Multi-Agency Attendance Improvement and Truancy Reduction Initiative: Phase I
July 1, 2000 |
Development of a Model to Evaluate a Multi-Agency Attendance Improvement and Truancy Reduction Initiative: Phase I (MERC Technical Report)
by Suzanne Nash and Ann S. Allen (2000)
Students must be in attendance daily to benefit fully from public school academics and socialization through both regular and extra-curricular activities. The reality is that many public school students are at-risk of school failure and eventually dropping out partially because of poor attendance behaviors. These poor attendance behaviors can usually be traced to challenged communities and families whose children face multiple at-risk factors. Urban inner-city schools with high percentages of minority students are among those with the highest risk factors and they experience the greatest problems with attendance and, eventually, truancy. The Richmond Public Schools (RPS) has worked diligently for many years to promote resiliency factors in the schools and school system as a whole to moderate the effects of these multiple risk factors. Strengths associated with the RPS attendance plan and procedures include a well-developed and periodically revised plan and procedures manual, adequate tracking and reporting practices defined for daily student attendance, dedicated staff supportive of appropriate attendance behaviors, and numerous support systems for student intervention in cases of inappropriate attendance behaviors.
