a half times more likely to be on welfare

2 than high school graduates, twice as likely to be un3 employed, or if employed, earn lower salaries.

4 (3) Truancy is the top-ranking characteristic of

5 criminals—more common than such factors as com6 ing from single-parent families and being abused as

7 children.

8 (4) High rates of truancy are linked to high

9 daytime burglary rates and high vandalism.

10 (5) As much as 44 percent of violent juvenile

11 crime takes place during school hours.

12 (6) As many as 75 percent of children ages 13

13 to 16 who are arrested and prosecuted for crimes

14 are truants.

15 (7) Some cities report as many as 70 percent

16 of daily student absences are unexcused, and the

17 total number of absences in a single city can reach

18 4,000 per day.

19 (8) Society pays a significant social and eco20 nomic cost due to truancy: only 34 percent of in21 mates have completed high school education; 17 per22 cent of youth under age 18 entering adult prisons

23 have not completed grade school (8th grade or less),

24 25 percent completed 10th grade, and 2 percent

25 completed high school.
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1 (9) Truants and later high school drop outs

2 cost the Nation $240,000,000,000 in lost earnings

3 and foregone taxes over their lifetimes, and the cost

4 of crime control is staggering.

5 (10) In many instances, parents are unaware a

6 child is truant.

7 (11) Effective truancy prevention, early inter8 vention, and accountability programs can improve

9 school attendance and reduce daytime crime rates.

10 (12) There is a lack of targeted funding for ef11 fective truancy prevention programs in current law.

12 SEC. 3. GRANTS.

13 (a) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:

14 (1) ELIGIBLE PARTNERSHIP.—The term ‘‘eligi15 ble partnership’’ means a partnership between 1 or

16 more qualified units of local government and 1 or

17 more local educational agencies.

18 (2) LOCAL EDUCATIONAL AGENCY.—The term

19 ‘‘local educational agency’’ has the meaning given

20 the term in section 14101 of the Elementary and

21 Secondary Education Act of 1965 (20 U.S.C. 8801).

22 (3) QUALIFIED UNIT OF LOCAL GOVERN23 MENT.—The term ‘‘qualified unit of local govern24 ment’’ means a unit of local government that has in

25 effect, as of the date on which the eligible partner-
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1 ship submits an application for a grant under this

2 section, a statute or regulation that meets the re3 quirements of section 223(a)(14) of the Juvenile

4 Justice and Delinquency and Prevention Act of 1974

5 (42 U.S.C. 5633(a)(14)).

6 (4) UNIT OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT.—The term

7 ‘‘unit of local government’’ means any city, county,

8 township, town, borough, parish, village, or other

9 general purpose political subdivision of a State, or

10 any Indian tribe.

11 (b) GRANT AUTHORITY.—The Attorney General, in

12 consultation with the Secretary of Education, shall make

13 grants in accordance with this section on a competitive

14 basis to eligible partnerships to reduce truancy and the

15 incidence of daytime juvenile crime.

16 (c) MAXIMUM AMOUNT; ALLOCATION; RENEWAL.—

17 (1) MAXIMUM AMOUNT.—The total amount

18 awarded to an eligible partnership under this section

19 in any fiscal year shall not exceed $100,000.

20 (2) ALLOCATION.—Not less than 25 percent of

21 each grant awarded to an eligible partnership under

22 this section shall be allocated for use by the local

23 educational agency or agencies participating in the

24 partnership.
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1 (3) RENEWAL.—A grant awarded under this

2 section for a fiscal year may be renewed for an addi3 tional period of not more than 2 fiscal years.

4 (d) USE OF FUNDS.—

5 (1) IN GENERAL.—Grant amounts made avail6 able under this section may be used by an eligible

7 partnership to comprehensively address truancy

8 through the use of—

9 (A) parental involvement in prevention ac10 tivities, including meaningful incentives for pa11 rental responsibility;

12 (B) sanctions, including community serv13 ice, or drivers’ license suspension for students

14 who are habitually truant;

15 (C) parental accountability, including fines,

16 teacher-aid duty, or community service;

17 (D) in-school truancy prevention programs,

18 including alternative education and in-school

19 suspension;

20 (E) involvement of the local law enforce21 ment, social services, judicial, business, and re22 ligious communities, and nonprofit organiza23 tions;
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1 (F) technology, including automated tele2 phone notice to parents and computerized at3 tendance system;

4 (G) elimination of 40-day count and other

5 unintended incentives to allow students to be

6 truant after a certain time of school year; or

7 (H) juvenile probation officer collaboration

8 with 1 or more local educational agencies.

9 (2) MODEL PROGRAMS.—In carrying out this

10 section, the Attorney General may give priority to

11 funding the following programs and programs that

12 attempt to replicate one or more of the following

13 model programs:

14 (A) The Truancy Intervention Project of

15 the Fulton County, Georgia, Juvenile Court.

16 (B) The TABS (Truancy Abatement and

17 Burglary Suppression) program of Milwaukee,

18 Wisconsin.

19 (C) The Roswell Daytime Curfew Program

20 of Roswell, New Mexico.

21 (D) The Stop, Cite and Return Program of

22 Rohnert Park, California.

23 (E) The Stay in School Program of New

24 Haven, Connecticut.
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1 (F) The Atlantic County Project Helping

2 Hand of Atlantic County, New Jersey.

3 (G) The THRIVE (Truancy Habits Re4 duced Increasing Valuable Education) initiative

5 of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

6 (H) The Norfolk, Virginia project using

7 computer software and data collection.

8 (I) The Community Service Early Inter9 vention Program of Marion, Ohio.

10 (J) The Truancy Reduction Program of

11 Bakersfield, California.

12 (K) The Grade Court program of Farm13 ington, New Mexico.

14 (L) Any other model program that the At15 torney General determines to be appropriate.

16 (e) AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—There is

17 authorized to be appropriated to carry out this section,

18 $25,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2000, 2001, and

19 2002.

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