Truancy, Dropouts and Delinquency: Lessons, Costs and Strategies

1. Truancy, Dropouts and Delinquency: Lessons, Costs and Strategies Virginia Truancy Prevention Institute

2. What is NCSE? • The National Center for School Engagement • Promoting truancy prevention and school success • Improving teachers’ skills with homeless and highly mobile youth • Provide training, evaluation and technical assistance • NCSE is a hosted by the Colorado Foundation for Families and Children

3. Troubling Statistics • Truants are 2 to 8 times as likely to become adjudicated delinquent • 70% of suspended youth are chronically truant in the previous 6 months. • 97% of expelled youth are chronically truant in the previous year. • 80% of dropouts were chronically truant in the past year. • 90% of youth in detention for delinquent acts were truant.

4. Troubling Statistics • 25% of all expelled youth will be in youth corrections within 1 year. • 82% of adult prison inmates dropped out of high school. • 70% of adult offenders have a history of youth offending.

5. National Truancy Reduction Demonstration Sites • King County Superior Courts, Seattle WA • State Attorney’s Office, Jacksonville, FL • University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI • Weed and Seed Office, Contra Costa Co., CA • Safe Streets Campaign, Tacoma, WA • Mayor’s Anti-Gang Office, Houston, TX • Suffolk Co. Probation Dept., Yaphank, NY • + Three sites in Colorado

6. RESULTS-BASED TRUANCY PROGRAM • Principles that guide the work: • Diversity is valued • Families are actively involved • Youth are treated with respect • Collaboration with the community is critical Milestones The measurements of progress that allow us to know if we are on the right path to achieving good outcomes Results The desired ultimate results/effects/ outcomes of our efforts Need/Capacity Child, family, school, and community characteristics that determine assets and context Strategy Guided by our needs and capacity, the tools and activities used to achieve our desired outcomes EVALUATION

7. TRUANCY REDUCTION PROGRAM Needs & Capacities Strategies Milestones Family: Need information Values re: school, Essential for attendance Inform about Policies Create attendance contracts Engaged in solutions Engaged in child’s Learning, Understands policies Results School: Value engagement Learning environ. SARBs Alt. Ed. Credit/grading Attachment Attendance Attachment Achievement Youth are inschool and outof thejuvenile justicesystem Student: Academic abilities, Social, Behavioral,peers, JJ Peer Mentoring/ Tutoring Incentives Sanctions Improved attendance, grades, behavior Feeling attached Community: Courts Law enforcement CBOs, Community involvement with youth, resources accessed, etc. Public education, media Outreach PROCESS EVALUATION OUTCOME EVALUATION

8. Solutions for Truant YouthStrengthening Networks –Building Capacity - Supporting Youth -Creating Cycles of Success Convene Stakeholders to Design A Community Response Youth and Parent Accountability Engage Law Enforcement Courts Schools Juvenile Services Social Services Develop Public Policy & Funding Strategies Provide Evaluation and Training and Technical Assistance to Programs Engaged in Supporting Attendance, Attachment, and Achievement Attendance Attachment Youth Success Achievement Increased Family Involvement Coordinate & Integrate programs

9. Major Truancy Reduction Strategies • Collaborations for Planning: Schools, Courts, Police • Public Awareness Activities: School & community • Short Term Interventions • SARBs • Knock and Talk • Parent-student Workshop/ Contracting • Home Visits • Mediation • Truancy Centers • Longer Term Interventions: Case Management, Support Services • Court Interventions: Parent arrest, detention of youth, fines , D&N petitions, CHINS petitions, Driver’s License revocation

10. TRAIN screen capture

11. Data Background • The following data are based on 595 students entered into an online database (TRAIN) from all 7 demonstration sites. • Except where noted, these data represent all intake data since the project’s inception in 2000.

12. Ethnicity

13. Gender

14. Grade

15. Age

16. Parents Living Together

17. More than One Residence

18. Number of Adults in the Home

19. Number of Working Adults in the Home

20. School Discipline Problems Note: 284 students had information filled out for this category.

21. Discipline Problems by Grade The largest proportion of school discipline problems appears in the 6th and 8th grade, with 48% and 47% of kids whose information is provided have problems. 7th Graders are a close third with 40% followed by a distant fourth of 9th graders who make up only 26% proportionately.

22. Juvenile Justice Involvement

23. Numbers of Students with Common Challenges Family Stressors (283), Mobility (118), Emotional Stability (242), Family Relationship (130), Peer Relationship (122), Academic Problems (344)

24. Number of Students with Less Common Challenges Living Situation (91), Been Bullied (63), Transportation (84), Chronic Illness (97)

25. Gender Differences in Bullying Boys were significantly more likely to have had problems with bullying than girls. (45 boys vs. 23 girls) In general, boys were bullied due to their small size and gang activity relative to girls who were bullied more by members of the opposite sex, sometimes involving sexual harassment/violence.

26. Individual Education Plan

27. Mental Health Services

28. Case Management Services

29. Improvements Of 520 update records, the greatest number of improvements were made in: • Academic Achievement (135) • Emotional Stability (116) • Improving Peer Relationships (113) • Family Relationship(111) / Family Stressor (108)

30. Number of Contact Hours over the Last 3 Months

31. Attachment Surveys • The following data come from attachment surveys that are administered to students in three intensive sites: Houston, Jacksonville, and Seattle. • The information is preliminary and largely reflects the Houston and Seattle sites, which serve an older population and at the time of analysis had more surveys submitted.

32. Student Challenges On average, students reported having trouble with: • Teachers “a few times” to “once a week” and • Other Students, Paying Attention, and Completing Homework “once a week” to “almost daily” They also indicate that class is NOT engaging and they are not interested in the class work.

33. Education and Aspirations Students reported that: • Education is “very important” to “quite important” • That they are almost equally likely to get a good job that they like following high school as they are to complete a 2 and/or 4 year college program and continue with graduate school. In all categories the responses fell between “not sure” and “probably will”

34. AND NOW…. What we’ve all been waiting for….. Attendance Results!

35. Attendance • Since the project’s inception, the average excused absence rate dropped from 4.37 at intake to 3.55 at the first update for the population as a whole. • The average unexcused absence rate dropped from 14.64 at intake to 7.40at the first update.

36. Truancy Center Reduction Efforts Resulted in 65% Decrease in Daytime Crime Tacoma, WA Targeted neighborhood interventions Multi-agency collaborative Core team at middle school Truancy case manager Truancy officers and Truancy center

37. Improved Attendance Resulted in $120,000 More in Revenue in 2 Schools Contra Costa, CA Student Attendance Review Board Cooperative relationship with school system & Weed and Seed Program Positive attendance staff in schools Focus groups with families Outreach/public awareness

38. Local ActionWhere do we start? • Know your attendance laws, local policies & their inconsistencies • Develop a strategic plan across agencies • Focus on attendance not just truancy • Adopt promising practices that “fit” locally • Create both incentives and graduated sanctions • Involve students and parents in planning programs to improve attendance • Take baselines and track progress

39. Sticks and Carrots: Mix and Match Sticks Fine Parents Arrest Parents Contempt Citations Withhold TANF File CHINS/PINS File D & N Petition School F Grading No Extra Curric. Act. Suspensions/.Expulsions Suspend Driving License Carrots Attendance Awards Change Ed. Placement Home Visits + Plan Community Service Acad. Supp/Part credit School-Home Contracts After School Programs Class letters home Case Mgmt. Services Truancy Workshops

40. The Costs and Benefits of Three Intensive Interventions With Colorado Truants

41. Research Questions • Estimate costs of truancy before & after intervention • Costs of truancy projects compared to their outcomes (benefits) • How do the projects compare to court costs and their outcomes?

42. What are the costs of truancy? • Short term costs • School and court expenditures • Cost of sentencing options (detention) • Juvenile crime associated with truancy • Long term costs • Adult crime later on • Lower income tax revenues • Increased social service expenditures

43. Dropouts Cost A Lot • Vernez, Krop, and Rydell at RAND show a dropout costs $200K+ per person • Lost income taxes • Social service expenditures • Adult criminal justice expenditures • 8,714 CO dropouts in ’01 cost almost $2 billion.

44. Court: Results

45. TRPs: Results

46. Truancy Reduction Saves Public Funds Estimated Per Capita Savings in Public Spending and Income Taxes For Each Truant Student Who Completes High School Adams County, CO- $208,371 Denver, CO- $215,649 Pueblo, CO- $209,550

47. Unestimated Benefits • Deterrent effects of both court and TRPs • TRPs uncover many fundamental problems • Mental health • Substance abuse • Physical abuse • Better educated children will grow up to be better educated parents

48. National Trends • We now have solid connection from truancy to delinquency • Two to eight times greater likelihood truants will become adjudicated • Even for occasional period skippers • Documenting attendance and truancy by state • Less use by courts of detention for truancy • More jurisdictions making the connection between truancy and daytime crime • Connecting attendance to attachment for achievement • Truancy can be reduced and is a worthy investment of public funds

49. School Year Activity Cycle I Count I’m Learning Count Me in For Learning Oct-Nov I’ve Learned Jan-Feb Aug-Sept May-June Count Me In For Learning! Public Education Campaign for School Engagement

50. Count Me in For LearningAugust Prior to School Opening Example Activities • Mobile School Enrollment at parks, rec centers, shopping malls, businesses • Line up business partners for dissemination of Count me In message on shopping bags, fast food bags, posters • Create give-aways like buttons, book bags, back to school lists, book marks, posters, T-Shirts, etc • Media events about school enrollment, TV interviews, hotline for where to enroll an school info • Family potluck dinners and fund nights at schools just before opening