We examined the effect on attendance of a truancy court-diversion program for elementary students. Truancy court-diversion programs represent a shift from a law-and-order approach toward a public health model to address school absenteeism. Instead of directly referring parents of truant elementary students to child protection services or juvenile…

Many schools are faced with the prospect of soaring absenteeism rates, despite the use of traditional truancy courts and other legal interventions. A recent trend in the literature has been to explore alternative, hybrid, and multidisciplinary approaches to address the underlying obstacles to school attendance. These programs are often integrated…

During the 1985-86 school year, Mt. Diablo High Schools (Concord, California) implemented a new attendance policy requiring that any student with 15 days of absence (including excused) would receive a failing grade. Since then, half of the district's six high schools have adopted alternative attendance programs. In 1990, Northgate and College Park…

The attendance policy outlined in this document succeeded in increasing attendance in Napa High School, California. The program focused on student absences due to truancy, not illness, although many of the illness absences reported were due to other, not-so-legitimate causes. The attendance program utilized a direct relationship between the…

Evaluates a program in the New York City schools that uses employment as a method of reducing absenteeism and truancy in the high schools. The program has met with a measure of success although results are not statistically significant. (Author/IRT)

Absence data from the Follow Through program in 18 Philadelphia public schools over the 1974-75 school year are presented according to grade, model and total program. The report, covering grades K-3, examines both overall absence patterns and differences in absence patterns of pupils with and without previous Head Start or equivalent experience.…

Describes an attendance policy that, although initially successful in cutting absences, was widely disliked. Details the modifications that, without impeding effectiveness, made the program more respected. (JM)

Chronic school absenteeism has been identified as a precursor to undesirable outcomes in adolescence, including academic failure, school dropout, and juvenile delinquency. In spite of its effect on adolescent functioning, little research has been conducted to identify effective methods of truancy reduction, particularly among elementary-aged…

This report is the fourth in a series pertaining to student attendance in the Cleveland (Ohio) Public Schools. It focuses primarily on 1985-86 school data and addresses district needs for development of conventional and non-conventional approaches to improvement of student attendance. The report begins with a literature review that describes…

The development, implementation, and evaluation of a policy to increase student attendance in Albemarle High School, Virginia, is described here. Implemented in 1976, the policy called for mandatory grade reduction for students with large numbers of unexcused absences. The program evaluation revealed that the basic objective of improving student…

Examined the effectiveness of the Wisconsin Learnfare experiment that requires teens to attend school regularly as a condition of receiving family financial aid. Findings from state social services data reveal that, despite a $1.5 million "savings" attributed to the program between September 1988 and December 1989, tremendous family…

The problem with the G. I. Bill is that some veterans enroll in school, start collecting their monthly stipends, do not attend classes but keep on collecting. The Veterans Administration is trying to protect federal funds and is trying to stop the cheating, but it may not be doing the right thing. The real problem is seen to be more complex,…

This evaluation study addresses the effectiveness of weekly attendance mailer letters sent to parents of students with irregular attendance patterns at 22 Detroit, Michigan, high schools. Three questions researched were: (1) Are the letters effective in reducing the occurrence of in-school truancy? (2) Are letters an effective means of…

In 1987, the New York City Board of Education established the following three placement units responsible for improving school attendance and preventing dropping out among at-risk youth: (1) the Central Placement Unit (CPU); (2) the Persons In Need of Supervision (PINS) Diversion Unit; and (3) the Bronx District Attorney's Educational Outreach…

On the average, 10 percent of District of Columbia Public School (DCPS) students--approximately 8,500 students--are absent from school each day. In order to combat truancy, which often leads to dropping out, DCPS developed the Truancy Prevention Plan, part of a Comprehensive Plan for School Attendance Improvement, which was implemented between…