The Case for Truancy Intervention

Prepared for

The Center of Children and Youth Justice: Seattle, WA

What is NCSE?

• The National Center for School Engagement is an Initiative of the Colorado Foundation for Families and Children • Promoting truancy prevention and school engagement

• Provide training, evaluation and technical assistance

•Advocating policy development to improve attendance, attachment and achievement

Troubling Statistics In Colorado

• 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.

Troubling Statistics in Colorado

• 25% of all expelled youth will be in youth corrections within 1 year.

• Truants are 2 to 8 times as likely to become adjudicated delinquents.

• Truants aged 12-15 are 10 to 15 times as likely to start marijuana use compared to non-truant or suspended youth or low academic performing youth.

Truancy and DelinquencyYouth Ages 12-15

Onset of Serious Property Crimes *

Class Skipper 4.69 times as likely

Minor Truant (1-3 Days) 5.17 “ “ “

Moderate Truant (4-9Days) 11.46 “ “ “

Chronic Truant (> 9 Days) 21.53 “ “ “

* Dr. Kimberly Henry, American Society of Criminology, Nov 2005

Effect of Truancy on Later Delinquency in Youth Ages 12-15

Onset of Serious Assault Crimes

Class Skipper 4.12 times as likely

Minor Truant (1-3 days) 4.03

Moderate Truant (4-9 days) 6.84

Chronic Truant (> 9 days) 12.15

Truancy and Drug Use

Onset of Marijuana Use By Age 14

•Class Skipper 4.11 times as likely

•Minor Truant (1-3 days) 7.17

•Moderate Truant (4-9 days) 12.37

•Chronic Truant (> 9 days) 16.08

Individual Data BackgroundIncluding King County and TacomaThe following data are based on 595

students entered into an online database (TRAIN) from all 7 demonstration sites of the National Demonstration Site Study.

Sites include Jacksonville, Houston, Suffolk County (NY), Hawaii, Contra Costa County (CA) Seattle and Tacoma (WA)

Gender

4 9 % 5 1 %

0 %

2 0 %

4 0 %

6 0 %

8 0 %

1 0 0 %

F e m a le M a le

Grade

3 r d G r a d e & U n d e r

2 5 %

4 t h - 6 t h G r a d e

1 7 %

7 t h - 9 t h G r a d e

4 8 %

1 0 t h - 1 2 t h G r a d e

1 0 %

School Discipline Problems

7 0 %3 %

2 7 % N o

U n k n o w n

Y e s

Note: 284 students had information filled out for this category.

Juvenile Justice Involvement

7 8 %

7 %1 5 %

N o

U n k n o w n

Y e s

Numbers of Students with Common Challenges

2 8 3

1 1 8

2 4 2

1 3 0 1 2 2

3 4 1

0

5 0

1 0 0

1 5 0

2 0 0

2 5 0

3 0 0

3 5 0

Family Stressors (283), Mobility (118), Emotional Stability (242), Family Relationship (130), Peer Relationship (122), Academic Problems (344)

Number of Students with Less Common Challenges

9 1

6 3

8 4

9 7

0

1 0

2 0

3 0

4 0

5 0

6 0

7 0

8 0

9 0

1 0 0

Living Situation (91), Been Bullied (63),

Transportation (84), Chronic Illness (97)

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)

Attendance

Since the project’s inception, the average excused absence rate dropped from 4.37 at intake to 3.55 at the first update (after 3 months in program)

The average unexcused absence rate dropped from 14.64 at intake to 7.40 at the first update.

King County/ Seattle ModelOJJDP Demonstration Site 2000-2004

– Based in Juvenile Diversion Office Linked to School and Truancy Courts

– Letters from DA to truant and families – Monthly Workshops: DA/ Schools/Court– Contracts with family and school– Diversion counselor follow up to track kids– 60-65% success rate (no further truancy for

1 year)

Latest Research on Truancy and DrugsFrom Youth Study in Rochester, NY

Henry, K and Thornberry, T. 2008 ( In Press)• Truancy is the most significant of all risk factors

to predict first time marijuana use• Truancy predicted 97% of first time drug use• Linear relationship between truancy and amount

of alcohol and drug use (The greater the # of truant days, the greater the use)

• Truancy occurs in pairs as does delinquency

New Evidence on Early Absence

• Chronic early absence (20 or more days) in K-3 is clearly associated with poor achievement, truancy in middle school, school drop out, delinquency and substance abuse (Mclusky, Bynum, and Patchin ,2004)

• For low income students in an urban setting, each additional day absent from school in elementary grades is associated with a 7% lower probability of graduating from high school. For example an increase from 5-10 absences per year reduces the odds of school completion by 35%(Reynolds, 2007)

Truancy Reduction Saves Public Funds

• The RAND Corporation estimated that each high school dropout costs between $188,086 and $297,188 in 1999 dollars.

(Vernez, Krop and Rydell, 2000. Closing the Education Gap, The RAND Corporation: Santa Monica, CA.)

Colorado Cost StudyCourt based Truancy Programs: Results

Adams Denver PuebloNumber of youths served '00-'01 90 84 423

Total program cost $49 K $54 K $768 KPer truant cost $544 $640 $1,815

Potential savings$7.8

million$7.5

million$38.8

million

Breakeven success rate 1/383 1/337 1/115Or one grad every…

4.2 years 4 years

3 months

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*From Saving Money Saving Youth, Published by NCSE, October 2003

Chart 1: WashingtonJuvenile ARY and Truancy Petition Filings (left axis) and Juvenile Arrest Rates (right axis)

for 1995 through 2002filing data: annual AOC Report of the Courts of Washington

arrest data: annual GJJAC Juvenile Justice Report01-07-05

0

2000

4000

6000

8000

10000

12000

14000

16000

18000

1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001

50

60

70

80

90

ARYFilings

TruancyFilings

Arrest Rate/1000 Juv.

YEAR

JUVENILES SENTENCED TO FLORIDA STATE

PRISON

JUVENILES SENTENCED TO DUVAL

COUNTY JAIL

1994 47 201

1995 39 105

1996 8 85

1997 29 132

1998 18 149

1999 27 72

2000 16 35

2001 26 39

2002 16 35

2003 23 33

2004 5 22

Impact on Delinquency from Truancy + Diversion Program in Jacksonville