NCJ Number
243339
Date Published
November 2012
Length
31 pages
Annotation
This home page for the Web site of the Urban Institute features a new report by the District of Columbia Crime Policy Institute (DCPI) on variation in 2010-2011 truancy rates in District of Columbia middle schools and high schools.
Abstract
One of the most significant findings was that high school (HS) absenteeism rates were strongly predicted by students' eighth-grade truancy. This suggests that lowering middle school truancy may be the most efficient and effective strategy for lowering high school truancy rates. Across schools, approximately 2,500 HS students were chronically truant, with four schools showing chronic truancy for the majority of their students; another three schools showed over 40 percent of students as chronically truant. These numbers indicate that Family Court would be swamped as the primary forum for addressing truancy. The high school's immediate neighborhood was a weaker predictor of truancy than the residential neighborhoods of its students, although violence in communities surrounding a school was moderately related to truancy. HS truancy rates were moderately related to student poverty and poverty in students' residential neighborhoods. Middle school students' poverty, residential neighborhood poverty, and residential neighborhood crime were moderately related to truancy, but at one-third to one-half the strength of HS truancy. The current study did not examine family risk factors, although some family factors, such as single parenthood, were explored at the neighborhood level. School factors, such as teacher-student relationships, were beyond the scope of the current study. The study used school data on absenteeism combined with Census and crime data on school neighborhoods and students' residential neighborhoods. 13 exhibits and 10 references