April 28th, 2010

New York City’s Attendance Court Tackles Truancy

The New York Times has this piece Tuesday about the city's Attendance Court, a 2-year-old pilot program that takes a "problem solving" approach toward reducing chronic truancy in three schools in the district. Thousands of New York City's 1 million plus students miss more than a month of school each year.

The "court," which provides coordinated services for the students and regular hearings over cases, focuses on truants, those students with numerous unexcused absences due to a lack of interest or family issues. This is often different from chronic absence, particularly among students in the early grades who generally stay home with a parent's knowledge. For the Attendance Counts initiative, our definition of chronic absence includes excused and unexcused absences, which may be caused by illness, family crises, the lack of reliable transportation or other issues. Like truancy, chronic absence requires that teachers and school officials understand the extent of the problem in their school and then put in place a thoughtful plan for improving attendance.

The Times piece features Program Coordinator Susanna Osorno-Crandall, who seems to be taking a "whatever it takes" approach to improving students' attendance. She is "the all-around cheerful arranger of after-school programs, homework helper and frequent buyer of alarm clocks to foster better wake-up habits." She works with Judge Eileen Koretz to urge students, and their parents, to take attendance seriously.

As one school counselor notes, however, it would be a challenge for school personnel to provide these kinds of individualized services.

What do you think of this kind of approach?

Tags: attendance, education, truancy
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