KEEPING KIDS IN SCHOOL
LSU, Louisiana program focuses on decreasing truancy and criminal behavior

Robby was charged with his first crime-criminal tres passing-at the age of 14. After being shuffled between detention centers and youth correctional facilities over the years following, he committed two murders when he was 18 and was sentenced to life in the Louisiana State Penitentiary where he remains today.

One might suggest that Robby's delinquent behavior began as a child in kindergarten where he missed 32 days of school. He missed just as much class time in first through fifth grades. In sixth grade, he missed 103 days of class and was unable to read. Robby came from a poverty-stricken family, had an absent father, and was born with a mild mental retardation.

LSU's Cecile Guin has seen many cases like Robby’s. As director of the LSU Office of Social Service Research and Development's Truancy Assessment Service Center (TASC) program, she guides Louisiana's efforts to curb absenteeism in schools, known as truancy, and make state social services more easily available to families who need them.

"Kids can miss or be late for school for a million reasons," says Guin, who wrote her dissertation on juvenile to adult criminality in Louisiana. "Whether it is abusive or absent parents or health problems, we tend to view truancy sometimes as the only symptom of a much deeper problem."

There are many factors that contribute to poor school attendance. Guin's research has shown that the more children are in school learning, the less likely they will be to go down a path of criminal behavior. This finding is one that led Louisiana state senator Chris Ullo to develop the legislative support for TASC. In his efforts to reduce crime, Senator Ullo found that the most cost-effective place to prevent the development of criminal behavior is in school-based K-5 services.

The success of TASC greatly depends on involvement of teachers, school administrators, law enforcement officials, and social services agencies. If a student has more than five unexcused absences, the teacher notifies school administrators, who then notify TASC personnel. TASC's job is to discover why the child is absent and find the help they need to improve their attendance. Whether they simply make a phone call or visit the child's house, TASC personnel determine what services the child and their family may need to eliminate the barrier of attending school-including counseling and anger management, parenting education, clothing and utility assistance, medical and dental services, and tutoring.

TASC currently has 17 offices that cover 24 parishes and has served more than 34,000 Louisiana children in public schools since the program's founding in 1999. Each site has some control over spending, so that they can adapt their services to their community's needs.

"I am convinced that one of the reasons this program has taken off is flexibility of funding and support of law enforcement or other entities that hold parents accountable," says Guin.

Early indications show that the program is having an impact. Sixty-eight percent of TASC children had either no unexcused absences or between one and five unexcused absences during the 2003-2004 school year. It is encouraging news for researchers, teachers, law enforcement officials, and social service providers, who hope to keep children in school and, potentially, out of prison.

ON THE WEB:
Truancy Assessment Service Center

from Summer/Fall 2005