Topic: Handling Truancy Offenses

Question: I was wondering if we could find out about how teen courts deal with truancy. We are starting a pilot program at one of our schools to start hearing truancy citations. I would love to hear from other teen courts who are already handling truancy. Also I would like to know if there is a good video on truancy that can be used as a consequence for our defendants and training for our teen court volunteers.

Responses from Coordinators:

Truancy is always a symptom of a greater problem. You need to train your jurors to be social workers when it comes to truancy. Find the problem then address it. Truancy cases are the most difficult cases we deal with. As far as consequences go we do: jury duty, essays on the importance of getting an education, making a written plan for the year to improve attendance or goals for the future, Keys to Innervision (16 hour cognitive training program with parents), peer youth worker program (partner with 1 on 1 mentor) and community service. Truancy cases need to be monitored closely as these kids and their parents typically have bad habits they quickly fall back into.

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Monica Bogner
Dakota Co. Attorney Office
1560 Hwy 55
Hastings, MN
Phone: (651) 438-4440
Fax: (651) 438-4500
monica.bogner@co.dakota.mn.us

At this time we do not offer truant cases in our teen court however, we do have a separate program addressing the issue of truancy. Please email me if you'd like more information on the ACT - Accelerated Court Truancy program offered in Dakota County, Minnesota.

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Lincolnshire Peer Jury Program
Patrick Quillinan
Lincolnshire Police Department
One Olde Half Day Road
Lincolnshire, IL 60069
Phone: (847) 883-9900
Fax: (847) 883-9909
pquill@village.lincolnshire.il.us

Our truancy issues are handled at the school level-has been successful that way and we don't wish to fix something that is not broke!

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Lansing Teen Court
Michael Botke
Director
217 South Capitol Avenue, 7th Floor, Office 714
Lansing, MI
Phone: (517) 371-2823
Fax: (517) 371-2836
teencourtlansing@cooley.edu

Ingham County 30th Judicial Circuit - Family Division Officials created a partnership with Lansing Public School District to address truancy issues. They hold court once per week and monitor progress on holding middle school students and their parents accountable for truancy related issues. You can contact Jeff Venn, Juvenile Coordinator of Programs and Services at 483-6304 or email him at jvenn@ingham.org.

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Edgar Cahn
Time Dollar Institute
P.O. Box 42160
Washington, DC
Phone: (2020 686-5200
yeswecan@aol.com

We handle a significant number of truancy cases. They pose special problems. We think the best community service may prove to be sentencing them to tutor first and second graders -- to build self-esteem and change the meaning of learning.

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College Station Teen Court
Peggy Calliham
Coordinator
PO Box 9960
College Station, TX
Phone: (409) 764-3499
Fax: (409) 764-3894
pcalliham@ci.college-station.tx.us

We do not handle truancy cases. This is because frequently the parents are sentenced or fined or reprimanded in some way for a truant child and we cannot deal with the sentencing of parents. Truancy is a very difficult offense to deal with.

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Hurst-Euless-Bedford Teen Court
Debbie Carlisle
Coordinator
2000 Forest Ridge Drive
Bedford, TX
Phone: (817) 952-2468
Fax: (817) 952-2463
dcarlisle@ci.bedford.tx.us
www.ci.bedford.tx.us/teencrt

Our Teen Court (Hurst-Euless-Bedford (aka HEB)) no longer handles Truancy cases as more often than not, there are major underlying issues that need to be handled on the parent level that simply cannot be addressed by the Teen Court program. For this reason, the municipal judges in our three cities automatically puts the teen on probation for truancy and sends them to a program called S.T.E.P.S (Skills to Empower People Socially) which requires parental involvement in the sessions. The 5-6 week program involves weekly sessions with both teens and parents attending and addresses topics such as educational commitment, building support systems, anger & anxiety mgmt, and prevention/intervention of substance use and decision making/communication. Upon successful completion of both the program and their probationary period, the truancy is dismissed and there are no fines due. We have seen tremendous success with the program and the students are not repeat truant offenders. If you would like to learn more information or forward this on, the Executive Director is Bridget Wiles - her email address is stepsyouth@msn.com.

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Elk City Teen Court
Brenda Casey
Teen Court Coordinator
City of Elk City
P. O. Box 1100
Elk City, OK
Phone: (580) 225-6247
Fax: (580) 225-3234
caseyb@elkcity.com

Yes, we have had several cases of truancy since our school dist. started issuing tickets to students and sometime parents. I think our youth court students have done a good job in their sentencing. They have several things on our guidelines and have even gone out of the box with some very creative sanctions, research why we have a truancy policy, why you should go to school, posters, etc. I would like to see some like, go to the elem. school have lunch with and read to students that need extra help in reading. etc. I will send you a list of our sanction suggestions if you would like them.

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Sycamore Police Peer Jury
Steven Cook
Officer
Sycamore Illinois Police Department
535 Dekalb Avenue
Sycamore, IL
Phone: (815) 595-2123
Fax: (815) 598-7066
scook@sycamorepd.com

Remember In Illinois Truancy is not by statute enforced by law enforcement. Schools report truancy to the regional superintendent of schools office who has jurisdiction (unless a village has a local ordinance on truancy). After 18 days Truant the minor is considered a chronic truant and the regional superintendent will/can request the State's Attorney petition the minor into court, this occurring after the child has been offered truancy counseling services. Therefore my only reservation would lie in the area of authority/jurisdiction.

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Beth DeHart
Program Manager
SC Youth Court Association
SC Bar - LRE
950 Taylor Street
P.O. Box 608
Columbia, SC
Phone: (803) 252-5139
Fax: (803) 799-4118
beth.dehart@scbar.org

(response from Alan Rosenfeld to Beth DeHart) The only training that we received was conducted by Beth DeHart and basically involved good decision-making skills with respect to the type of consequence for a particular action.... Restorative Justice was stressed...our school Social Worker Donna Carroll might provide more information about the development of Student Cases from the Middle Schools (as far as reporting is concerned) In truth we only conducted 3 cases and I know one had an unsuccessful result, as the student refused to cooperate...Donna can tell you the results of the other 2...maybe next year with increased interaction I will have more to tell you!!!!

(Response from Donna Carroll to Beth DeHart) I normally get referrals from the attendance secretaries after the student has 5 or more unexcused absences, I then contact the student/parent and meet to discuss the issue of attendance. If the problem continues, I make a referral to Youth Court. I just made up a referral form. I give it to Alan. I then get information ie: attendance record, discipline record, and grades and provide this info to Alan to share with the students so they will have some basic info before we go to court. I send a letter to the parents/guardians about the Youth Court--giving date, time, place. If you Want copies of the referral form and letter to parents, I will get them to you. We also have a sanctions/consequence form that is signed by the student and parent and copies made for the file.

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Granite Falls Teen Court
Susan Goettsch
Coordinator
Snohomish County Boys & Girls Club
P. O. Box 781
Monroe, WA
Phone: (360) 794-4775
Fax: (360) 794-0381
sgoettsch@bgcsnoco.org

Our youth court hears school rule violations. In the past the principal has sent truancy cases to us that had not reached the point of being sent to the court system (Becca Bill in Washington State). Kind of a wake up call - so to speak. We handle the cases with the usual process.

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Duncanville Teen Court
Olivia Harrington
Teen Court Coordinator
City of Duncanville
P.O. Box 380280
Duncanville, TX
Phone: (972) 780-5063
Fax: (972) 780-6463
oharrington@ci.duncanville.tx.us
www.ci.duncanville.tx.us/teen_court.htm

WE HANDLED THEM LAST YEAR ON A TRIAL BASIS, BUT THE TRUANT OFFICER CHOSE TO TAKE THEM TO THE JP COURT THIS YEAR. WE HANDLED THEM JUST LIKE ANY OTHER CLASS 4 OFFENSE. THE JP COURT HAS MORE TO OFFER, SUCH AS CLASSES, ETC. SO THEY ARE BETTER OFF GOING THERE. ALSO THEY WERE “FAIL TO ATTEND SCHOOL” OFFENSES. TRUANCY IS A HIGHER OFFENSE HERE.

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20th Judicial District Teen Court
Donald Learned
Coordinator
2110 Kansas Ave
Great Bend, KS
Phone: (620) 793-1930
Fax: (620) 793-1977
donl@help4kansaskids.org

We believe we have an excellent Teen Court, but we do not work with truancy. In our 20th Judicial District Juvenile Services agency, we have a separate program for truancy, called "Project STAY" which means (School Truancy Alternative for Youth). This STAY program was the brainchild of Mrs. Drescher and it gets better each year. I personally coordinate our Teen Court program, but prior to this I was a middle school principal in the Great Bend schools for 20 years with 36 total years in Kansas education. Many of my friends in administration in this judicial district have told me how wonderful Project STAY is. This is an awesome program with three caseworkers in our district. They get their referrals from the courts after the schools have turned the youth in for truancy. This program started in l998 and it has been awesome. So many youth have been turned around and have improved school attendance and grades. The courts, schools, and our agency work closely with this program. For more information contact Ms. Carla Drescher, MSW., Director, 20th Juvenile District Juvenile Services, 2l10 Kansas Avenue, Great Bend, Ks. 67530. Telephone-620-793-1930. Fax-620-793-1977. I know Mrs. Drescher would be glad to send this individual information on Project STAY.

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Carol Leonard-Reynolds
Co-Coordinator
Dundalk High School
1901 Delvale Avenue
Baltimore, MD
Phone: (410) 887-7023
Fax: (410) 887-7025
cleonardreynolds@bcps.org

Dundalk High School is a school based youth court and deals with truancy cases on a regular basis. We have been extremely successful with first time truancy cases because the students are not suspended which is counterproductive to the truant. Students are held accountable by receiving sanctions which must be completed IN SCHOOL that directly benefit the school.

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Kauai Teen Court
Robyn McCarthy
Teen Court Manager
2959 Umi Street
Lihue, HI
Phone: (808) 245-2873
Fax: (808) 245-6957
teen_court@hotmail.com
www.haleopio.org

We handle Truancy along with other status offenses. I am not aware of any videos that go over truancy. We explain it as both a recording issue ie. Parents etc need to know where you are in case of emergencies and also for your safety, and an educational issue, ie. You can't achieve goals or self-fulfillment without a good education to support you. It is also seen as a gateway offense.

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Torrance County Teen Court
Debbie Miera
Coordinator
P.O. Box 2834
Moriarty, NM
Phone: (505) 832-6277
Fax: (505) 832-4136
bkmiera@aol.com

We have been taking truancy cases for the past two years. We use the same sentencing grid for these cases as all others. Truancy is classified as a class 1 offense for 1-2 absences and class 3 for 3 or more absences. The students are referred for truancy if they miss even one class period. The jurors spend a lot of time talking with the defendant regarding the reasons for missing class. They try to determine if the problem is related to school performance, difficulty with peers, difficulty with teachers, or problems at home...if school is important to the student, what the student wants to do after graduation...etc. During deliberation the jurors come up with a sentence that will help support the student in attending school. In addition to the possible community service hours, jury duty and essays, we monitor the attendance of the student (with a signed permission form from the parents), assign the student to the Homework Club, provide mediation between student/teacher or student/parent. Not only has the Teen Court process been a good deterrent for truancy, the students express feeling supported to continue in school through the process.

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Monongalia County Teen Court
Christopher Mullins
Teen Court Coordinator
235 High Street, Room 311
Morgantown, WV
Phone: (304) 292-1236
Fax: (304) 292-7678
Monteencourt@hotmail.com
www.wvteencourt.cjb.net

Monongalia County Teen Court is trying to deal with Truancy only if it's early truancy (below 12 days). Instead of assigning community service hours, we have been assigning tutoring instead. It's important to keep up on grades and attendance by contacting schools frequently. I have some of the schools fax me the grades and truancy reports on a weekly basis.

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Iowa County Teen Court
Marcia Richgels
Program Director
Iowa County
222 North Iowa Street, Suite 215
Dodgeville, WI
Phone: (608) 935-0387
Fax: (608) 935-0386
teen.court@mail.iowacounty.org

Iowa County Teen Court has handled Truancy since the start of our program. We take both from Juvenile referrals as well as citations. A separate guideline has been written for Truancy, consisting of a minimum of 3 to 6 jury terms, 10 to 30 hours of community service and 1000 word essay. We have many other forms of consequences that can be added to the previously mentioned mandatory sentence. The most effective seems to be the driver license suspensions or delays.

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Johnson County Youth Court
Erin Schellhardt
Youth Court Coordinator
Johnson County Court Services
1255 East 119th Street
Olathe, KS
Phone: (913) 324-6965
Fax: (913) 782-3297
erin.schellhardt@jocoks.com

We do hear Truancy cases in our Youth Court programs, particularly our school-based courts. We use a youth-judge model in our courts which we currently also use for the truancy cases. However, we will be piloting a Truancy Review Panel next fall that will take a different look. For now, the concept of the hearing is the same as with any chargeable offense, but we tailor the consequences to better relate to the underlying issues associated with the truancy referral. Typical sanctions would include tutoring, grade and attendance monitoring, participation in school or after-school activities, etc. as opposed to consequences that might typically be imposed during a regular Youth Court hearing such as writing an essay, attending an educational class related to the crime, community service, etc. 

With the proposed Truancy Review Panel, the truant youth would appear before a panel of 3-5 youth who would openly discuss the truancy issue and underlying factors contributing to the truant behavior. The panel and the youth would come up with a contract that the youth, parent, and Student Service Officer would sign. (The Student Service Officer is a youth volunteer who meets with the truant on a regular basis at the school, checks on grades and attendance, etc. and reports to our staff…sort of like a probation officer, but it is a youth). After two months, the youth would come back before the Truancy Review Board to report on progress, etc. If the truant is making progress, the case is set for review again in a month and would be considered for release from supervision. If the truant is not complying with the terms of the contract, the Panel can either opt to refer the case back to the District Attorney for filing, or they can impose additional sanctions or changes to the original contract with review again set a month out. Again, the Truancy Review Panels will all take place at the schools. Our county has six school districts and over 16 high schools, so each high school will have their own Truancy Review Panel to hear the cases in a timely manner. (We have agreed to hear all cases within 14 days of receiving the referral from the D.A.) 

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Sussex Teen Court, Inc.
Sharon Simpkiss
Coordinator
PO Box 335
Georgetown, DE
Phone: (302) 856-9810
Fax: (302) 856-9896
sussexteencourt@justice.com

We have not handled truancy cases even though we can. I will like to find out what other teen courts are doing too.

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New Bedford Youth Court
Lisa Tavares
Director
New Bedford Prevention Partnership
360 Coggeshall Street
New Bedford, MA
Phone: (508) 979-1580
Fax: (508) 991-6233
nbppyouth@aol.com

Would you pass on any info received relative to truancy. We had a very successful meeting at the juvenile court this week and as a September they will be forwarding the majority of early truancy cases to youth Court. We are in need of sanctions and info on how other courts have successfully processed these cases.

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Orange County Juvenile Peer Court
Gwen Vieau
Business & Program Director
Constitutional Rights Foundation of Orange Co.
17875 Von Karman., Suite 100
Irvine, CA
Phone: (949) 440-6757
Fax: (949) 440-6710
gvieau@crfoc.com
www.crfoc.com

Our Peer Court Advisory Council (Probation, DA, Judges, Dept. of Ed., HS Principal & CRF-OC staff) have considered hearing truancy cases. However, in our county at every point in the truancy process a parent can appeal every decision. Our Advisory Council is very concerned with ensuring there are consequences for juveniles who do not finish their PC sentence. We work with the DA; they refer all non-compliant PC minors to Juvenile Court. This would not be the case with truancy cases. Our county has an extensive process already in place for dealing with truant students and their parents, if it gets to that point. Therefore, we decided not to see truancy cases (however, sometimes our juvenile offenders have truancy problems in addition to the charged crime). We were concerned that many times the parent is contributing to the truancy problem (student babysitting, working or staying home to do housework, etc.) and Peer Court does not deal with that issue.

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Winnebago County Teen Court
Shirley Zahn
Program Coordinator
P.O. Box 2808
Oshkosh, WI
Phone: (920) 236-1120
Fax: (920) 303-3030
szahn@co.winnebago.wi.us

We have been handling truancy cases for almost two years in Winnebago County Teen Court. We focus on kids very early on in; it's very difficult to take kids with an ingrained pattern of truancy. We developed a special criteria for accepting these cases and worked out special sentencing guidelines, which are attached.

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