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Byer emphasizes that judges need to look at the causes behind truancy and offer real programs, not just sluff the child off to another agency. They must look a child in the eye, and his or her parents, and applaud their accomplishments, no matter how small.
"Abuse and neglect cases are the easiest to identify," Byer said. She listed other possible reasons a child may avoid school: Academic failure, chemical dependency issues, parents with chemical dependency, domestic violence, peers, poverty, language, having to baby-sit siblings, and parents who place little value on education.
Byer said that suspending and punishing a child,
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embarrassing, isolating or humiliating does not help the children. "We need to stop doing things that don't work. Praise the parents, too, when the kids are doing well," Byer said. "Everyone has value."
The judge gave an example of one parent who was illiterate and afraid of school. The PTA took her on as a project, and got her working in the school which raised the mother's self-esteem. She was no longer afraid of school, and no longer hesitant to make sure her child was there regularly.
Truancy Court needs the support of the parents, and for a child to go through this 10-week program requires that a parent or responsible adult who cares for the child come to court with the child each week. Truancy Court can be held early in the morning before school, at lunchtime, or after school, depending on which works best for those participating, particularly the judge who has volunteered his own time.
After the school system has identified students with a pre-determined number of absences, the judge sends a letter to the parents saying that their child is exhibiting a pattern of unexcused absences and tardies. "It is the team's desire to avoid taking cases, such as yours, to court," one sample letter from Kentucky reads. "I urge you to agree to participate in this voluntary program." The letter at the bottom cites Kentucky Law, "Any child who has been absent from school without valid excuse for more than three days, or tardy on more than three days is a truant. Any child who has been reported as a truant more than three times is an habitual truant. Being absent for less than all of one day shall be recorded as being tardy."
In Louisville, not all children who are truant are accepted into this project because of the large numbers. Judges see about 500 out of 14,000 truants a year in Louisville out of 96,000 students in the Jefferson County school system. "That's 13,500 who are not receiving court attention," Byer said.
Judge Ann McKown of Durham was the first to bring the Truancy Court concept to North Carolina. She had heard Judge Byer speak at a Family Court seminar in Arlington, Va., two years ago and started the planning process. Three courts were set up in Durham a year and a half ago, but McKown's ended when the social worker left. "It's a very labor-intensive program for the social workers," McKown said. "They have to visit the families every week." Regardless, McKown said the children's grades had started improving just from meeting.
Judge Louis Trosch of Mecklenburg County spoke to seminar participants of his experiences setting up a truancy court in Charlotte.
"Every community is different. You need to get all the right people involved in the beginning." He said they sent letters to the police chief, YMCA, Teen Court, city council members and the mayor, to get key people to buy into the approach. They used Louisville's truancy court as their base to see what would and wouldn't work in Charlotte.
Trosch said the schools will want to send you to the school with the worst cases right off the bat. "You don't want to have the most difficult, hard core families at once. It's hard to build a successful program that way. You want families that are still reachable, who haven't written off the system."
Truancy Court is very labor-intensive for the social workers, having to visit each family every week and make recommendations on treatment, Trosch said. Teachers must buy into the program because they must monitor the student's progress, and a school with a strong PTA is often happy to assist. "We selected schools where there was no transportation problem, where kids were living close to school or nearby."
Judges emphasize positive reinforcement, praising students for the smallest of accomplishments and sometimes rewarding them with small prizes such as skating passes or puzzles. That draws criticism from some teachers who feel this is bribing the child and not rewarding the others who behave responsibly all the time.
Trosch said, "You have to think outside of the box. Once kids start having success -- being three years behind and now they are at grade level -- they are not coming for the reward anymore," Trosch said. "We have to combat that (criticism) with the schools."
Trosch said it is also important to follow up with the students. "You can't just say, after 10 weeks, 'goodbye.'" Some students liked coming, and the process, and the judge allowed them to continue.
In Durham, Judge Richard Chaney held court at Lowe's Grove Elementary School. He said of all the students in his court who came on a regular basis, only one didn't graduate from the project.
"Several of them you wouldn't recognize at the end of the year." One girl in Chaney's court was also a behavioral problem in school. "She was a 16-year-old in the eighth grade, reading on a second grade level. After she got into the program, she got tremendous positive reinforcement and made the AB honor roll," Chaney said, adding that she was no longer a behavior problem and got an award at the end of the school year.
Another boy had such low self-esteem, he wouldn't come out of the car when he got to school. During a math test, he said he couldn't do the problems, that he couldn't remember how. Judge Chaney encouraged him and said, "Yes, you can," and handed him a pencil. He passed the test for the first time.
Chaney found out he needed to be flexible on the hours. He handed out bus passes to families who had transportation problems, and then changed the morning hours of Truancy Court from 7 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. when he discovered the bus line didn't drop off passengers until 7:20 a.m.
"Getting the parents to respond was a tremendous help," Chaney said. He calls Truancy Court "compassionate compulsion." He said no legal document is required to get a child to court, but if the parents refuse all reasonable efforts, the case is sent to the Division of Social Services.
"The key to our success was the school was committed to it," Chaney said
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