Truancy
On any given day about 2,700,000 students don't show up for school. One recent study estimated the average cost to an individual school was $46.50 per day per student absence. None of us want sick children attending our schools. But we do want all healthy students attending daily.
Wikipedia Defines Truancy
Truancy is any intentional unauthorized absence from compulsory schooling. The term typically describes absences caused by students of their own free will, and usually does not refer to legitimate "excused" absences, such as ones related to medical conditions. The term's exact meaning differs from school to school, and is usually explicitly defined in the school's handbook of policies and procedures.
It may also refer to students who attend school but do not go to classes.
Beyond the effect that missed schooling may have on a student's educational attainment, truancy may indicate more deeply embedded problems with the student, the education system, or both. Truancy is commonly associated with juvenile delinquency. In some schools, truancy may result in an ineligibility to graduate or to receive credit for class attended, until the time lost to truancy is made up through a combination of detention, fines, or summer school.
An attempt to fix Truancy: United States, 1915
In History of Social Legistlation in Iowa we read that "Truant Schools" were to be formed for the "instruction of the habitually truant children." Truant officers were assigned to "apprehend and take into custody truant children." Often these "truant officers" doubled as "school janitors" who worked closely with police and probation officers employing a wide variety of creative techniques to "collect" truants. In many communities for example, truant officers "shall be vested with police powers, the authority to serve warrants, and shall have authority to enter workshops, factories, stores and all other places where children may be employed, and do whatever may be necessary, in the way of investigation or otherwise, to enforce this act..."
An attempt to fix Truancy: United Kingdom, 2009
In the United Kingdom, a police officer who suspects a child of the correct age to be deliberately missing school for no legitimate reason has the power to take that child to the school he or she is supposed to attend. Failure to secure regular school attendance of a registered pupil is a criminal offence for parents.
An attempt to fix Truancy: Germany, 2009
In Germany, the parents of a child absent from school without a legitimate excuse are notified by the school. If the parents refuse to send their child to school or are unable to control their child, local child services or social services officers may request the police to escort the child to school, and in extreme cases can petition a court to partially or completely remove child custody from the parents. Parents may also be fined in cases of refusal.
An attempt to fix Truancy: Texas, 2009
CBS News reports Texas to track truant students by GPS. Court authorities will be able to track students with a history of skipping school under a new program requiring them to wear ankle bracelets using satellite technology. Linda Penn, a Bexar County justice of the peace, said "we are at a critical point in our time where we can either educate or incarcerate." She went on to link truancy with juvenile delinquency and later criminal activity. "We can teach them now or run the risk of possible incarceration later on in life. I don't want to see the latter."
An attempt to fix Truancy: Advantage Press, 2009
For over 25 years the Advantage Press has provided schools with Learning Packets to help maintain a positive learning environment. Now, for the first time, we're introducing packets to save schools money.
Truancy Learning Packets
Culling the recent research, we have identified twelve of the most common reasons for truancy. For each, we have designed a Truancy Learning Packet that will guide your student to an intrinsic solution to his or her problem.
Essentially, the impetus to improve is in the hands of the student. He or she will read the material and answer the assigned questions. These answers will become the student's guide for improvement and the school's tool for monitoring, assessing and providing additional guidance for that student.
12 Packets. 149 Pages. $60.00 on CD. Order Catalog #960.
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