Overview of the Truancy Problem
Every day, hundreds of thousands of youth are absent from school; many are absent without an excuse and deemed truant. Although national data on truancy rates are not available (in part because no uniform definition of truancy exists), many large cities report staggering rates of truancy and chronic absenteeism.2 Some large cities report that unexcused absences can number in the thousands on certain days (Heaviside et al., 1998). In Detroit, MI, for example, school attendance officials investigated 66,440 complaints of chronic absenteeism during the 1994–95 school year, and in Chicago, IL, the average 10th grader missed 6 weeks of instructional time during the 1995–96 school year (Garry, 1996; Roderick et al., 1997). A national review of discipline issues in schools conducted in 1996–97 found that public school principals identified student absenteeism, class cutting, and tardiness as the top discipline problems in their schools (Heaviside et al., 1998).
In general, the proportion of truancy cases handled in juvenile court is relatively small. However, the juvenile justice system is increasingly serving as the final stop for truants and as a mechanism for intervening with chronic truants. Recent statistics available on the extent of truancy cases in juvenile court clearly demonstrate how important it is for schools and communities to confront this issue. In 1998, truancy accounted for 26 percent of all formally handled status offense cases, representing an 85-percent increase in truancy cases in juvenile court since 1989 (from 22,200 cases in 1989 to 41,000 cases in 1998) (Puzzanchera et al., forthcoming).
A closer look reveals that the number of petitioned truancy cases around the country is about evenly divided between boys and girls and that whereas the majority of petitioned truancy cases involve 15-year-olds, there have been petitioned cases involving boys and girls as young as 10 (Puzzanchera et al., forthcoming).
Preliminary findings from OJJDP’s evaluation of TRDP confirm previous findings that, in general, the correlates of truancy fall into four broad categories:
- Family factors. These include lack
of guidance or parental supervision,
domestic violence, poverty, drug or
alcohol abuse in the home, lack of
awareness of attendance laws, and
differing attitudes toward education.
- School factors. These include school
climate issues—such as school size and
attitudes of teachers, other students,
and administrators—and inflexibility in
meeting the diverse cultural and learning styles of the students. Schools often
have inconsistent procedures in place
for dealing with chronic absenteeism
and may not have meaningful consequences available for truant youth
(e.g., out-of-school suspension).
- Economic influences. These include
employed students, single-parent
homes, high mobility rates, parents
who hold multiple jobs, and a lack of
affordable transportation and childcare.
- Student variables. These include drug and alcohol abuse, lack of understanding of attendance laws, lack of social competence, mental health difficulties, and poor physical health.
Although not mentioned specifically, the community significantly influences the occurrence of truancy as well. Community factors are folded into the above four areas. For example, economic conditions and differing culturally based attitudes toward education are also important factors in the community.
Predictor of Delinquency
Truancy has been clearly identified as one
of the early warning signs that youth are
headed for potential delinquent activity,
social isolation, and/or educational failure.
Several studies have established lack of
commitment to school as a risk factor for
substance abuse, delinquency, teen pregnancy, and dropping out of school (Bell,
Rosen, and Dynlacht, 1994; Dryfoos, 1990;
Huizinga, Loeber, and Thornberry, 1995;
Rohrman, 1993). Decades of research have
also identified a link between truancy and
later problems such as violence, marital
problems, job problems, adult criminality,
and incarceration (Dryfoos, 1990; Catalano et al., 1998; Robins and Ratcliff,
1978; Snyder and Sickmund, 1995).
More recent studies, such as OJJDP’s Program of Research on the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency,3 indicate that truancy may be a precursor to serious violent and nonviolent offenses and that the connection between truancy and delinquency appears to be particularly acute among males (Kelley et al., 1997). In addition, findings from OJJDP’s Study Group on Very Young Offenders indicate that chronic truancy in elementary school is linked to serious delinquent behavior at age 12 and under (Loeber and Farrington, 2000).
Juvenile Daytime Crime
In several jurisdictions, law enforcement officials have linked high rates of truancy to daytime burglary and vandalism (Baker, 2000). Before TRDP started, for example, police in Tacoma, WA (one of OJJDP’s TRDP sites), reported that one-third of burglaries and one-fifth of aggravated assaults occurring between 8 a.m. and 1 p.m. on weekdays were committed by juveniles. In Contra Costa County, CA (another TRDP site), police reported that 60 percent of juvenile crime occurred between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m. on weekdays. These daytime juvenile crime rates were a primary reason that sites began implementing TRDP.
Social and Financial Impact
Students with the highest truancy rates have the lowest academic achievement rates, and because truants are the youth most likely to drop out of school, they have high dropout rates as well (Dynarski and Gleason, 1999). The consequences of dropping out of school are well documented. School dropouts have significantly fewer job prospects, make lower salaries, and are more often unemployed than youth who stay in school (U.S. Department of Education, 1993). According to a recent report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2001:2), “6.0 percent of workers with a high school diploma were in poverty [in 1999], considerably lower than the proportion of those who had not completed high school (14.3 percent).” High school dropouts are also more likely to depend on welfare, experience unstable marriages, and serve time in prison than those who complete their schooling (Snyder and Sickmund, 1995; U.S. Department of Education, 1993).
The financial impact of truancy and the dropouts that result can be measured in a number of ways:
- Less educated workforce.
- Business loss because of youth who
“hang out” and/or shoplift during
the day.
- Higher daytime crime rates (in some
cases).
- Cost of social services for families of children who are habitually truant.
Truancy, however, has an even more direct financial impact on communities: the loss of Federal and State education funding.
OJJDP’s Response to Truancy
OJJDP is committed to identifying what works in preventing and reducing truancy and has supported numerous truancy initiatives and evaluations, two of which are described in the sections that follow: ACT Now—a prosecutor-led program in Pima County, AZ—and TRDP.
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