Truancy

Truancy, or unexcused absence from school, is a major problem among American youth. Many cities report daily truancies numbering in the thousands, and some report absence rates as high as 30%. No national data on truancy rates are available, in part because no uniform definition of truancy exists, but in a 1998 report, public school principals nationwide identified student absenteeism, cutting class, and tardiness as their primary disciplinary problems. Truants are more prone to teen pregnancy; drug abuse; gang membership; and crimes committed during school hours, such as burglary, auto theft, and vandalism. Truants frequently drop out of school, and in adulthood, they have greater difficulty earning an adequate income, raising children, and keeping within the bounds of the law. Society pays other costs as well, such as the loss of attendance-based federal and state funds, and the expense to businesses of training an undereducated, unprepared workforce.

School attendance has not consistently received the attention it deserves. Although the majority of states had passed compulsory education laws by 1890, legislators created few mechanisms for their enforcement. Not until the early 20th century were numerous rules enacted defining the duties of truant officers, establishing truant schools, delegating jurisdictional power, and changing child labor laws to encourage school attendance. As state aid became tied to average daily attendance during this period, school attendance departments sought impressive statistics of parents and children prosecuted, parents convicted, and children committed to correctional institutions for truancy. The era from 1890 to 1930 also marked the first time that youth over age 14 were directed en masse into high schools, spurred by the perceived need to acculturate millions of immigrant children before they entered the job market. Eventually, most states required school attendance up to age 16.

The 1960s brought a relaxing of attitudes toward school attendance, accompanied by a questioning of educational “strictures,” increased drug use among youth, skyrocketing educational costs, and cutbacks to attendance programs. The National Commission on Secondary Education reported in 1973 that coercing students into attending school was no longer working. Average daily attendance in urban schools was running as low as 45% and was also dropping in suburban schools; tardiness and cutting class were common as well. However, by the 1980s, increases in serious juvenile crime, particularly among youth under age 15, led to renewed concern over school attendance and to greater involvement of law enforcement in fighting truancy.

In recent decades, the juvenile justice system has increasingly served as a mechanism for intervening with chronic truants and as the final stop for truants. A 1998 report indicated that truancy cases had increased 85% since 1989. These cases were about equally divided between boys and girls, with the typical truant being age 15, although some were as young as 10.

The growing caseload points to the need for schools and communities to establish ongoing truancy prevention programs that address truancy's underlying causes. These include family issues, such as lack of adult supervision, ignorance or indifference toward education, and interpersonal problems within the home; school variables, such as poor attendance monitoring, peer encouragement, and fear of violence; economic influences, such as single-parent homes or student employment; and student variables, such as learning difficulties or substance abuse.

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