Data drawn from home visits with 67 families with multiple problems whose children were not attending school regularly. Provides a model for the use of a referral specialist as part of school attendance staff. Results show positive gains in school attendance and in redirection of these disorganized families. (DOW)

Describes one family's unsuccessful experience with a minority student in a foster home situation. Schools are not equipped to handle the special problems of certain students who make up a large percentage of the dropout population. (MD)

This fastback document examines student absenteeism and offers advice on what schools can do to improve attendance. It looks at truancy, absenteeism, and tardiness and how, since the first days of compulsory education, educators have had to deal with these obstacles to education. Since the 1970s absenteeism has been identified by many educators as…

Questionnaires administered to 190 children, ages 9-14, including persistent absentees, measured students' anxiety levels and relationships with parents, teachers, and peers. Academic-ability and parent-status data were gathered from school records. A multiple regression analysis was used to determine the predictive efficiency of these variables…

Because parents have abdicated to schools the responsibility for teaching ethics, New Rochelle High School has developed a "Curriculum For Caring" based on the ideas of Urie Bronfenbrenner. The authors describe the general content and objectives of this required program and note that student absenteeism and misbehavior have declined.…

The major implication of this study is that school rebellion is not a response to the school experience itself. Other findings are presented concerning the scalability of school disruption items, the nature of expressive alienation and its components, and the impact of sex, race, and neighborhood on school rebellion. (KC)

An interagency truancy prevention team tries to look at the family as a whole and then work together to solve problems. Five agencies comprise the network: (1) school system; (2) juvenile and domestic court services; (3) police juvenile division; (4) department of social services; and (5) city/county mental health counseling services. (MLF)

Studied when and how adolescent girls become involved in violent street crime as well as the explanatory factors for this criminal behavior. Subjects were 85 incarcerated women in New York City. Results suggest a need to better understand the impact of neighborhood, peer, and addiction factors in female adolescent criminal violence. (GLR)

Compares emotional and behavioral problems as well as suicidal thoughts and tendencies for boys and girls with a history of sexual abuse to boys and girls without such a history. Both sexually abused boys and girls reported significantly more emotional problems, behavioral problems, suicidal thoughts, and suicide attempts than their nonabused…

Investigated relationships among youth risk behaviors and demographic factors. Data on risk behaviors (delinquency, truancy, weapon carrying, fighting, sexuality, substance use, demographics, and family structure) were compared within specific demographic factors and by age group for diverse inner-city adolescents. Survey and interview data…

Some educators have suggested that compulsory attendance legislation should be eliminated or that the number of required years be reduced. They assert that some students cannot be successful in school and others lack the willingness to learn. This paper presents findings of a study that examined the effect of student attendance and grades. The…

This guide suggests that truancy is not just a school problem but a community problem, and the whole community needs to come together to devise solutions. This monthly action kit provides tools to help communities combat truancy. It contains: (1) important facts about truancy; (2) some ideas on how to assess the local problem; (3) actions that can…

One of the South Carolina Department of Education's foremost responsibilities is to initiate attendance improvement programs. Among the services offered to carry out this responsibility is assistance to attendance personnel in developing professional approaches to absenteeism. This guide contains information on the role and function of attendance…

Guidelines for responding to immediate crisis situations in attendance and strategies for longterm prevention are presented in this handbook, which stresses the need for interagency cooperation. The handbook serves as a model for both content and process, with the ultimate aim of promoting an arena in which the most appropriate service delivery…

The Truants' Alternative and Optional Education Program was developed to provide preventative, interventive, and remedial services to keep students from becoming chronic truants, and as an educational option for students who had dropped out or who were at risk of dropping out of school due to academic deficiencies. The program, implemented in the…