NCJ Number
117455
Date Published
1987
Length
61 pages
Annotation
This booklet provides an overview of student truancy as related to compulsory attendance laws, presents briefs of major issues and trends in truancy litigation, and describes three effective truancy prevention programs.
Abstract
Most State law places responsibility for enforcing mandatory school attendance upon the parents of children. Most parents, however, still view the school as the primary authority responsible for school attendance. This stance, plus the instability of many families of truants, has created a vacuum of responsibility for remedying truancy. The briefs of major issues and trends in truancy litigation address the legitimacy of parental home instruction for children, the use of noncertified schools, the custody of truants, and technical issues. One of the truancy prevention programs described is the Student Advisory Program at Stevens Point Senior High School in Wisconsin. Program activities include an advisor for each student, parental contact with student advisors at least three times during the school year and as needed, the channeling of student truancy reports to guidance personnel, the replacement of truancy detentions with truancy rehabilitation classes, a peer counseling service, and self-contained classrooms for chronic truants. Another program described is the Ombudsman Education Services, Ltd., of Libertyville,, Ill. The program emphasizes the mastery of basic skills through highly individualized instruction, based on individual testing and evaluation. Instruction is tailored to the student with the use of instructional technology. The Dropout Task Force of Oakland County, Mich., identified six major areas of concern: achievement, citizenship, attendance, pregnancy, substance abuse, and re-entry. Eighty-eight different programs were recommended by the task force for possible use by school districts throughout the State. 12-item bibliography.