Conclusion
Chronic truancy has long been identified as a key predictor for negative outcomes in education, employment, and social success. The correlates of chronic truancy continue to be holistic in nature and include family, school, economic, and student variables. Several promising programs are now in existence and, with the support of OJJDP, are making significant headway against the truancy problem.
Programs such as ACT Now and TRDP
build on the strengths and resources
within local communities to target truancy from a “carrot and stick” perspective.
Students and families need both the
incentive to attend school (the carrot)
and meaningful consequences for chronic
nonattendance (the stick). Truancy is a
violation of State law as a status offense
for the youth and educational neglect for
the parent; addressing the underlying
issues is necessary for long-term behavior change. Underlying issues that have
been identified by these projects include
family poverty, less education, substance
abuse, cultural variation in the valuing of
public education, and pressures on the
youth to work and provide childcare for
younger siblings.
Implementing a successful, sustainable truancy reduction project has its share of challenges, as illustrated by ACT Now and TRDP. Gaining consensus among schools to adopt a uniform definition of truancy and a standardized approach to the increase in school absences is a significant challenge. In addition, gaining cooperation from diverse key community players, such as law enforcement, courts, social services, parents, and community-based organizations, can be a challenging and time-consuming task. Finally, implementing effective, data-driven methods for tracking both the occurrence of truancy and the impact of programs on key indicators of success is a struggle for many programs.
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