Chronic absenteeism from school is a serious and common problem. Students miss school for many reasons, and the combination of factors that lead to absences are unique for each student. The only way to stop chronic absenteeism is to address the underlying causes, such as school avoidance, health-related issues, parental issues, and homelessness.…

This brief provides an overview of how to identify and determine why a student may be avoiding or refusing to attend school, and ways that schoolwide positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) teams can help to assess and address school refusal. We will introduce a research-based framework to engage in problem-solving to better support…

The usual view is that truants are lost and troubled juveniles with psychological problems. While the authors agree that many well-known sociological and environmental factors promote truancy, they also confront more disconcerting causes: curriculum and pedagogy. Truancy is much too widespread to continue classifying it as the behavior of social…

The BRIDGE Alternative Middle School in Lowell, Massachusetts, serves students ages 12-16 who have exhibited behavioral problems in traditional school settings, including problems such as truancy, multiple suspensions, mental health issues, peer conflicts, family dysfunction, academic problems, and gang involvement. Students referred to BRIDGE are…

Youth with disabilities are at a higher risk for involvement in the juvenile justice system. Why is this true, and what should parents and caregivers know about this issue? This series of five briefs answers these questions and provides parents with steps for protecting their children's rights in both the education and the court systems.

School administrators, teachers, parents, and juvenile justice officials have long been concerned about the problem of truancy in schools, especially since truancy has been linked to problem behaviors, including academic failure, school dropout, and delinquency. Thus, the prevention of truancy and programs designed to break the cycle of chronic…

School refusal behavior refers to child-motivated refusal to attend school and/or difficulty attending classes for an entire day (Kearney & Silverman, 1996). As such, the term represents an umbrella construct for many historical ones that have been used to describe youths with problematic absenteeism, including truancy, psychoneurotic truancy,…

A British year-seven pupil developed school attendance problems and was referred to home teaching along with a gradually phased reintegration to school. The program was unsuccessful until parental involvement in facilitating the girl's return to school was emphasized. This article examines the participants' search for a scapegoat and the role of…

Describes the Mercy Tutoring Services Program, which provides individualized instruction in basic academic and life skills for high school dropouts, suspended or expelled students, those assigned to the program by Juvenile Court, or students with chronic truancy or behavioral problems. Suggests ways of implementing the model elsewhere. (AYC)

Students in the Newport News (Virginia) high schools who are absent from classes frequently without excuses or who are consistently disruptive are transferred from the regular program to an afterschool program that meets at a different site. These transfers are effective for at least 2 months and students may only be rotated back at the end of a…

This study examined the form and availability of alternative education programs in suburban Cook County, Illinois, public secondary schools. Alternative education was defined as any special program that is directed to specific academic, emotional, and/or work training needs of students. A survey was submitted to school districts to gather…

This document is written to provide school administrators with an additional resource for notifying parents and teachers when school-age children are illegally absent from school or class by using student aides in the attendance office to assist in locating students, contacting parents whose children are absent, and providing the necessary…

This is Volume 2 of the Report of the Commissioner of Education for the Year 1891-'92, containing Parts 2 and 3. Part 2 covers the topics: (1) Name Register; (2) City School Systems; (3) Secondary Schools; (4) Universities and Colleges; (5) Colleges for Women; (6) The Place of University Extension in American Education; (7) The Relation of the…

This document, intended as a resource for school psychologists, contains articles addressing a variety of psychological and behavioral problems of children and adolescents. Each chapter includes the following content: background information concerning the specific topic, approaches for assessing the behavior of concern, intervention possibilities,…

This document presents narrative descriptions of 14 selected programs for reducing truant and disruptive behavior in schools, as selected by a group of Virginia educators in a project sponsored by the Virginia Department of Education. Among the tools utilized in these programs are behavior modification using tokens, in-school tutoring, in-school…