Philadelphia's Truancy Program Uses a Variety of Approaches Authorities patrol the streets , subway stations, and malls looking for school-age children. Children are brought to a special center at a city elementary school staffed by educators, social workers and school police officers . Or, students are put into a classroom at the center for a day. Special neighborhood-based truancy courts have been established where the goal is to resolve problems underlying the truancy. Judges or hearing masters work with educators and social workers to devise plans to get children back in school.
Plans are creative and flexible .
The result has been a slow but steady increase in overall attendance , about one percent per year . Some individual schools have increased their attendance by up to six percent in one year. The city estimates that about 7,000 truants were picked up during the last three months of 1998. It is derived from a curriculum that was developed for use in schools. The program helps children think about ways to solve interpersonal problems when they are very young and helps them grow into thinking, feeling human beings who will be able to make good decisions when they reach adolescence and adulthood .