Dropout-Prevention Program Sees to The Basics of Life

Families just need guidance on how to take control of their lives, says Andrill Harris, dropout prevention coordinator at the Patricia R. Harris Education Center. (By Marvin Joseph -- The Washington Post) TOOLBOX Resize Print E-mail COMMENT 5 Comments | View All » COMMENTS ARE CLOSED WHO'S BLOGGING » Links to this article

By Jay Mathews

Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, December 10, 2007

Word was getting around about the new problem solver on campus. So the mother tracked her down one recent day in a makeshift office on the second floor of a Southeast Washington public school.

"I don't know if you are the right person to come to," the mother said, "but I have this situation. I haven't eaten in the last day and a half so that my children would have enough to eat."

Andrill Harris, dropout prevention coordinator at the Patricia R. Harris Education Center, knew what to do. She set up a food-bank delivery. For another parent in a tight spot, Harris found subsidized housing. The two families had a total of five children at the school. All, with help from Harris, were spared at least some of the stress that makes it hard for some inner-city students to concentrate on reading and math, hard even to stay in school.

In the struggle to improve schools in the poorest neighborhoods, experts say no problem is more challenging than the high dropout rate. Some educators have raised test scores. Others have repaired leaking roofs and gotten new computers. But the latest estimates this year indicate that only 58 percent of D.C. public school students graduate on time with a high school diploma.

Communities in Schools, the nonprofit organization that employs Harris, has gained a national reputation for reducing dropout rates since its founding in 1977. Based in Alexandria, the organization has nearly 200 affiliates in 27 states, reaching more than a million students in 3,400 schools. In the District, it operates in eight schools.

The organization confronts the dropout issue at its main source: impoverished families who need jobs, health care, housing, food, reading tutors and often simply a friendly ear. It sounds simple and obvious, but in many ways it is an innovation. School systems traditionally have depended on teachers and principals to connect with bored or troubled students and try to persuade them to stay. Few outside groups offer help to beleaguered school administrators.

"Many times, students don't have a caring adult in their lives at school," said Daniel J. Cardinali, president of Communities in Schools.

To be sure, other factors can lead students to drop out. Some adolescents or teenagers dislike sitting in classrooms and want to get out into the world as soon as possible. Some feel lost in humongous high schools or turned off by boring lessons.

Many educators in the Washington area and beyond are starting to recover from years of denial about dropouts. Often, statistics have buried the magnitude of the problem. For years, many school systems have reported dropout rates of 2 or 3 percent, using a formula for what is known as the event rate, or the percentage of students who leave school each year. Nationally, the event rate is 4.7 percent. It ranges from 6 to 10 percent in low-income communities.

But scholars have persuaded the National Governors Association to embrace a statistic known as the cohort rate, or the percentage of ninth-graders who graduate within four years. That, experts say, is a more depressing but also more realistic figure. Nationally, the cohort graduation rate is about 70 percent, declining to 50 percent in some urban areas. An analysis of data on the nation's 50 largest school systems, published by Education Week in June, shows that the graduation rate in Prince George's County is 67 percent and that Anne Arundel County's is 75 percent. Montgomery County and Fairfax County were virtually tied at about 80 percent.

In a new book, "The Last Dropout: Stop the Epidemic!," Communities in Schools co-founder Bill Milliken says he does not have enough data to calculate a cohort graduation rate for students helped by his program. But he reports that his event rate appears to be about 3.5 percent, roughly half of what low-income schools usually report.

Harris, 40, joined Communities in Schools in August after many years as a social worker in the District and Prince George's. She works on a laptop computer at a table in a small special-education classroom. She has no school phone extension yet, so she uses her cellphone to reach out to organizations that might help families at two Southeast schools: Patricia R. Harris, which serves students from pre-kindergarten through eighth grade, and Terrell Elementary, which serves students through sixth grade.

Communities in Schools focuses on what it calls the five basics: providing mentors, good health, safe places to grow and learn, opportunities to give back to the community and marketable skills. Harris's bible is a pocket-size volume, "The Emergency Food, Shelter and Health Care Directory," published by the InterFaith Conference of Metropolitan Washington.

That is just a start. Harris keeps a list of community groups and businesses that have offered help. She uses even the smallest gifts to build strong family relationships with her schools. Having received a donation of 100 children's books, she is organizing a "read-in" to give away books "with moms and dads in the morning, coffee and doughnuts," she said. She added: "We might have a reading night with the parents. Another option is having a book club."

Jeffrey Grant, principal of Patricia R. Harris, said the connection with Communities in Schools is "a partnership made in heaven."

All good principals, he said, try to do what Communities in Schools does: contact outside organizations that might help enrich student lives. Every D.C. school has a list of volunteer partner organizations, but the administrative and academic burdens on principals leave little time for the e-mails and phone calls needed to make the partnerships work. With Harris working for him, Grant said, his partners -- often reluctant to intrude without an invitation -- hear what he needs, when they can come and what they should bring.

Cardinali said Communities in Schools is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, federal grants and various other sources. The organization is working with four D.C. high schools -- Anacostia, Ballou, Eastern and H.D. Woodson -- but also sends coordinators to elementary schools because that is where problems begin. "We have done a bunch of research on the risk factors that correlated strongly with dropouts going back to the third grade, so we look for tutors, mentors and after-school programming," Cardinali said.

So far, smaller high schools, or small academies within larger high schools, have had the most success in increasing graduation rates. For example, 88 small high schools have opened in New York City since 2002 under the New Century High Schools initiative. They report that 78 percent of their students are graduating after four years, much higher than the citywide average. Some small charter high schools in the District report similar success, although scholars caution that the New Century and charter schools might benefit from attracting more motivated students, who are less likely to drop out wherever they go.

Maryland State Superintendent of Schools Nancy S. Grasmick said groups such as Communities in Schools provide promising short-term solutions. But she said she looks forward to long-term changes, including universal access to pre-kindergarten, that could reduce the dropout rate by raising achievement for students from the poorest families.

Harris said her work has convinced her that families want to take control of their lives and just need guidance on how to do that. The mother who sought help finding food, Harris said, first became aware of possible aid at a PTA meeting during which Harris led a discussion of what could be done to help neighbors. The mother offered to help on Thanksgiving. Days later, she asked for help herself.

"Everybody has circumstances," Harris said. "It is not necessarily something they have done intentionally to put themselves in that situation. It is not always your responsibility to know what to do at that time and how to fix the situation. So that's why you have others in the community who will help and support you."

Staff writer Jay Mathews sits on the board of directors of Editorial Projects in Education, the nonprofit publisher of Education Week.

Manual to Combat Truancy

July 1996

Prepared by the U.S. Department of Education
in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice

The Problem of Truancy in America's Communities

Truancy is the first sign of trouble; the first indicator that a young person is giving up and losing his or her way. When young people start skipping school, they are telling their parents, school officials and the community at large that they are in tr ouble and need our help if they are to keep moving forward in life.

Research data tells us that students who become truant and eventually drop out of school put themselves at a long term disadvantage in becoming productive citizens. High school dropouts, for example, are two and a half times more likely to be on welfare than high school graduates. In 1995, high school dropouts were almost twice as likely to be unemployed as high school graduates. In addition, high school dropouts who are employed earn much lower salaries. Students who become truant and eventually drop out of high school too often set themselves up for a life of struggle.

Truancy is a gateway to crime. High rates of truancy are linked to high daytime burglary rates and high vandalism. According to the Los Angeles County Office of Education, truancy is the most powerful predictor of juvenile delinquent behavior. "I've never seen a gang member who wasn't a truant first," says California District Attorney Kim Menninger. Truancy prevention efforts should be a part of any community policing effort to prevent crime before it happens.

During a recent sample period in Miami more than 71 percent of 13 to 16 year-olds prosecuted for criminal violations had been truant. In Minneapolis, daytime crime dropped 68 percent after police began citing truant students. In San Diego, 44 percent of violent juvenile crime occurs between 8:30 a.m . and 1:30 p.m.

While no national data on the extent of truancy exists, we know that in some cities unexcused absences can number in the thousands each day. In Pittsburgh, for example, each day approximately 3,500 students or 12 percent of the pupil population is absent and about 70 percent of these absences are unexcused. In Philadelphia, approximately 2,500 students a day are absent without an excuse. In Milwaukee, on any given school day, there are approximately 4,000 unexcused absences.

Combating truancy is one of the first ways that a community can reach out quickly to a disaffected young person and help families that may be struggling with a rebellious teenager. This guide seeks to offer parents, school officials, law enforcement agencies and communities a set of principles to design their own strategies to combat truancy and describes successful models of how anti-truancy initiatives are working in communities across the nation.

Users' Guide to Deterring Truancy

Each school and each community need to decide which steps to take to reduce truancy. These decisions should be made with the active involvement of parents, educators, law enforcement personnel, juvenile and family court judges, and representatives from s ocial service, community, and religious organizations.

The communities that have had the most success in deterring truancy not only have focused on improving procedures -- such as those that accurately track student attendance -- but each also has implemented a comprehensive strategy that focuses on incentive s and sanctions for truants and their parents. Below are five primary elements of a comprehensive community and educational strategy to combat truancy.

1. Involve parents in all truancy prevention activities

Parents play the fundamental role in the education of their children. This applies to every family regardless of the parents' station in life, their income, or their educational background. Nobody else commands greater influence in getting a young person to go to school every day and recognizing how a good education can define his or her future.

For families and schools to work together to solve problems like truancy, there must be mutual trust and communication. Many truancy programs contain components which provide intensive monitoring, counseling and other family-strengthening services to tru ants and their families. Schools can help by being "family-friendly" and encouraging teachers and parents to make regular contact before problems arise. Schools may want to consider arranging convenient times and neutral settings for parent meetings, st arting homework hotlines, training teachers to work with parents, hiring or appointing a parent liaison, and giving parents a voice in school decisions.

2. Ensure that students face firm sanctions for truancy

School districts should communicate to their students that they have zero tolerance for truancy. State legislatures have found that linking truancy to such items as a student's grades or driver's license can help reduce the problem. Delaware, Connecticut , and several other states have daytime curfews during school hours that allow law enforcement officers to question youth to determine if their absence is legitimate. In a few states, including New York, a student with a certain number of unexcused absenc es can be failed in his or her courses. A Wisconsin judge may, among other options, order a truant to attend counseling or to attend an education program designed for him or her.

3. Create meaningful incentives for parental responsibility

It is critical that parents of truant children assume responsibility for truant behavior. It is up to each community to determine the best way to create meaningful incentives for such parents to ensure that their children go to school. In some states, p arents of truant children are asked to participate in parenting education programs. Some other states, such as Maryland and Oklahoma, have determined that parents who fail to prevent truancy can be subject to formal sanction or lose eligibility for certa in public assistance. Communities can also provide positive incentives for responsible parents who ensure their child's regular school attendance. Such incentives can include increased eligibility to participate in publicly funded programs. Local offic ials, educators and parents, working together, can make a shared commitment to assume responsibility for reducing truancy -- and can choose the incentives that make the most sense for their community.

4. Establish ongoing truancy prevention programs in school

Truancy can be caused by or related to such factors as student drug use, violence at or near school, association with truant friends, lack of family support for regular attendance, emotional or mental health problems, lack of a clear path to more educatio n or work, or inability to keep pace with academic requirements. Schools should address the unique needs of each child and consider developing initiatives to combat the root causes of truancy, including tutoring programs, added security measures, drug pre vention initiatives, mentorship efforts through community and religious groups, campaigns for involving parents in their children's school attendance, and referrals to social service agencies.

Schools should also find new ways to engage their students in learning, including such hands-on options as career academies, school-to-work opportunities, and community service. They should enlist the support of local business and community leaders to det ermine the best way to prevent and reduce truancy. For example, business and community leaders may lend support by volunteering space to house temporary detention centers, establishing community service projects that lead to after school or weekend jobs, or developing software to track truants.

5. Involve local law enforcement in truancy reduction efforts

In order to enforce school attendance policies, school officials should establish close linkages with local police, probation officers, and juvenile and family court officials. Police Departments report favorably on community-run temporary detention cente rs where they can drop off truant youth rather than bring them to local police stations for time-consuming processing. When part of a comprehensive anti-truancy initiative, police sweeps of neighborhoods in which truant youth are often found can prove dr amatically effective.

Model Truancy Reduction Initiatives

Each community needs to determine how it will reduce and deter truancy. Below are descriptions of truancy programs being used in communities around the country which employ some or all of the elements described above.

Milwaukee, Wisconsin

Program elements: Parents, police, and the school system focus on the causes of truancy in the Truancy Abatement and Burglary Suppression (TABS) initiative in Milwaukee. Attendance is taken every period in all high schools. Local police officers pi ck up truant students and bring them to a Boys and Girls Club for counseling. Parents are called at home automatically every night if their child did not attend school that day. If the parent is not supportive of regular school attendance, then the distr ict attorney is contacted.

Results: In a recent sample of students who went through the TABS process, 73 percent returned to school the next day, 66 percent remained in school on the 15th day, and 64 percent still are in school 30 days later. Since the TABS initiative began , daytime burglary in Milwaukee has decreased 33 percent, and daytime aggravated battery has decreased 29 percent. Aquine Jackson, Director of the Parent and Student Services Division of the Milwaukee Public Schools, says, "I think the TABS program is so effective because it is a collaboration among...the Milwaukee Public Schools, the Milwaukee Boys and Girls Clubs, the Milwaukee Police Department, and the County Sheriff, and because it is now a part of state statute that police officers can stop students on the street during school hours."

Rohnert Park, California

Program elements: The Stop, Cite and Return Program is designed to reduce truancy and juvenile crime in the community and to increase average daily attendance for the schools. Patrol officers issue citations to suspected truants contacted during sc hool hours, and students are returned to school to meet with their parents and a vice principal. Two citations are issued without penalty; the third citation results in referral to appropriate support services.

Results: Due in large part to this initiative, the daytime burglary rate is 75 percent below what it was in 1979. Haynes Hunter, who has worked in different capacities on the issue of truancy in Rohnert Park for over 15 years, says the program is effective because it is a "high visibility" effort. "Being on the street, being in contact with the kids makes them aware of the fact that we care. We want them to get their education."

New Haven, Connecticut

Program elements: The Stay in School Program targets middle school students who have just begun to have problems. Targeted students go to truancy court, at which a panel of high school students question them and try to identify solutions. After court, youth and attorney mentors are assigned to each student for support. The student and the court sign a written agreement, and after two months, students return to the court to review their contract and report on their progress.

Results: Denise Keyes Page, who recruits and trains mentors for this initiative, says "This program works because it harnesses the power of peer pressure. Truants are judged and mentored by their peers, instead of just by adults who may seem dist ant and unconnected. Our program uses both the carrot and stick approaches, providing both supportive mentorship and real courtroom accountability to truant students. One of the evolving strengths of the program is that not only are we providing support to the truant, but we are serving as a resource to their parents."

Atlantic County, New Jersey

Program elements: The Atlantic County Project Helping Hand receives referrals from six Atlantic City and four Pleasantville elementary schools for youth in K through eighth grades who have five to 15 days of unexcused absences. A truancy worker mee ts with the youth and family to provide short-term family counseling, usually up to eight sessions. Referrals for additional social services are made on an as needed basis. If the family fails to keep appointments, home visits are made to encourage cooper ation. Once a truancy problem is corrected, the case is closed and placed on an aftercare/monitoring status with contact made at 30, 60, and 90 day intervals to ensure that truancy does not persist.

Results: During the past school year, 84 percent of the students who participated in the Atlantic County program had no recurrence of truancy. Colleen Denelsback of project Helping Hand says that "our philosophy is one of early intervention, both at the age level and the number of unexcused absences. We stress that the earlier intervention takes place, the greater the chance for positive outcomes. Early intervention will prevent truancy and later delinquency."

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

Program elements: The THRIVE (Truancy Habits Reduced Increasing Valuable Education) initiative is a comprehensive anti-truancy program spurred by an ongoing community partnership of law enforcement, education, and social service officials. Police bring a suspected truant to a community-run detention center where, within one hour of arrival, officials assess the youth's school status, release the youth to a parent or relative, and refer the family to any needed social service agencies. Parents are notified by the district attorney of potential consequences for repeat behavior. Parents who harbor youth with 15 days of consecutive unexcused absences are subject to misdemeanor charges.

Results: Since THRIVE's inception in 1989, the Oklahoma City Police Department reports a 33 percent drop in daytime burglary rates. Tom Steemen, the parent of a student who went through THRIVE, says, "The first I heard of the program was when my son was caught and taken to the center. I was real glad to know they had something like THRIVE." His son Ken, age 15, says, "THRIVE shook me up. I knew (while in the police car) just how wrong I was."

Norfolk, Virginia

Program elements: The Norfolk, Virginia school district uses software to collect data on students who are tardy, cut class, leave grounds without permission, are truant but brought back to school by police, or are absent without cause. Each school has a team composed of teachers, parents, and school staff that examines the data to analyze truancy trends. For example, a team may try to pinpoint particular locations where truant students are found during school hours and then place additional monit ors in these locations. A team may also notice certain months when truancy is prevalent and then design special programs to curb truancy during those months.

Results: Ann Hall of the Norfolk Public Schools says, "Attendance has improved at all levels of schools since 1992 - two percent at the elementary and secondary levels. The overall district average is up one percent. This is significant in that leg al attendance is at the 93rd percentile. Tighter attendance policies, grading practices, and teamwork have lead to this improvement...There are few, if any, teachers complaining that discipline and law violations are not being handled consistently through out the district. This is a marked improvement over the report that was made in the teacher satisfaction survey conducted in 1988."

Marion, Ohio

Program elements: The Community Service Early Intervention Program focuses on potential truants during freshman year. Referred students are required to attend tutoring sessions as directed, give their time to community service projects, and partici pate in a counseling program. In addition, students are required to give back to the Intervention initiative by sharing what they have learned with new students in the program and by recommending others who might benefit. Parental participation is requir ed throughout the program. Upon completion of the six-week sequence, school records relative to truancy are nullified. If the student fails the program, formal court intervention is the next step.

Results: Of the 28 students who took part in the program this semester, 20 have improved attendance records and will pass freshman year. The eight who did not improve their attendance records either moved from the school district or were removed fr om the school for failure to meet attendance requirements. Misty Swanger, Community Educator for this initiative, saw a general improvement in the grades and behavior of the students. Executive Director Christine Haas says, "This program is a combination of early intervention and early attention. As long as the child knows that someone is watching out for them and taking an interest in them, they will not be truant. The attention factor is very important. It creates success." The intervention program h as already identified 100 ninth grade students with truancy problems to work with in the coming year.

Peoria, Arizona

Program elements: In Operation Save Kids, school officials contact the parents of students with three unexcused absences. Parents are expected to relay back to school officials steps they have taken to ensure their children regularly attend school . When students continue to be truant, cases are referred to the local district attorney. To avoid criminal penalty and a $150 parent fine, youth are required to participate in an intensive counseling program, and parents must attend a parenting skills training program.

Results: Since Operation Save Kids began two years ago, daytime juvenile property crime rates have declined by 65 percent. Truancy citywide has been cut in half. "Look at today's truant, and you're looking at tomorrow's criminal," says Assistant City Attorney Terry Bays Smith.

Bakersfield, California

Program elements: A consortium of school districts in Kern County, California has formed the Truancy Reduction Program. Local schools reach out to youth with a history of truancy through parent contact, peer tutoring, and mentoring services. Per sistently truant youth are referred to the County Probation Office. Probation officers visit parents at home one-on-one, check on the youth at school weekly, and in the majority of cases refer youth and their families to one or more needed social service agencies. The County Probation Office and local school continue to track the youth for a full year before making referral to the local District Attorney's Office.

Results: "The majority of graduates of the Truancy Reduction Program's first year no longer present a truancy problem," according to the Kern County Public Schools Coordinator, Steve Hageman. Over a fifth of that 1994 class had perfect school att endance records in the year following their participation.

Resources

The U.S. Department of Justice provides federal funding to states to implement local delinquency prevention programs, including programs that address truancy. Many of these programs address risk and protective factors. A large portion of the funding has come from the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act Formula Grants Program that is administered by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs. For more information contact the Juvenile Justice Clearin ghouse, 1-800-638-8736.

Under a jointly-funded project, the Department of Justice and the Department of Education have developed a training and technical assistance project to help communities develop or enhance truancy prevention/intervention programs and programs that target r elated problems of youth out of the education mainstream. Training and technical assistance will be made available to 10 jurisdictions through a competitive application process in 1996. For more information contact Ron Stephens at the National School Sa fety Center, 805-373-9977.

For more information about the information presented in this guide, please call the U.S. Department of Education Safe and Drug Free Schools Office at 202-260-3954.

Prepared by the U.S. Department of Education with input from the U.S. Department of Justice and in consultation with local communities and the National School Safety Center.

For additional copies, please call 1-800-624-0100

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OSDFS Archives

Last updated December 10, 1997

Truancy Reduction Demonstration Program

Purpose To reduce the number of truant children and adolescents because truancy can be a first step to a lifetime of unemployment, crime, and incarceration. Background The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) and the Executive Office of Weed and Seed (W&S) within the Office of Justice Programs at the U.S. Department of Justice and the Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program (SDFSP), U.S. Department of Education, are supporting a grant program to reduce the problem of truancy. These agencies will also support a separate project to evaluate the Truancy Reduction Demonstration Program. The evaluation solicitation appears elsewhere in this program announcement under the title Evaluation of the Truancy Reduction Demonstration Program. The funded sites for the demonstration will be expected to cooperate fully with the national evaluator by collecting process, impact, and baseline data and to collaborate across sites in order to document through qualitative and quantitative measures the training and implementation processes and the variables indicating success, the efficacy of specific program components, and the impact of the program. For both program announcements, truancy is defined as being gone from school for some portion of at least 3 school days during a 5-day school week without a legitimate excuse (Huizinga and Jacob-Chien, 1998). OJJDP and SDFSP have jointly supported a comprehensive initiative entitled Youth Out of the Education Mainstream to address the needs of youth who do not attend school regularly because they are truants or dropouts, afraid to go to school, suspended or expelled, or in need of help to be reintegrated into mainstream schools from juvenile detention or correctional settings. This solicitation specifically addresses the problem of truancy that continues to plague many schools and communities across the country. Truancy often leads to dropping out of school, delinquency, and drug abuse. OJJDP has supported the longitudinal Program of Research on the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency in which teams at the University of Albany, State University of New York; the University of Colorado; and the University of Pittsburgh interviewed 4,000 participants at regular intervals for nearly a decade (Huizinga, Loeber, and Thornberry, 1995). Findings from the three study sites (Rochester, NY; Denver, CO; and Pittsburgh, PA) provide valuable data on delinquency that help explain how truant behavior may be a pathway for later delinquency and criminal activity. From the Pittsburgh Youth Study, which examined an all-male sample, the study shows that the development of disruptive and delinquent behavior of boys generally takes place in a progressive fashion along developmental pathways. Child and adolescent development of disruptive behaviors can be viewed from the less serious problem behaviors (such as running away and truancy) preceding more serious problem behaviors (such as lying and shoplifting to stealing and assault). This kind of information is beneficial in guiding program designs to address truancy reduction. Failure to address the underlying needs of these at-risk youth can impose staggering economic and social costs on society if youth are left without adequate skills to secure employment and become self-sufficient adults. If truancy leads to failure to graduate, this costs students an education and results in reduced earning capacity. It costs school districts hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in lost Federal and State funds that are based on average daily attendance figures. All taxpayers pay when young people do not graduate from school. For example, there are high law enforcement and welfare costs related to dropouts who choose to follow a life of crime or enter welfare rolls. Businesses bear additional costs to train uneducated workers who need remedial reading instruction before training can begin on specific job skills. This is consistent with findings from the Causes and Correlates study that found students with low reading achievement show delinquent behavior more often than students with higher reading scores and thus are at greater risk of truancy and dropping out of school (Huizinga, Loeber, and Thornberry, 1995). The amount of time actually spent in class is a good measure of student access to an education. Each instance of absence or lateness means a student has given up an opportunity to learn or experience the continuity of the academic program of study. In public schools across the country, many students are absent on a daily basis without a legitimate excuse. Truant students are at higher risk of being drawn into behavior involving drugs, alcohol, gangs or violence. A California deputy assistant attorney who handles truancy cases says he has "never seen a gang member who wasn't a truant first" (Kass, 1996). Several studies have documented the correlation between drug use and truancy. A report from the University of Maryland found that 51 percent of female juvenile detainees not in school at the time of their arrests tested positive for drug use (Wish, Gray, and Levine, 1996). Another study by the U.S. Department of Justice's Drug Use Forecasting program reported that more than half (53 percent) of a group of 403 male juvenile arrestees in San Diego, CA, tested positive for illicit drugs when taken to juvenile hall. Not surprisingly, those who did not attend school were more likely (67 percent versus 49 percent) to test positive for illicit drugs than those who did attend (San Diego Association of Governments, 1996). Many police departments report that daytime crime rates are rising in part because of incidents involving truants. They are vandalizing cars, shoplifting, and scrawling graffiti on buildings (Shuster, 1995). When police in Van Nuys, CA, conducted a 3-week truancy sweep, shoplifting arrests of juveniles fell 60 percent. Similar reductions in crime resulted in other jurisdictions when police began picking up truants and taking them to a truancy dropoff center or student attendance center (Shuster, 1995). In 1995, the courts formally processed approximately 37,400 truancy cases, a 46-percent increase from 1991 and an 80-percent increase from 1986-that is, 5- and 10-year trends respectively in the courts' processing of truancy cases (Sickmund, 1997). OJJDP's longitudinal research program also provides valuable data on the later behavior of truant youth: For both males and females, roughly two-thirds of serious violent offenders and one half of serious nonviolent offenders were truant. This compares to about 40 percent for delinquents and 20 percent for nondelinquents. Among males, serious offenders account for about one half of all the truants. However, this sizable overlap is not seen for females, where only 18 percent of truants were serious offenders (Huizinga and Jacob-Chien, 1998). This research data reinforces the premise that truant behavior is a risk factor for later delinquency and serious and violent juvenile offending. Approaches to prevention of and intervention with truancy that seek to reduce identified risk factors and, at the same time, enhance protective factors are likely to be most effective in preventing serious, violent, and chronic delinquency and crime (Howell, 1995). Truancy has become such a problem that some cities have passed ordinances allowing citations to be issued to either the parent or the truant. Court proceedings can result in a $500 fine or 30 days in jail for the parent and suspension of the youth's license to drive (National School Safety Center, 1994). Two broad, common influences, each with its own risk factors, underlie the reasons that youth leave school: Environmental influences. These influences include negative role models exemplified by friends who are truant; pressures related to family, health, and/or financial concerns; difficulties related to coping with teen pregnancy, teen marriages, or parenthood; alcohol and drug use; lack of family support and motivation for education in general; and fear of attending school due to violence in or near youth's homes and/or schools. School-related influences. These include the lack of motivation related to poor academic performance, such as the inability to read and perform math exercises at grade level and the failure to keep pace with other students in lessons or promotions, and low self-esteem derived from being classified as verbally deficient or a slow learner (National School Safety Center, 1994). Findings from numerous research studies indicate that prevention of delinquency requires accurate identification of risk factors, such as truancy, that increase the likelihood of delinquent behavior and the protective factors, such as bonding or connectedness with parents, family, and school and a positive home environment, that enhance positive adolescent development. The implications of the Pittsburgh Youth Study on developmental pathways for prevention of disruptive and delinquent behavior are that age-appropriate strategies must be devised to assist children in mastering key developmental tasks. Child development cannot be neatly compartmentalized, so a comprehensive approach must be followed to meet the needs, identify the interests, and foster the strengths of the total child or adolescent. Several preventive intervention strategies and programs identified as effective in the area of truancy reduction are featured in OJJDP's Guide to Implementing the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders (Howell, 1995). Also, joint publications of OJJDP and SDFSP, Creating Safe and Drug-Free Schools and Manual To Combat Truancy, provide descriptive information on effective and promising truancy intervention programs (OJJDP and the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, 1996; SDFSP and OJJDP, 1996). Applicants are expected to incorporate best practices in truancy reduction from research literature and other related publications and innovative strategies from the field to help in the development of the program design. See the References section at the end of this solicitation for information on useful publications. Goals To develop and implement or expand and strengthen comprehensive truancy programs that pool education, justice system, law enforcement, social services, and community resources to (1) identify truant youth; (2) cooperatively design and implement comprehensive, systemwide programs to meet the needs of truants; and (3) design and maintain systems for tracking truant youth. Objectives Program objectives are provided under the Program Elements section of this solicitation. Project Strategy This solicitation is directed toward urban, rural,1 and tribal schools and communities and Weed and Seed sites that are engaged in integrated, communitywide plans to ameliorate truancy. The solicitation outlines a comprehensive program with four major components: (1) system reform and accountability; (2) continuum of services to address the needs of children and adolescents who are truant; (3) data collection and evaluation; and (4) a community education and awareness program that addresses the need to prevent truancy from kindergarten through grade 12 and intervene with youth who are truant. Because of the challenging nature of the program, applications are invited from entities that can demonstrate (1) a commitment to undertake system reform, (2) the existing capacity to effect this major enterprise through a communitywide collaborative,2 and (3) the existence of legislation and/or policies that promote unified education, justice, law enforcement, and other systems approaches, encourage innovative reform of the education and justice systems, and strengthen coordination between and integration of the two systems. It is important to understand that proposed programs are to be developed within larger community-based initiatives3 or plans already under way in the applicant jurisdiction, when feasible. Applicants must work collaboratively with local school districts, law enforcement, juvenile justice, social services agencies, and community organizations to develop and implement a comprehensive, systemwide truancy prevention and intervention program. Applicants must demonstrate efforts to collaborate by providing written commitments from the above entities that include staffing, funding, services, other resources, and/or in-kind support. Finally, applicants are encouraged to leverage this grant with other new or reallocated public/private funding or in-kind services. Specific information should be provided on collaborative efforts and the leveraging of funds or any in-kind support and services in the appropriate sections of the application (i.e., Program Design and Budget sections). Written documentation of collaborative efforts, leveraged funds, and in-kind support and services for this particular truancy reduction program should be provided in an appendix. During a 6-month planning phase, recipients will develop a plan for a multiagency training curriculum that is based on an assessment of training needs among personnel in the education, juvenile justice, law enforcement, social services systems, and youth-serving organizations that includes (1) people and professions to be trained, (2) cultural considerations in policy and practice, (3) recognition of risk factors that may lead to truant behavior, (4) the importance of comprehensive assessment and treatment of children and adolescents who are truant, (5) cross-discipline instruction, and (6) followup resources. During the planning phase, both the program sites and the national evaluation grantee will be required to work collaboratively to develop a logic model showing how project inputs, activities,and outputs are expected to accomplish goals and objectives. During this phase, sites may expect the assistance of the national evaluation grantee to determine appropriate roles for participants in the collaborative, to clarify goals, and to set up a data base. Sites should expect the national evaluator to provide continual monitoring of the processes and feedback to project staff for corrective action. It is anticipated that the remaining project period will focus on, but not be limited to: The development of implementation and evaluation plans that link children and adolescents who are truant with community-based services and programs. A timeline of activities and deliverables that address implementation and evaluation objectives. Preparation of a Resource Directory of local services to address the needs of children and adolescents and their families in the areas of truancy and risk factors related to truancy. Development and implementation of a Prevention Education and Public Information media package. Full implementation of the community's comprehensive systemwide plan to prevent and intervene with the problem of truancy. Target Population The target population for this project includes (1) children and adolescents identified as truant, (2) supportive family members or guardians of truants, and (3) the community at large where the applicant is located. Program Elements System Reform and Accountability Jurisdictions are to engage in innovative strategies to improve policies, practices, and services of the education, justice, social services, law enforcement, and health systems in preventing, identifying, and intervening in truancy cases; improving outcomes for truants and their families; and providing an approach that holds truants and parents or guardians of truants accountable for truant behavior. Critical to the effort is comprehensive, ongoing, cross-discipline training. Education personnel including administrators, principals, teachers, and counselors; justice, law enforcement, and social services personnel; and policymakers need to be sensitized to the barriers to successful outcomes and knowledgeable about the personal and social consequences of repeated school failure, the frustration of illiteracy and learning disabilities, and the fear of being held back or placed in a remedial class or program. The objectives of this program element are: To increase the ability of the multiple systems4 that interact with children, adolescents, and their families to prevent, identify, and treat truancy. To ensure the accountability of truants and parents or guardians of truants for truant behavior. To improve the ability of courts to effectively and productively adjudicate all cases relating to children and adolescents who are truant. To improve the communication and relationships among education, law enforcement, social services, justice system, youth-serving organizations, businesses, and other professional groups that deal with truancy or are impacted adversely by truant youth through the development of innovative partnering approaches, especially community policing. To ensure the effectiveness of community mechanisms for identifying and delivering services to help truants return to school on a regular basis and to help those at risk of truancy. To promptly identify the risk factors in the lives of truant children and adolescents that lead to truancy and develop strategies to mitigate those risk factors. To strengthen the knowledge base and capabilities of professionals at all levels of the agencies responding to truancy to ensure that the community's policymakers, agency and program administrators, and practitioners deliver services in a manner that reflects their understanding of community norms and the ethnic and cultural backgrounds of the children and families they serve. Continuum of Services To Support Children and Youth Who Are Truant and Their Families Jurisdictions and schools are to collaborate in the development and/or strengthening of a continuum of support services for truant children and adolescents to help promote regular school attendance and to provide parent or guardian training on the importance and value of an education and on the laws requiring mandatory school attendance. The objectives of this program element are: To identify gaps in providing a full range of education and social services, including health, mental health, and family support services. To develop, initiate, or expand needed services, especially prevention and early intervention programs such as home visitation and followup visits. To improve the delivery and expansion of services to underserved and rural areas through the use of new technologies, trained practitioners, and satellite offices. To identify ways, when feasible, that current services and resources available through the school system, social service agencies, community-based organizations, the faith community, and youth-serving organizations can be redeployed and other resources leveraged to support truant children, adolescents, and their families or guardians. To identify and make use of the school system, youth-serving organizations, and informal networks such as extended families in the assessment and delivery of education, social services, and family services for truant children and adolescents and their families or guardians. To assess barriers that prevent the school system and the community from implementing effective truancy prevention programs and implement strategies to overcome those barriers. Data Collection and Evaluation Grantees will participate in a national evaluation of the Truancy Reduction Demonstration Project. Schools and jurisdictions are to ensure that quality data are collected and used consistent with laws governing information sharing between schools and other youth-serving agencies under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act,5 in collaboration with the national evaluator of this program. Schools and jurisdictions are also to ensure the compatibility of the data collected on the various components of the education, justice, social services, and related systems and on the family. The exchange of such data among system components should be fostered to achieve expedient yet complete outcomes of truancy cases. Collaboration for the evaluation is encouraged and may include adjustments in data collection and evaluation protocols that will permit measurement of processes and outcomes across sites, where this is possible. The objectives of this program element are: To improve information sharing across systems and agencies relative to the management of truancy cases that is consistent with laws governing pupil privacy and to put into effect uniform data collection standards. To participate in the national evaluation of this program's practices and outcomes to determine whether a communitywide, interdisciplinary response is making a positive difference for truant children and adolescents and their families or guardians and to evaluate the effectiveness of providing prevention and early intervention services tailored to the child's/adolescent's and family's particular risk factors and needs. Grantees will be expected to cooperate with OJJDP's national evaluator in collecting process and impact evaluation data and generating process and impact evaluation reports. Examples of other types of information to be collected include, but are not limited to, descriptions of the following: Local planning mechanisms and processes and factors, distinguishing structural features and services, budgets, staffing, target populations, clients served, average length of program services, and short-term results. External factors such as budget issues, changing demographics, and local statutes and policies affecting the operation and outcomes of the collaborative partnerships to prevent and intervene in truancy. Each funded site will be expected to acquire the capability to use the Internet to communicate with other sites, the evaluator, and OJJDP. Prevention Education and Public Information Jurisdictions are to conduct broad-based, multimedia information and prevention education campaigns to increase general awareness of a truant referral process (to be developed by each grantee), acquaint community members with services and initiatives resulting from the program, and educate parents about behaviors and risk factors that may place a child or adolescent at risk of truancy and about strategies to address those behaviors and risk factors. The objectives of this program element are: To educate community residents about the need to address truant behavior early. To decrease the school system's and the community's tolerance of truancy and increase the capacity of the community to address the needs of the truant or those at risk of truancy and their families. Products The products may include: Training and technical assistance needs assessment of personnel who will work collaboratively across systems to address the problem of truancy. A training curriculum for personnel to learn to work collaboratively across systems to address the problem of truancy. Interim and final evaluation reports for the national evaluator. Sites are to prepare interim and final evaluation reports as requested describing progress on process, impact, and baseline measures. Comprehensive, systemwide implementation plan to address the problem of truancy. A Prevention Education and Public Information media package to increase general awareness of the problem of truancy and ways to impact it proactively and comprehensively. Final report of the Truancy Reduction Demonstration Project. Each site is to prepare a final project report that includes, but is not limited to, program impact, lessons learned, and success stories. Eligibility Requirements OJJDP invites applications from public and private agencies, organizations, institutions, and individuals. Private, for-profit organizations must agree to waive any profit or fee. Joint applications from two or more eligible applicants are welcome; however, one applicant must be clearly indicated as the primary applicant (for correspondence, award, and management purposes) and the others indicated as coapplicants. School districts must apply jointly with law enforcement, juvenile justice, and youth-serving organizations. Applicants other than school districts must apply jointly with school districts. Selection Criteria Applicants will be evaluated and rated by a peer review panel according to the criteria outlined below. Problem(s) To Be Addressed (10 points) The applicant must outline the scope and nature of the truancy problem and the risk factors related to this problem in the applicant's school district, school, and community and describe the target population. The applicant must also provide justification for the proposed effort based on the results of a community assessment process and prioritize the major issues related to the truancy problem within the applicant community. Issues might include, for example, running away, shoplifting, staying out late, vandalism, stealing, and drug and alcohol use. The applicant should discuss the problems of communitywide/cross-agency collaboration and demonstrate that it has engaged the appropriate stakeholders in its planning process and that it possesses a clear understanding of the processes, supports, and necessary steps to overcome any impediments to community collaboration. Goals and Objectives (10 points) Applicants will be given a 6-month planning phase to develop the program and design the implementation plan around the goals and objectives. The applicant must outline its vision for addressing truancy, describing how the involved systems and agencies will operate upon conclusion of the planning, training, and implementation phases. The applicant must provide goals and specific measurable objectives for the planning process. At a minimum, these objectives should address the priority issues delineated in the Problem(s) To Be Addressed section, the solicitation's goals, program elements and objectives, and the planning process as it supports achievement of the solicitation's goals and objectives. Project Design (35 points) The applicant must describe the intended planning process and detail the major activities that will be undertaken in the development of the implementation plan. A timeline of major planning, training, implementation events, and products must be included. Training or professional development services must be of sufficient quality, intensity, and duration to lead to sustained improvements in practice among system recipients. The applicant must describe how proposed plans will establish, build on, and/or fit within current and past communitywide planning processes to achieve the solicitation's objectives. (Sites containing Weed and Seed neighborhoods, for example, should show how their plans make use of Weed and Seed strategies to address truancy communitywide.6) For all applicants, this can be shown in a number of ways: Expanding existing interagency agreements to include the additional stakeholders needed to address truancy. Developing community policing efforts aimed at preventing, identifying, and intervening in truancy cases. Creating or expanding targeted programs to address the needs of truants. The applicant must describe in detail activities, responsibilities, and timelines required to meet the goals and objectives of the truancy reduction program. Activities must be part of a comprehensive program that includes multiple systems. The applicant must indicate how proposed plans address or will address considerations for meeting the needs of truant children and adolescents and their families or guardians-including, where appropriate, multiethnic, multicultural, and gender-specific issues related to truancy reduction. The description should convey a clear understanding of those considerations and issues. With respect to data collection and evaluation, the national truancy reduction program evaluator (a separate grantee) will work with sites to identify specific variables or indicators by which to measure process, performance, and outcomes of the whole initiative and of selected component programs. The set of measures will include some variables that can be compared across sites. In this section, each applicant is to describe how it proposes to work with the national evaluator and other sites to develop the variables and to work with the national evaluator to collect the identified data. Performance feedback and continuous improvement must be integral to the project design. Applicants are also to describe how they intend to work collaboratively with the national evaluator in developing their program design during the 6-month planning phase of the Truancy Reduction Demonstration Project. Management and Organizational Capability (35 points) Applicants should use this section to describe a sound governance structure capable of carrying out the proposed initiative and to demonstrate the following: Readiness to reform. Discuss the community's history of collaboration and planning as it addressed or addresses truancy. Include a description of the participants, major milestones, and the process of assessment. Clarify what has been done, what is in process, and what remains to be done. Note any training or technical assistance that has been received and by whom. Capacity to build and sustain a community collaborative.7 Demonstrate the viability of creating a multidisciplinary arrangement whereby various agencies in a jurisdiction are working cooperatively or collaboratively to improve the community's response to truant behavior. Descriptions should answer the following questions: Who are members of the group? How are members selected? What constituency does each member represent? What are the roles and responsibilities of each group member? Applicants also must document that the collaborative or cooperative groups represent all the relevant stakeholders8 needed to reduce the incidence of truant behavior in the community. The documentation should provide answers to the following questions: How will the group make decisions? How often will it meet? How will responsibilities be divided among members? How will the group carry out its activities? What resources will the group manage? What are the sources of those resources? To what individual in what agency is the group responsible? What authority will the group have? Evidence of favorable policies and/or legislation. Characterize the political and administrative environments and give evidence of political or administrative support for the proposed community-based planning effort to combat truancy. Give examples of favorable policies or legislation. In demonstrating that the collaborative and governance structures form an infrastructure capable of carrying out the project outlined in this solicitation, applicants must also: Identify the roles and responsibilities of each involved agency, committee, board, or other entity and explain its relationship to the overall effort. Name and describe the capabilities and experience of all staff and consultants who will play lead roles in developing, implementing, and managing the program's design. Résumés of key personnel or consultants must be provided in an appendix. Indicate the percentage of time for each named staff or consultant. Describe the management practices that will be used to evaluate program progress and to ensure corrective action. Staff must have experience and training appropriate to their job description for this program, e.g., personnel and/or consultants in the areas of systemwide planning and collaboration, training and technical assistance delivery, and management and in the performance of other work outlined in this announcement. Program staff must also have training and have successfully worked in the areas of truancy and/or delinquency prevention and intervention and in education and related services for children with special needs that include students with learning disabilities and related disabilities. Budget (10 points) The proposed budget must be complete, reasonable, allowable, and cost effective in relation to the work to be performed. Applicants are also to identify all assistance that will be used to leverage this award, indicating the source and amount of funds. Applicants from communities with Weed and Seed sites (refer to footnote #2) are to budget for up to $15,000, while other applicants are to budget for up to $25,000 for the planning phase of the program design with the remaining funds designated for training, implementation, and evaluation activities for the initial 1-year budget period. Once the planning phase has been completed and the plan approved, the balance of implementation funds for the initial budget period will be released. Applicants are to provide specific and detailed planning budget figures and supporting budget narrative. The remainder of the award funds (up to $35,000 per Weed and Seed sites and up to $75,000 per larger community sites) should be designated for training, implementation, and evaluation activities. OJJPD, W&S, and SDFSP recognize that the implementation portion of the budget will need to be preliminary because the selected entities will develop detailed training and implementation budgets during the planning phase. The budget narrative must clearly and comprehensively describe the activities and strategies proposed and the persons or agencies responsible for training and implementation. Travel funds are to be set aside in the budget to enable two to three people from each grantee to attend up to three meetings in Washington, D.C., during the first year and up to two meetings in Washington, D.C., over the 2 remaining years of the project period. Given the complexity of the solicited program, it is suggested that applicants assign one experienced, high-level person full time to manage the planning collaborative. Applicants should also allocate funds to enable one or more persons within the core systems to devote substantial time to coordinating efforts within their respective agencies. Similar initiatives have found the use of an outside facilitator essential to keeping the planning process moving. As further evidence of commitment and capability, applicants are encouraged to leverage this award with other funds. The applicant must show the amount and source of any leveraged funding commitments or in-kind services and note whether the funds are reallocated or new. Reallocated funds can be local, State, or other Federal funds directed to this initiative. Appendixes To help gauge the likelihood of grantee success, applicants are to submit the following appendixes as evidence of their readiness and potential: Statement of Collaborative Application. Each applicant must submit documentation that the application is a collaborative or joint submission by all necessary stakeholders. As evidence, the applicant must submit a statement asserting that each party signing was substantially involved in the development of the application. The statement must contain each person's original signature, typed/printed name, address, telephone number, and affiliation (title and agency or role)-e.g., signatures from a school administrator, judge, law enforcement officer, and probation official within the target community. Collaborative Efforts. The applicant must demonstrate that collaborative efforts with various groups, organizations, and agencies have been achieved to help ensure the success of this Truancy Reduction Demonstration Project. Evidence of collaborative efforts can be demonstrated by providing in an appendix interagency agreements and protocols that reflect a multidisciplinary approach to truancy prevention and early intervention. At a minimum, such agreements will be among the following organizations and agencies: social services, youth-serving organizations, community and business volunteer groups, the faith-based community, and the stakeholder groups of education, juvenile justice, law enforcement, and probation. Evidence of Favorable Policies and/or Legislation. Applicants are to document the existence of a favorable climate by listing current agency policies or local or State legislation that aids interagency, communitywide collaboration in regard to truancy and related issues. Format The narrative portion of this application must not exceed 25 pages in length (excluding forms, assurances, and appendixes) and must be submitted on 8½- by 11-inch paper, double spaced on one side of the paper in a standard 12-point font. All the appendixes cannot exceed 15 pages in length. These standards are necessary to maintain a fair and uniform standard among all applicants. If the narrative does not conform to these standards, OJJDP will deem the application ineligible for consideration. Award Period The project period will be 3 years, funded in three 1-year budget periods. Funding after the first budget period depends on grantee performance, availability of funds, and other criteria established at the time of award. Award Amount Up to $550,000 is available for first-year funding of this program. A minimum of three cooperative agreements up to $50,000 each are to be awarded to support programs that serve a Weed and Seed site. In addition, a maximum of four cooperative agreements up to $100,000 each are to be awarded to support non-Weed and Seed jurisdictions. At least one of these awards will serve a large urban school district. Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) Number For this program, the CFDA number, which is required on Standard Form 424, Application for Federal Assistance, is 16.541. This form is included in OJJDP's Application Kit, which can be obtained by calling the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse at 800-638-8736 or sending an e-mail request to puborder@ncjrs.org. The Application Kit is also available online. (See the Introduction for more contact information.) Coordination of Federal Efforts To encourage better coordination among Federal agencies in addressing State and local needs, the U.S. Department of Justice is requesting applicants to provide information on the following: (1) active Federal grant award(s) supporting this or related efforts, including awards from the U.S. Department of Justice; (2) any pending application(s) for Federal funds for this or related efforts; and (3) plans for coordinating any funds described in items (1) or (2) with the funding sought by this application. For each Federal award, applicants must include the program or project title, the Federal grantor agency, the amount of the award, and a brief description of its purpose. "Related efforts" is defined for these purposes as one of the following: Efforts for the same purpose (i.e., the proposed award would supplement, expand, complement, or continue activities funded with other Federal grants). Another phase or component of the same program or project (e.g., to implement a planning effort funded by other Federal funds or to provide a substance abuse treatment or education component within a criminal justice project). Services of some kind (e.g., technical assistance, research, or evaluation) to the program or project described in the application. Delivery Instructions All application packages must be mailed or delivered to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, c/o Juvenile Justice Resource Center, 2277 Research Boulevard, Mail Stop 2K, Rockville, MD 20850; 301-519-5535. Note: In the lower left-hand corner of the envelope, you must clearly write "Truancy Reduction Demonstration Project." Due Date Applicants are responsible for ensuring that the original and five copies of the application package are received by 5 p.m. ET on July 29, 1998. Contact For further information, call Cora Roy-Stevens at 202-307-5914, or send an e-mail inquiry toroyc@ojp.usdoj.gov. References Catterall, J. 1987. On the social costs of dropping out of school. The High School Journal71:4-5. DeVise, D. 1995. Area schools get tough on truants. Long Beach Press Telegram (October 3):B1. Garry, E. 1996. Truancy: First Step to a Lifetime of Problems. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, pp.1-7. Howell, J.C., ed. 1995. Guide for Implementing the Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, pp. 67-70. Huizinga, D., and Jacob-Chien, C. 1998. The contemporaneous co-occurrence of serious and violent juvenile offending and other problem behavior. In Serious and Violent Juvenile Offenders: Risk Factors and Successful Interventions, by R. Loeber and D.P. Farrington. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc., p. 57. Huizinga, D., Loeber, R., and Thornberry, T. 1995. Urban Delinquency and Substance Abuse.Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, p. 15. Ingersoll, S., and LeBoeuf, D. 1997. Reaching Youth Out of the Education Mainstream.Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, pp. 1-11. Kass, J. 1996. Curfew mulled as way to stem truancy, crime. Los Angeles Times (March 31):B1. Kelley, B.T., Loeber, R., Keenan, K., and DeLamarte, M. 1997. Developmental Pathways in Boys' Disruptive and Delinquent Behavior. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, pp. 3-10. National School Safety Center. 1994 (April). Increasing Student Attendance. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, pp. 3-4. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice, and the Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, U.S. Department of Education. 1996.Creating Safe and Drug-Free Schools: An Action Guide. Washington, DC: U.S. Departments of Justice and Education. Safe and Drug-Free Schools Program, U.S. Department of Education, in cooperation with the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice. 1996.Manual To Combat Truancy. Washington, DC: U.S. Departments of Education and Justice. San Diego Association of Governments. 1996. Drug use among San Diego arrestees.SANDAG Info. Special Issue. Shuster, B. 1995. L.A. school truancy exacts a growing social price. Los Angeles Times (June 28):A12. Sickmund, M. 1997. Offenders in Juvenile Court, 1995. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, p. 8. Sickmund, M., Snyder, H., and Poe-Yamagata, E. 1998. Juvenile Court Statistics 1995.Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, p. 33. U.S. Bureau of the Census. 1994. Educational Attainment in the United States: March 1993 and 1992. Current Population Reports 1994. Washington, DC: U.S. Bureau of the Census, Table D. Wilson, J.J., and Howell, J.C. 1993. Comprehensive Strategy for Serious, Violent, and Chronic Juvenile Offenders. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. Wish, E.D., Gray, T.A., and Levine, E.B. 1996. Recent Drug Use in Female Juvenile Detainees: Estimates from Interviews, Urinalysis, and Hair Analysis. College Park, MD: University of Maryland, Center for Substance Abuse Research, p. 4. 1 Rural is defined here as a State that has a population density of 52 or fewer persons per square mile or a State in which the largest county has fewer than 150,000 people, based on the 1990 decennial census. Under this definition, rural States are Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Maine, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Dakota, Utah, Vermont, and Wyoming. The following are eligible: all States on behalf of rural jurisdictions, Indian tribal governments, local governments of rural States, and public and private entities of rural States. (The definition of a rural jurisdiction within a nonrural State is determined by the State.) 2 The communitywide collaborative must have representation from all relevant stakeholders and their written commitments that describe the type of specific participation each will provide. This includes policymakers, decisionmakers, and frontline workers from law enforcement, education, prosecution, the courts, child welfare, health, and family services. Other key stakeholders are families, resource experts, community and neighborhood organizations, and religious institutions. 3 Programs are to be firmly centered within larger community-based initiatives. Examples would include the Weed and Seed program, Comprehensive Communities Program, Family Support and Preservation Plans, State Court Improvement Program, SafeFutures, Project PACT (Pulling America's Communities Together), HopeVI, Empowerment Zones and Enterprise Communities, OJJDP's Title V and Challenge Grant demonstrations, New Futures, Cities In Schools, and the projects of the National Funding Collaborative on Violence Prevention. 4 At a minimum, these are the justice, child welfare, family services, medical, mental health, and education systems. 5 Educators and other youth-serving professionals will find clear directions on how to share information while complying with the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act in the joint publication of OJJDP and the Family Policy Compliance Office within the Department of Education entitled Sharing Information: A Guide to the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act and Participation in Juvenile Justice Programs (free copies are available from the Juvenile Justice Clearinghouse at 800-638-8736). 6 Although Weed and Seed efforts are directed at discrete neighborhoods within a larger community, efforts to reduce truancy need the cooperation of systems and personnel located outside those neighborhoods. 7 Applicants should note that collaboratives differ from coordinated or cooperating groups in that members of a collaborative share responsibility, accountability, and resources. In this instance, a communitywide collaborative will extend and institutionalize multidisciplinary practices across all the systems that prevent, intervene in, or treat truancy (or have the potential to do so). Core systems in such a collaborative are education, justice, social services, and youth-serving organizations. Additionally, communitywide responses to truancy may also involve the faith community, nonprofit agencies, and the media. 8 Stakeholders for this purpose are those parties who (a) are decisionmakers or influence makers, (b) are likely to be affected by decisions, or (c) have specific, needed expertise. Return to Contents