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Habitual truancy puts children and the public in danger
Truancy has long been viewed as a victimless crime: A silent problem that injures only the truant child.
But Reading police and Berks County Court officials know that most crime in the city occurs between noon and 3 p.m. and is committed by juveniles who should be in school.
Truancy is a symptom of poverty and child neglect and a cause of present and future crime.
The silent problem made plenty of noise on Jan. 25, when headlines here and around the world screamed the story of a truant Reading High School student who was fatally shot and a 15-year-old Gov. Mifflin High School student critically wounded while trying to rob an armed bicyclist on the Thun Trail.
Julius W. Johnson, a habitual truant and discipline problem who was supposed to be in school that morning, died at the scene.
"None of this would have happened if his butt had been in school," said Idella George, Johnson's mother.
No longer a lark
Truancy is a complicated problem.
Years ago kids would skip school for fun. It was even called playing hooky.
Today many experts agree children are truant because they're being bullied at school, are ashamed of the clothes they can afford to wear, have a drug-addicted parent leaving them as the only reliable caretaker for younger siblings, and so on. Others just have a tendency to get into trouble.
Nothing about truancy today is simple, said Robert Gadot, assistant professor of sociology at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at the City University of New York.
"Truancy is a complicated issue and one that is not best addressed with simple, get-tough policies," Gadot said.
Seeking a solution
Dozens of school, police, court and social service agency personnel have been working for about three years to develop a strategy for attacking truancy. A truancy summit was held in April and officials from York, Lehigh and Montgomery counties, which have truancy abatement programs, gave presentations on how they address the problem.
The Berks County Truancy Reduction Protocol and the hiring of Brendan L. Harker as interim truancy program administrator were two big steps taken locally.
Harker said the truancy protocol seeks to treat the problem uniformly in every Berks school district. It provides a consistent, comprehensive process for schools, district judges and community agencies when working with truant students. It is intended to enhance school district policies, not replace them.
The protocol covers everything from definitions of unexcused absences and illegal absences to recommendations on personnel assigned to monitor attendance.
A Truancy Elimination Plan has been developed, and the committee created a six-month pilot project that offers intensive treatment and counseling for truant children and their families, said Richard Ford, program director.
Berks County Children and Youth Services, the agency state-designated to handle truancy, and the county Juvenile Probation Office contributed $300,000 to start the pilot program as a replacement for children's services, which will handle truancy cases only if the child already is receiving services for abuse or neglect.
The goal is to have more school intervention before truancy cases end up in the district courts and the parents are fined.
If those fines aren't paid, warrants can be issued and remain active until the truant reaches age 24.
There were 55 men and 175 women committed to Berks County Prison in 2010 on old warrants for skipping school. In 2011 there were 35 men and 95 women jailed in old truancy cases.
And the Truancy Elimination Program documents all the efforts made with the truant student and family, so that when a referral is made to a local agency or court, it clearly shows the level of family cooperation and the efforts or accommodations that have already been made, said Sue Dobsovic, educational liaison and truancy supervisor at Children and Youth.
Dan Kelly
26 February 2012
