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Do Court-Based Truancy Interventions Work?

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School absenteeism surged during the pandemic, and it has remained stubbornly high, but  there’s no simple explanation for why the surge has persisted as the pandemic has waned, NPR reports. Educators say that students often stay home with relatively minor illnesses. Unstable housing, unreliable transportation and mental health challenges like depression and anxiety can also play a role. Some students skip school because they just don’t want to go. When students miss lots of school without an excuse, it’s known as truancy. Every state has a truancy policy, and many of those policies make not going to school illegal. The consequences vary by state and jurisdiction. In some truancy cases, courts may jail parents or detain students. More typically, families face court oversight of school attendance, required meetings, fees and home visits from truancy officers.


Clea McNeely, a professor at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville, studied an intervention model run by the county attorney’s office and local school districts more than a decade ago in Ramsey County, Minn. It began with meetings between families and county attorneys. If students continued to miss school, families were required to sign contracts that included a plan for improving attendance. For example, the parents might try to change their work schedules. Eventually, if attendance still didn’t improve, cases might go to court. Schools are overwhelmed. So we see a lot of states that are trying to use the court system more, because they feel like that's the only tool at their disposal. McNeely’s findings: There was no change in attendance for elementary schoolers, and middle and high schoolers actually missed slightly more school than students in a neighboring county without a similar program. "It kills me to deliver this news. I loved this program,” McNeely said. “And not only does it not improve attendance, but it gets kids of color and low-income kids early contact with the juvenile justice system that is not good for them.”

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