Chief Joseph Santoro of the Monrovia Police Department said 99 percent of the youth admit guilt and 99.2 percent of them opt for community service. Repeat offenders face increased fines and service hours and driver's license suspension. Increasingly, youth who skip school are learning the consequences of their actions, as daytime curfews and anti-truancy laws are more stringently enforced. In many cities, police pick up delinquent youth and take them back to school, hold them at police stations or other designated locations until their parents pick them up, or issue citations. These anti-truancy programs aim to keep youth in school and away from crime and victimization, involve parents as part of the solution, and reduce daytime crime.
Enforcement is essential to making anti-truancy laws effective.
We've learned that after the seventh missed day, the kid starts failing class. And when they start to fail, their likelihood to drop out of school increases and when they drop out of school, they reduce their ability to reach their full potential. The National Dropout Prevention Center cites lack of supervision at home, family problems, boredom, and substance abuse as reasons for chronic truancy. To tackle the problem, communities need partnerships among schools, law enforcement, and other social service agencies for youth and families. The daytime curfews, according to the report, also served to reduce daytime youth crime, hold parents accountable for their children's behavior, and keep kids in school.