Truancy: A Serious Problem for Students, Schools, and Society-- Pg 3

LEAD & MANAGE MY SCHOOL
Truancy: A Serious Problem for Students, Schools, and Society

Day 1: The Varied Causes and Consequences of Truancy

"Truancy is not the problem -- it's an indicator of other problems. When students aren't in school, we need to understand why they stay away before we can effect solutions."

- Safe Schools and Violence Prevention
Office, California Department of Education

Many students will skip either a single class or even a full day of school at least once during their academic career. They may want to attend a special event, prepare for prom night, or simply take what is known in the world of work as a "mental health day." These isolated incidents are quite typical and unlikely to create problems. However, when class-cutting or full-day absences begin to occur routinely and in response to one or more problems in a student's life, then there is great cause for concern. Truancy has become a very serious issue facing all of our schools, from elementary through high school, and all of our communities, regardless of income and social class. The fact is, truancy is an insidious problem for schools and communities because it stems from a such a broad range of risk factors and leads to an equally varied set of negative -- and even dangerous -- consequences.

Qualifying the Traditional Definition of Truancy

While truancy is frequently defined as an absence from school that is not excused by the parent(s)/legal guardian(s) or the school, there are other important factors to consider when trying to identify and address truant behavior among youth. Even excused absences can be problematic for students and schools if they are frequent. Truancy efforts are increasingly focusing on school attendance -- regardless of whether an absence is excused or not -- since chronic truancy and problems such as chronic health issues both result in the same outcome: numerous days out of school. When students miss extended periods of school, no matter the reason, they are likely to fall behind in their schoolwork, decline in their academic performance, and lose their attachment or positive attitudes toward school. It is also important to look at two dimensions of absenteeism: missing full days of school and missing some classes, but not others. While these two types of truant behavior may stem from different causes and require different types of intervention, they are both likely to create serious problems for young people. Click here for some brief illustrations of these different types of truant behavior.

Young people who routinely skip school represent a diverse group. Some have personal issues that make regular school attendance difficult for them, such as chronic physical or health problems; others face familial and economic challenges that pose obstacles to attendance, such as responsibilities for helping out with younger siblings or contributing extra income to the family. A third group of students are truant because of problems experienced within the school setting itself; for example, safety concerns or academic needs that are not being met. However, the causes of most truant behavior cannot be so neatly categorized; instead, students begin to miss individual classes and full days of school due to several interrelated problems that -- without intervention -- will likely become increasingly serious over time.

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

-Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

Click here to learn more about the specific risk factors associated with truancy among youth.

Truant students are more likely than their counterparts to engage in substance use and both delinquent and criminal activity. A report compiled by the Los Angeles County Department of Education concluded that chronic absenteeism is the most powerful predictor of delinquency among youth. Furthermore, a California deputy assistant attorney who handles truancy cases stated that he has "never seen a gang member who wasn't a truant first." Because they fall along the same continuum of behaviors, the most obvious potential outcome of truancy is school dropout -- the consequences of which are quite negative and far-reaching for young people and society. In fact, approximately 80 percent of dropouts were truant the year before leaving school.

Click here to learn more about the relationship between truancy and delinquency.

Click here to learn more about the relationship between truancy and school dropout.

In fact, researchers have linked low commitment to school to nearly all problem behaviors displayed during adolescence.

Click here to learn more about the risk factors for and relationships among various problem behaviors among youth.

And, on the flip side, a strong commitment to school has been cited by numerous researchers as a protective factor against risky behaviors among youth.

Click here for an overview of factors that are known to protect against problem behaviors.

Since substance use and school safety issues are so integrally connected to the problem of truancy, both as risk factors and resultant risk behaviors, it is clearly important to make sure that truancy is a high-priority item on your agenda as a National Drug Prevention and School Safety Program Coordinator. But do school and community members share this perspective?

If you have not already begun to address the problem of truancy in your work as a coordinator, then it should prove to be a very natural and comfortable next step.

"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."

-Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

Truancy is a community-wide issue, and resources from all parts of the community are needed to help young people overcome the many obstacles that can interfere with regular school attendance. Any successful antitruancy initiative will require the formation and maintenance of solid partnerships among schools, families, law enforcement, courts, and other community institutions and services. This is not only the hallmark of an effective effort to address truancy problems among youth, but it is also a defining characteristic of your roles and responsibilities as a coordinator. These partnerships can help make every level of your antitruancy initiative -- including prevention, early intervention, and legal intervention -- both possible and more successful.

Click here for some tips for collaborating with school and community partners to address truancy problems among youth.

In addition to collaborating with diverse school and community partners to curb truant behavior among youth, it is also critical to make sure that truancy prevention and intervention efforts span the K-12 grade range. While typically thought of as a problem among students in middle and high schools, many of the risk factors for truancy are likely to begin either before or during elementary school for students and their families. And truant behavior itself is often seen among very young students, as in the case of Jonathan -- from our earlier case study -- who, in third grade, began to experience extended absences from school because of his uncontrolled asthma. It is essential to begin thinking about and addressing the issue of truancy early on since: (1) even a few absences can negatively influence both academic performance and school attachment among students and (2) mild truant behavior can quickly progress to a more serious and chronic level.

"There are many things we can do that are far more cost-effective than waiting for the crisis of delinquency or crime to occur ... Truancy prevention programs should be developed in every elementary school so that at the first sign of truancy, police, social service agencies, and the school can join together to identify the cases and do something about it before it is too late."

-Janet Reno, U.S. Attorney General
(1993-2001)

Spotlight on Parents

As you will see in the days that follow, parents/guardians represent a particularly critical group to involve in your school's truancy prevention and intervention efforts. The following example of the San Juan Unified School System's attendance program illustrates the positive effects that can result when truancy prevention and intervention efforts directly involve and address the concerns of parents/guardians.

In three years, the San Juan Unified School System has reduced its school absentee rate by 41 percent and added four million dollars a year in school funding.

School officials attribute their success to raising expectations among students, parents, and teachers about the importance of attending school. When they started the program in 2000 as part of a federal Safe Schools Healthy Students grant, Joe Tucker, coordinator of attendance improvement at the San Juan Unified School System, and his staff talked to the attendance clerks at all 83 schools in the Sacramento, Calif. district. Clerks pointed out gaps in procedures that were allowing too many absences to go unnoticed. In response, school officials made two key changes.

In the past, students had been allowed anywhere from 20 to an unlimited number of excused absences, depending on the school. When officials looked further they learned that for some students and parents, the ability to call in sick was simply an easy solution to avoid school. Other students had medical problems that were not receiving proper care. According to Tucker, a third category of students had legitimate medical absences, but were being hounded by the school for their large number of absences.

School officials changed their procedures to allow parents up to ten discretionary days for their child's absence from school. Any absences beyond that would have to be covered by a note from a doctor. The new requirements mean that fewer parents are calling in sick for their teenager who simply does not want to get out of bed. School officials have also connected students who have more serious and untreated medical problems to free or low-cost health care that the family may not have known about.

Officials also realized that parents were not notified of their child's absences until a month or more after the fact. What's more, up to 40 percent of the notification letters never even got sent out, in part because some of the people responsible for sending them were "cherry-picking" to avoid dealing with difficult parents, Tucker said. The problem lay in a cumbersome procedure for sending out notices to parents. Officials streamlined that procedure so that parents now receive a first-class letter no more than a few days after their child meets thresholds for missing too much school.

"If I inform you about the problem in a timely fashion, there is a greater likelihood that you will take action," Tucker said. "If I'm going to hold your feet to the fire, I'm going to give you notice first."

The letters come from Tucker, rather than the school, to take pressure off school officials who want to maintain good relationships with their students' families. Tucker and his staff will field phone calls from angry parents. Officials have also fixed some bugs in the system so that students with legitimate medical absences are no longer receiving threatening letters from the school district.

The school district has widely publicized its new policies and the importance of attendance, according to Tucker. The improvement in attendance rates since the program began in 2000 has led to a school attendance rate of 96.78 percent and about four million dollars in increased school revenue each year, Tucker said. In California, schools are paid in large part on the basis of their average daily attendance -- so the more students who attend, the higher the revenue they will receive.

Truancy is a multifaceted problem with a wide range of causes and consequences; in fact, researchers have established a connection between truant behavior among youth and such problems in adulthood as violence, marital troubles, job problems, criminal behavior, and incarceration. As National Drug Prevention and School Safety Program Coordinators, you are well-situated to collaborate with diverse partners to establish a continuum of programs and services designed to promote student attendance and prevent risk behaviors among young people from elementary through high school. Establishing initiatives that allow schools and communities to both prevent and effectively cope with truancy will go a long way toward placing young people on a positive path throughout their school years and into adulthood.

Click here for a brief fact sheet that you can use to educate school and community members about truancy and related problems.

Looking Ahead

It is clear that truancy is a pressing problem for young people, schools, and society overall that can and must be addressed through a collaborative effort involving schools and a range of community partners. Now that we have reviewed the meaning of truancy, as well as some information about the varied problems associated with truancy, we will take the next few days to explore the three levels of a successful antitruancy initiative: prevention, early intervention, and legal intervention. The fifth and final day of this event will be devoted to summarizing key points and helping you to reflect on the status of your school's antitruancy initiative.

Click here to print today's materials in PDF format.

Discussion Questions

Please think about the questions below and share your responses, comments, and/or any questions about today's material in the Discussion Area.

How does your school, district, or state define truancy?
Can you share any tips or recommendations (including forms or other materials) with fellow coordinators for successfully tracking truant students?
Do school and community members seem to understand the link between truancy and other problem behaviors? If not, how can you help them understand this connection?

This completes today's work.

Please visit the Discussion Area to share your responses to the discussion questions!

References for Day 1 materials:

Baker, M. L., Sigmon, J. N., & Nugent, M. E. (September 2001). Truancy reduction: Keeping students in school. Juvenile Justice Bulletin. Washington, DC: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Available on-line at: http://www.ncjrs.gov/html/ojjdp/jjbul2001_9_1/contents.html.

Garry, E. M. (October 1996). Truancy: First step to a lifetime of problems. Juvenile Justice Bulletin. Washington, DC: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Available on-line at: http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles/truncy.pdf.

Habits hard to break: A new look at truancy in Chicago's public schools. (1997). Chicago: University of Chicago, School of Social Service Administration.

Join Together Online. (January 1998). Keeping kids in school. Boston: Author.

Kaufman, P., Alt, M. N., & Chapman, C. (November 2001). Dropout rates in the United States: 2000. Washington, DC: National Center for Education Statistics. Available on-line at: http://nces.ed.gov/pubsearch/pubsinfo.asp?pubid=2002114.

Loeber, R., Farrington, D. P., & Petechuk, D. (May 2003). Child delinquency: Early intervention and prevention. Child Delinquency Bulletin Series. Washington, DC: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Available on-line at: http://www.ncjrs.org/html/ojjdp/186162/contents.html.

National Center for School Engagement Web site: http://www.truancyprevention.org/.

Rudy, D. (April 2004). Personal communication.

Seeley, K. (May 2004). Personal communication.

Tucker, J. (May 2004). Personal communication.