DOI: 10.3886/icpsr03424.v1
title: Evaluation of a Truancy Reduction Program in Nashville, Tennessee, 1998-2000
title: Version 1

description: The Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency in Nashville, 
 Tennessee, received a National Institute of Justice grant to study the 
 effectiveness of Nashville's Juvenile Court Truancy Reduction Program (TRP). 
 The goals of the TRP were to increase attendance and to get children 
 safely to and from school. While habitual truancy, also referred to 
 as chronic absenteeism, was legally defined under the Juvenile Offender Act 
 of the State of Tennessee as five or more aggregate, unexcused absences in 
 the course of a school year, the TRP operationally defined students at risk 
 of truancy as those who had three unexcused absences in a school year. The 
 intent of TRP was to intervene before the student was adjudicated habitually 
 truant, so once a student had a third unexcused absence, the child was placed 
 on the TRP caseload. TRP staff would then intervene with a variety of 
 services, including home visits, community advisory boards, a suspension 
 school, and a summer program. The evaluation study was designed to test the following 
 hypotheses: (1) students who participated in TRP would increase their 
 attendance rates, and (2) students who participated in TRP and other community 
 services that were part of the Public Housing Drug Elimination Program 
 network would increase their attendance rates at higher rates than students 
 who participated in TRP alone. The targeted population for this study 
 consisted of child and youth residents from five of the six public housing communities 
 that participated in TRP. These communities also represented the public 
 housing communities with the highest crime rates in Nashville, and included five of the eight 
 total family public housing developments there. All kindergarten through 8th-grade 
 students from the targeted communities who began participating in 
 TRP during the 1998-1999 or 1999-2000 school years were included in 
 the study. The TRP served over 400 kindergarten through 8th-grade students during the two school years included in this study.
 Students who had all of the required data elements were 
 included in the analyses. Required data elements included TRP entry 
 date and school entry and exit dates. Students also had to have begun 
 TRP during the study period. Variables include students' grade, gender, 
 race, age, school enrollment date, TRP program entry date, bus eligibility, 
 other program participation, attendance records for every school day during 
 the two years of the study, and aggregated counts of attendance and 
truant behavior.
description: The Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency in 
 Nashville, Tennessee, received a National Institute of Justice grant to 
 study the effectiveness of Nashville's Juvenile Court Truancy Reduction 
 Program (TRP). The TRP was a collaboration among the Metropolitan 
 Development and Housing Agency, the public housing authority, 
 Nashville/Davidson County Juvenile Court, Davidson County public schools, 
 and the Nashville/Davidson County Police Department. The goals of the 
 TRP were to increase attendance and to get children safely to and from 
 school, while habitual truancy, also referred to as chronic absenteeism, was 
 legally defined under the Juvenile Offender Act of the State of Tennessee 
 as five or more aggregate, unexcused absences in the course of a school 
 year. The TRP operationally defined students at risk of truancy as those 
 who had three unexcused absences in a school year. The intent of TRP was 
 to intervene before the student was adjudicated habitually truant. Once a 
 student had a third unexcused absence, the child was placed on the TRP 
 caseload. TRP staff would then intervene with a variety of services, including 
 home visits, community advisory boards, a suspension school, and a summer program. 
 Early evaluation results had indicated the program's success. The purpose 
 of this study was to confirm the evaluation results and to investigate 
 specific components to try to determine the contribution each played to 
 the success. The study was designed to test the following hypotheses: 
 (1) students who participated in TRP would increase their attendance rates, 
 and (2) students who participated in TRP and other community services that 
 were part of the Public Housing Drug Elimination Program network would 
 increase their attendance rates at higher rates than students who 
participated in TRP alone.
description: The targeted population for this study consisted of 
 child and youth residents from five of the six public housing communities in Nashville, 
 Tennessee, that participated in TRP. These communities also represented the 
 public housing communities with the highest crime rates in Nashville, and included five of 
 the eight family public housing developments there. All kindergarten through 
 8th-grade students from the targeted communities who began participating 
 in TRP during the 1998-1999 or 1999-2000 school years were included in 
 the study. The juvenile court probation officers who conducted the truancy 
 reduction programs submitted a list of TRP participants and their addresses 
 to study staff. Study staff then collected the TRP entry dates from the 
 probation officers and collected the attendance data from the juvenile 
 court to add to the metro school system's attendance data. Each 
 student's attendance record for each school year of the study was printed 
 from this system. Study staff then key entered the data into the study 
 database. After all of the data were entered, identifying information was 
 stripped from the database to protect the anonymity of the participants.
 The TRP served over 400 kindergarten through 8th-grade students during 
 the two school years included in this study. Students who had all of the 
 required data elements were included in the analyses. Required data elements 
 included TRP entry date and school entry and exit dates. Student also had 
 to have begun TRP during the study period. Students who participated in the 
 program in the first school year (1998-1999) but not in the second 
 (1999-2000) were examined to determine no-treatment follow-up outcomes. 
 For this study truancy was operationally defined as unexcused absence, 
 tardy, or suspension. Excused absences and early dismissals were not counted 
as truant behavior.
description: Variables include students' grade, gender, race, age, 
 school enrollment date, TRP program entry date, bus eligibility, other 
 program participation, attendance records for every school day during 
 the two years of the study, and aggregated counts of attendance and 
truant behavior.
description: Response Rates: inap.
description: Presence of Common Scales: None.
description: inap.
description: Datasets: 
DS1: Evaluation of a Truancy Reduction Program in Nashville, Tennessee, 1998-2000
description: Students in kindergarten through 8th grades living in 
 five public housing communities in Nashville, Tennessee, which had 
implemented the Truancy Reduction Program.