Whether you call it truancy, playing hooky, unexcused absences or skipping school, students are not showing up for school in massive numbers.

What is Truancy?

According to Webster's dictionary, the word is of "Celtic origin meaning vagabond, idler, vagrant, one who shirks duty, one who stays out of school without permission." How bad is the school truancy problem?

Statistics

According to Kid Source On Line, truancy statistics in larger cities are shocking.

• New York City--15% gone per day
• Los Angeles--10% gone per day
• Pittsburgh--12% gone per day

Problems Stemming from Truancy

While truancy in itself is a problem and one of the greatest predictors of dropping out from school, other issues are also linked to truancy:

• Daytime juvenile crime
• Drug/alcohol use
• Unwanted pregnancies
• Depression
• Violence

Causes

While there are as many causes of truancy as there are students, a study (ERIC/CEM and Linn-Benton Education Service District 1992) list the top reasons given by students:

• Boredom
• Loss of interest
• Irrelevant courses
• Suspensions
• Bad relationships with teachers

How do teachers see the problem?

• Student problems with family
• Student problems with peers

There is obviously a "disconnect" between how students see things and how their teachers see them.

Steps to Reduce Truancy

Schools are trying to find a successful program to reduce truancy but none seem to be truly working.

• Get tough policy
• Alternative schools
• Truancy officers
• Fining parents
• Jailing parents
• Loss of welfare benefits

While these may initially sound effective, none seem to work long-term. If school is not relevant to students, getting tough is not a good incentive.

Maryland

"No School--No Keys" Maryland lawmakers enacted a new, tough law. Students with 10 or more unexcused absences in the previous calendar year will have their licenses suspended. [Washingtonpost.com, Lisa Rein, March 16, 2007] Schools will be required to send unexcused absences to the Department of Motor Vehicles. The bill passed by a 133 to 1 vote. This legislation will punish the students and not the parents that could be at work and unable to make sure the student is in school.

24 other states have linked school performance or attendance to a driver's license. However, there is concern that if students will be punished for not attending classes, they may just drop out at 16. No longer in school. No longer truant--I get to drive.

What About Counselors?

If students could have a meaningful relationship with one adult in school, research shows that attitudes could be improved about school and goals in life. Counselors would seem to be the first in line. However, counselors are spread very thin. Ratios of counselors to students can be as high as 700 to 1. If counselors can help enroll the successful students in colleges, they have no time left. Dropouts give reasons why they gave up on school. They say no one took the time to do the following:

• tell them they were college bound,
• give them a college admission timetable,
• help them with financial aid options,
• show them how to predict the cost of college,
• steer them toward the technical college areas
• offer options as skilled workers.

Education is no longer relevant to a large percentage of our students. The educational system is a relic and needs to be overhauled. While that is happening, we need to keep students in school with more interventions that the students themselves think could work.

Related articles: Florida Career Academies Concept, Boys and School, Single Sex Classrooms.

Read previous articles on Educational Issues.

Copyright article 2007 Barbara Pytel. All Rights Reserved.