EXHIBIT 2
Guidelines to help police officers better assist chronically truant students in high school
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Guidelines to help police officers better assist chronically truant students in high school
Background
Education accomplishment is a primary cornerstone of success throughout a person’s life. Moreover, it is confirmed that adolescence is one of the most critical developmental periods in a person’s lifetime. Therefore, it is essential to put in place measures that ensure that young people remain in school and are not truant. Regrettably, though, truancy is still a massive problem in nearly all communities in the United States. According to data released by Attendance Works (as cited in (Jacobson, 2018)), the proportion of schools where the rate of chronically absent students increased by 20% increased from 11% in 2013-14 to 13% in 2015-16 school years. According to Maynard et al. (2017), truancy rates in the US have remained steady between 2002 (10.8%) and 2014 (11.1%). Their research findings indicate that the rates were highest among the older youth, females, and Hispanic youth. With such data, it is clear that truancy is a significant problem that needs to be addressed with more urgency.
Additionally, research also indicates that truancy is strongly and reliably associated with detrimental developmental outcomes throughout life, which includes a substantial risk of delinquency and offending. According to Mazerolle et al. (2019), chronically truant children have a higher likelihood of engaging in undesirable behavior, such as vandalism, drug use, gang membership, suicidal behavior, and high-risk sexual behavior. Further, they found a higher rate of early-pregnancies among truant girls, and subsequently, higher dropout rates. The definition of chronic truancy varies from one jurisdiction to the other. In California, for instance, as per the California Education code 48263.6, chronic truancy is defined as when a child misses 10% of the school year from the date of enrollment to the current date (CDE, 2020). Truancy has some vast effects on communities, socially and economically, at large. According to a research by Alliance for Excellent Education (as cited in (Ahmad & Miller, 2015)), if the class of 2010 in the whole country managed to graduate, there would be an additional $7.6 billion in terms of earnings and $713 million more in terms of tax revenue. With such facts, it is the high time for more effort to be put to reduce truancy rates in society.
Whereas most of the available research has documented the many unpleasant outcomes of chronic truancy, much less has been done regarding measures to prevent and intervene. In this capstone, we suggest quite a few guidelines for police officers to better assist chronically truant students in high schools.
Purpose
Numerous truancy intervention programs do exist. They include school-based programs, community-based programs, school-and-community-based programs, family-based programs, as well as court-based programs. In this context, a community-based approach will be used, with a specific interest in the role the police can play in lowering the truancy rates among high school students.
A community-based approach towards solving chronic truancy is usually preferred. This is mainly because it recognizes that chronic truancy is not just an individual or family problem; rather, it is a community problem that can be best addressed through collaboration among the various systems in the community. The program will be run by the police department, in close collaboration with the school and family members of the victims. Besides, it will also incorporate social workers as well as other government agencies that can help minimize this menace. The guidelines are divided into some sections, among them prevention measures, reactive measures, and post-school measures.
Guidelines
Tier 1: Establish shared goals and objectives
The police department, together with the school authority, parents, and other stakeholders, shall have a consultative meeting to come up with goals and objectives that will guide this program throughout. Some of the goals will seek to:
Reduce the crime rates within, and around schools
Come up with measures that will ensure the safety and security of students
Improve the relationship between students and law enforcement
Come up with preventive, and reactive measures to curb truancy
Develop a transition program for students who finish high school to motivate others.
The goals and objectives should have a clear timeline and be measurable to facilitate control as well as evaluation. A good example is seeking to reduce the crime rates within and around the school by 30% in two years. Another goal could be to improve the student’s knowledge of laws and consequences of violation by 20% in a period of one year. Having SMART objectives helps as the outcome can be evaluated against a known standard. Progress can thus be monitored, and improvements made.
Tire II: Operational guidelines
This involves establishing a clear operational framework that will guide the partnership between the school and law enforcement.
Responsibilities of the police officers within the school premises
The policemen operating within the school’s premises have to act within several guidelines. Most prominent is that they will not be allowed to take any police action on students within the school without prior authorization of the principal. Besides, any form of interrogation or investigation while students are within the school premises will only be done with the approval from the principal and will be limited to issues related to school.
Police officers within the school premises will answer directly to the principal. As a result, issues such as the arrest of students or staff within the school premises shall only be done with authorization from the principal.
Any person whose presence within the school premises is banned will be arrested with immediate effect for trespassing
Chain of command, while within the school premises
While within the school premises, the principal is the boss. The law enforcement officers will be present at his invitation and therefore, will only assist if required to do so.
Allowable force, and contact with students
The presence of police officers will not be to replace the teachers as the primary disciplinarians
In case of a reasonable course, the police officers within the school premises are permitted to search and confiscate any illegal material from the students. On the other hand, all school-related searches will remain purely under the jurisdiction of the school. The police will only get involved if invited to do that.
Privileges regarding information access and sharing the same
The school is responsible for safeguarding private student information. The police will be facilitated with such information on a need by need basis.
Tier III: Developing prevention measures
The program will entail a number of preventive measures that will be implemented by the school in collaboration with the law enforcement agency. They include
Communicate to students regarding the expectations as regards to attendance, its benefits, and how it influences academic achievement.
Reward the most improved student in terms of attendance, which will challenge and also motivate others to improve.
Tier IV: Developing reactive measures
Implement day time patrols. Stop, and question any school-aged young person found outside the school’s premises, during school hours
Work with the school to develop a Truancy holding cell, where truant students will be held until their parents come to collect them. This will mimic the real-life police cells and will be intended to show the student that it was a mistake skipping school
Escort a teacher to the house of parents of a student who is not attending school, with no excuse. The presence of a law enforcement officer might influence the truant student to cooperate.
Use GPS trackers to be able to monitor a chronically truant individual, and ensure they attend school. This will require the consent of parents.
The police will develop a mentoring program in the school and invite social workers to speak to the chronically truant students
Refer the students for additional support and evaluation, if need be.
Tire V: Developing post-school Measures
One of the reasons students fall into the trap of chronic truancy is seeing no hope in what they are pursuing. One of the ways to defeat chronic truancy is by ensuring that those who complete their education in these schools turn out to be respected men and women in society. To do that, the following measures will be pursued:
Enlist some of the successful graduates into the police force. Such will not only be a way to motivate the other students, but also a way of molding idols for the students.
Assign mentors to those who complete school – This will guarantee continued support to the students after completing their studies. The aim is to mold future role models for the students.
Project Activities
Activity Deliverables
Prevention Measures Within one year, reduce the occurrence of new cases of truancy by 50%
Within two years, new chronic truancy cases will drop by a further 50%
Reactive/corrective measures Day time patrols
Truancy holding cells
Visit truant students
Use technology to track truant students
Develop a mentoring program for students
Reduce current truant cases by 20% within one year, and a further 10% in the next year
Post-school Measures Enlist at least 5% of willing graduates into the police force
In three years, the number of ex-students working in the police force will be nearly 100
References
Ahmad, F. Z., & Miller, T. (2015, August). The High Cost of Truancy. Retrieved March 18, 2020, from https://cdn.americanprogress.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/29113012/Truancy-report4.pdf
CDE. (2020). Truancy. Retrieved March 18, 2020, from https://www.cde.ca.gov/ls/ai/tr/
Jacobson, L. (2018, August 31). New national data shows higher chronic student absenteeism rates. Retrieved March 18, 2020, from https://www.educationdive.com/news/new-national-data-shows-higher-chronic-student-absenteeism-rates/531180/
Maynard, B., Vaughn, M. G., Nelson, E. J., Sala-Wright, C. P., Heyne, D. A., & Kremer, K. P. (2017). Tuancy in the United States: Examining Temporal Trends and Correlates by Race, Age, and Gender . Children and Youth Services Review , 188-196.
Mazerolle, L., Bennett, S., Emma, A., Cardwell, S. M., Eggins, E., & Piquero, A. R. (2019). Disrupting the Pathway from Truancy to Delinquency: A Randomized Field Trial Test of the Longitudinal Impact of a School Engagement Program. Journal of Quantitative Criminology , 663-689.