Chronic absenteeism and truancy have plagued the United States for more than a century. Various interventions have been utilized, yet eight million students are absent from school every day, and seven million meet the threshold for chronic absenteeism in a school year. Some communities implemented voluntary court-based truancy diversion programs…

State and local report cards help ensure local educational agencies (LEAs), parents, families, educators, and communities have critical data and a common framework for gauging educational progress and success. Title I, Part A (Title I) of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) requires States to annually share this important…

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…

Truancy issues are longstanding and the desires to develop programs that are effective have been just as enduring. More striking is the lack of evidence of a truancy program evaluation process that includes collaboration with the clients that it serves. Truancy intervention programs have a wide range of effects on participants from multiple ethnic…

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…

Afterschool programs have been operating for decades in communities across the country, and federal investment in afterschool has increased dramatically since the mid-1990s. However, even more investment in the field of afterschool, which includes before school, afterschool and summer learning programs, is needed to keep up with the growing…

Prevention in School (PS) is a comprehensive program which aims to improve the learning climate and reduce problem behavior in elementary schools. Core components are teaching of school rules, praise and rewards to support prosocial behavior, and a forum involving parents. This trial investigated the effects of PS on its intended outcomes, and…

The Case Management Partnership Initiative (CMPI) addresses chronic truancy by linking truant ninth graders and their families to social services and case management, along with regular interagency case management meetings. A pilot was conducted at Anacostia and Ballou High Schools in 2011-2012. The implementation evaluation found that the pilot…

The Truancy Court Diversion Program (TCDP) is a voluntary program for at risk students and their parents. It combines involvement of a Family Court judge in group and individual sessions with service provision. During the 2011-12 school year, a pilot TCDP was implemented at Kramer Middle School (M.S.) and at Johnson M.S. The program attempts to…

Chronic truancy can have dire consequences from crime and unwanted pregnancy to drug abuse and poor economic futures. Mental illness, lack of parental support, unwanted pregnancy or marriage issues, undocumented immigrant status, drug abuse, and crime are reasons students become chronically truant. Accountability measures passed down from the…

This evaluation of the Case Management Partnership Initiative (CPMI) found that the program successfully linked high-need families with services designed to prevent truancy. The truancy prevention program, implemented at Anacostia and Ballou High Schools in 2011-2012, links chronically truant ninth graders and their families to social services and…

An evaluation of the Truancy Court Diversion Program (TCDP) found that despite significant implementation challenges, parent-child communication and youths' attitudes towards school both improved. A voluntary program for middle school students at risk for chronic truancy, TCDP involves judicially-led sessions that address student attitudes…

Afterschool programs have been operating for decades in communities across the country, and federal investment in afterschool has increased dramatically since the mid-1990s. However, even more investment in the field of afterschool, which includes before-school, afterschool and summer learning programs, is needed to keep up with the growing…

This article presents the results of a program evaluation of an Early Truancy Intervention (ETI) program in elementary schools in a southern school district. The ETI represents a cooperative effort between a southern district State Attorney's Office, and public elementary schools in the largest county in that district. The results indicate a…

When many students are tardy at the secondary level, teachers must continually restart instruction or delay beginning instructional periods throughout the school day. To address the considerable amount of instructional time lost caused by high rates of tardiness, the authors investigated the results of schoolwide intervention to reduce student…