About Truancy
Eighty percent of the adult incarcerated population are high school drop-outs.
Research indicates that habitual truancy is invariably reflected in future criminal behavior. In addition, chronic truancy has been linked to a wide range of social problems including substance abuse, poverty, and poor physical and mental health. A national study on drug use found that approximately 31% of 12th grade dropout reported using illicit drugs. Truant students are more likely to escalate their involvement in substance use at least in part because of the unstructured, unsupervised, and risky environment afforded by skipping school.
Every state requires compulsory school attendance and is accompanied by regulations describing how state education and juvenile justice agencies should respond to truancy. While the school is often the first responder in student truancy, truancy ultimately involves the possibility of action by juvenile or family courts ranging from detention of the children to fine or jail for the parents.
Combating Truancy – 1 family at a time
Historically, students and parents have been the recipients of more punitive actions to quell truancy. PRB is currently taking a more proactive position to address truancy.
Truancy is most often a family issue, and unless it is addressed as such, remedying it will indeed prove (and has proven) challenging. Therefore, the key to truancy prevention is intervention with both the child and the child’s family that is immediate and effective. Research has demonstrated that programs for at-risk youth are successful when they incorporate parent/guardian involvement and provide a continuum of services, including meaningful incentives, sanctions and supports. Therefore, PRB engages both the parent and child in truancy resolution.
Parental involvement is required in PRB, as is a comprehensive spectrum of incentives and sanctions, which are more effective at modifying behaviors than punitive consequences. Additionally, the incentives and sanctions utilized in PRB are constructed based on the individual needs of each student/family.
The Project Rebuild Partnership Program is committed to assist the Local Schools, Parents, and Students for a better education. School Attendance is mandatory and Parents who fail to send their Children to School can be charged with a CRIME!
Failure to Educate is a “Class B Misdemeanor” in the State of Indiana.
For help with Truant Children contact the Project Rebuild Program. Help break the Cycle. Say NO to Truancy!
“WE CARE ABOUT OUR CHILDREN”