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Monday, September 11, 2006
Kids Who Skip School
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A blog reader sent me this the other day:
“I was running errands around Tucker today, and couldn’t help but notice a significant number of kids wandering the street or hanging around in the park behind the school in the middle of the school day. What efforts do the schools make to prevent kids from literally walking away from their education? What about the local police? Do they ever bother to try to enforce truancy laws when they see young teens wandering the street during school hours?”
I did a series on truancy several years ago and discovered a few things. First, though kids can legally leave school at 16, very few efforts are made to get 15-year-olds back on track because they are regarded lost causes. Second, the effort put into rounding up truants and getting them to school varies wildly depending on the commitment of the principal and the courts. Finally, to the surprise of no one, this problem is COMPLICATED. Several of the kids I met were 14 or 15 and nowhere near ready for high school. Not a lot of incentive for school districts to bring these kids back to class. And if the kids do come back, what are their chances???
DeKalb County has a truancy school that has helped hard-core school skippers get back on track. Working with truants takes a huge commitment on the part of a lot of people. Often these kids have psychological problems, unstable families, learning disabilities etc.
Should school officials and law enforcement work harder to bring truant kids back to school?
