Truancy

Truancy, put simply, is the act of missing school. Truancy is identified as 1 of the 10 most important problems in schools. In fact, since student absenteeism has risen as high as 30% in some communities, this trend has had grave consequences for both children and their communities. This entry discusses causes and effects and some strategies for dealing with the problem.

Causes and Effects

Research has demonstrated that truancy is a reliable predictor of delinquency, gang involvement, substance abuse, and teen pregnancy. Further, insofar as many truants become dropouts, it also correlates with unemployment, low salary, imprisonment, and welfare.

Truancy affects communities by expending resources and time of family courts as well as juvenile justice systems, along with dealing with the rise in associated crimes. In ...

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