Truancy Prevention

Habitual truancy can be defined as unexcused absences from school by a minor that exceed the number of such absences allowed under state law. Each state has its own school attendance laws, which specify:

• The age at which a child must begin school
• The age at which a youth can legally drop out of school
• The number of unexcused absences that constitute truancy under the law (National Center for School Engagement N.d.)

There are variations across the states in the mandatory starting age for school and the legal dropout age and variations across jurisdictions in the legally permissible number of unexcused absences from school (Education Commission of the States 2007) While truancy is widely acknowledged to be a nationwide problem, data collection and reporting issues at the school, local, and state levels make it difficult to find data that delineates the full extent of the problem (Heilbrunn 2007).

Data is available from petitioned truancy cases, but since most truancy cases never reach a petition status this data can only suggest the breadth of the truancy problem. Between 1995 and 2005, the number of petitioned truancy cases increased from 32,800 to 52,400, an increase of 60 percent (Puzzanchera and Sickmund 2008).

The largest relative increases were seen for 16- and 17-year-olds. Chronic truancy and absence (which includes excused and unexcused absences) often start early. Nauer, White, and Yerneni (2008), for instance, reported that 20 percent of elementary school students (90,000) in New York City schools missed at least a month of school during the 2007–08 school year. There were five districts where 30 percent of more of the elementary school students were chronically absent.

Data from the Baltimore (Md.) Education Research Project showed that more than one third of the first grade cohort was chronically absent (that is, missed 1 or more months of schooling in 1 year) during at least 1 of the first 5 years in school (Balfanz et al. 2008). This early pattern lays the groundwork for the poor graduation rates from high school.

Source:

Attwood, Gaynor, and Paul Croll. 2006. “Truancy in Secondary School Pupils: Prevalence, Trajectories and Pupil Perspectives.” Research Papers in Education 21(4):467–84.

Baker, Myriam L., Jane Naby Sigmon, and M. Elaine Nugent. 2001. Truancy Reduction: Keeping Students in School. Bulletin. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

Balfanz, Robert, Rachel Durham, Stephen Plank, and others. 2008. Lost Days: Patterns and Levels of Chronic Absenteeism Among Baltimore City Public School Students 1999–2000 to 2005–06. Baltimore, Md.: Baltimore Education Research Consortium