Researchers have begun to examine a number of features in the patterns leading to student drop outs, such as academic failure, problem behavior, attendance rates, cultural and ethnic background, first language, learning disabilities, age and gender, socioeconomic status, school engagement, school mobility, teacher-student relationship, school and class size, family structure and parental educational support and stressful life events (McIntosh et al., 2008). Student Truancy
Student truancy is a serious concern that affects most school districts in the educational problems facing public schools in the United States, often leading to serious consequences for the individual, family, and society in general (Zhang et al., 2010). Occasional school absenteeism is typically non-problematic, but excessive absenteeism has been linked to serious problems such as violence, substance use, injury, suicide attempt, risky sexual behavior, and teenage pregnancy (Kearney, 2008). Truancy has been identified as one of the 10 most serious educational problems in the United States, with principals rating student absenteeism, class cutting, and tardiness as the top discipline problems in the schools (Zang, et al., 2007). States and school districts districts vary in how they define truancy, which w hich means that nationwide truancy statistics don’t exist (Kronholz, 2011). In some districts, students who missed a month or more of school (roughly, 90% attendance rates or less) had greatly diminished graduation odds (Balfanz, 2009). The level of concern co ncern over truancy is such that the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) named truancy prevention as a national priority (Henry, 2007). Because truancy is now an issue issue of grave national concern, the No Child Left Behind legislation emphasizes the importance of attendance as an indicator of adequate
yearly progress related to elementary and middle school accountability (Spencer, 2009). The middle grades will play a pivotal role in enabling the nation to reach President Obama's goal of graduating all students from high school prepared for college or advanced career training (Balfanz, 2009). Accurate estimates of the prevalence of truancy are lacking due to inconsistent tracking and reporting practices of schools (Steinhausen, et. al 2008). According to Kronholz (2011), No Child Left Behind lets states use attendance as an additional indicator of adequate yearly progress, and 37 states do that. But attendance is measured differently from truancy’ perfect attendance can hide the absences of those who stay away for days at a time. Attendance tends to hover at about 95 percent in most state reports. While truancy is widely acknowledged to be a problem nationwide, it is very difficult to find data that delineate full extent of the problem due to data collection and reporting issues at the school, local and state levels (Heilbrunn, 2007). However, while anecdotal evidence suggests that truancy has reached epidemic proportions; we do not have accurate estimates of the prevalence of truancy in the United States due to inconsistent tracking and reporting practices of the schools (Henry, 2007).What is considered unexcused, as well as the number o days students can be absent before they are required to be labeled truant, varies by state statute (U.S. Department of Education, 2008). The No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) signed into law by President Bush in January of 2002, which required that school districts submit attendance data to their state government in order to receive federal money for education (Campbell, 2011). Under Title IV-Safe and Drug Free Schools Act, states are required to collect data on suspension, expulsion, and truancy (U.S. Department of Education, 2004). If governments wish to drive academic standards up to their optimum, they must decrease
pupil’s non-attendance and truancy in particular (Reid, 2010); however, states are allowed to create their own formulas for how they define truancy rates (Heilbrun, 2007). Specific school-related factors contributing to truancy have been cited by the National Center for School Engagement including an unsafe or unwelcoming school climate, pushout policies (such as suspension for truancy), and automatic F’s for poor attendance. Affective support for students within a school is important in that teachers’ neglect of diverse student needs has surfaced as an important element leading to increased absenteeism (Spencer, 2009). One of the key issues when considering the term “truancy” is to understand correctly, what it means. There are various types of truancy per se (Reid, 2010). DeSocio and colleagues (2007) define as truancy-unexcused absences from school or classes and is ranked among the top ten problems facing schools across the country. Truancy may be operationally defined as the habitual engagement in unexcused absences from school (Zhang, et al., 2007). Truancy generally refers to unexcused, illegal absence of school linked to lack of parental knowledge about behavior (Steinhausen, et al., 2008). Teasley (2004), defines truancy as unexcused and unlawful absences from school without parental knowledge and consent. NCSE defines truancy as any unexcused absence from school or class without permission of the pa rent, teacher, or school administrator (Seeley, 2006). Often the definition for truancy can be found in state statutes; however, the number of days a student is absent before they are considered truant is oftentimes left up to the local school district (Zinth, 2005). F lorida definition of truancy is determined by each school district, habitual truancy is defined as 15 absences within 90 calendar days with or without the knowledge or consent of the student's parent
or guardian, and who is subject to compulsory school attendance, and the consequences for truancy is student may face restricted driving privileges in ad dition to other penalties. Parent may face misdemeanor charge (Bye et al., 2010). In many incidences, a child is considered to be truant (ages 6-17) after three consecutive or a total of five unlawful absences; is considered a habitual truant (ages 12-17) when he or she fails to comply with an intervention plan and accumulates an additional two or more absences; and is considered chronic truant (ages 12-17) if the child has already been determined to be a habitual truant yet continues to accumulate absences (Zhang, et al., 2007). Truancy spikes at about the age 15, when most youngsters enter 9th grade and the less-supportive atmosphere of high school, however; reports have proven that truants are getting younger even as low as 10-11 years old (Kronholz, 2011). Indeed, chronic truancy in elementary school is linked to serious delinquent behavior at age 12 and under (Zhang, et al., 2007). Specifically, 7% of fourth and sixth graders in the USA miss at least five school days per month (Kearney, 2008). Truancy is distinct from absenteeism in that "the truant child typically spends his or her time away from home and tends to conceal absences from his or parents. Absenteeism is defined as a period of not attending school; it can be influenced by lack of community support, an unsupportive school environment, disorderly family life, inclement weather, transportation problems, personal deficits and poor health (Teasley, 2004). School absenteeism is a broader term that includes both school refusal and truancy; school refusal is defined as difficulty attending school associated with emotional distress, especially anxiety and depression (2008). Scho ol refusal behavior refers to child-motivated refusal to attend school or difficulties remaining in classes for an entire day (Haight et al., 2011). Literature about truancy is
heavy on the causes and consequences but quite sparse on program process and outcome evaluations (Huck, 2012). Despite the long history of social work services in schools, research o n chronic absenteeism and student truancy has received little attention by social work profession (Teasley, 2004). According to Heilbrunn (2007 ), reducing truancy must be a priority for school social workers, given that truancy may be the first sign in a series of antisocial behaviors that lead to negative personal and developmental outcomes (Teasley, 2004). Truanting from school matters for several reasons, a national Sco ttish study showed that pupils’ non-attendance was directly correlated with academic achievement (Reid, 2010). Truancy is a primary factor for potential delinquent activity, social isolation, teen pregnancy & promiscuity, substance abuse, and educational failure as documented in multiple suspensions, expulsions, and in school dropout rates (Spencer, 2009 & Teasley, 2004). In addition to being a relatively common behavior, truancy’s consequences are far reaching; extend beyond the classroom into multiple domains of a youth’s health and development (DeSocio et al., 2007) and resulting in negative implications for multiple levels of society. Negative consequences of school absenteeism include delinquency, school dropout, suicide attempt, risky sexual behavior, teenage pregnancy, violence, injury, driving under the influence of alcohol, substance abuse, and various medical and psychiatric conditions as well as mixed internalizing and externalizing symptoms (Haight, et al., 2011). Truancy may result in severe short-term consequences, including declining grades, legal difficulties, social alienation, family conflict and distress (Zang, et al., 2007). It appears that the more punitive the approach, the least effective truancy programs seem to be (Huck, 2010). Previous studies on school absenteeism have
addressed some of the studies that are most relevant for the present study, namely coexisting psychopathology, stressful life events, personality features, family characteristics and features of the school environment (Steinhausen, 2008). School refusal is not a formal DSM-IV diagnosis but is a symptom of separation anxiety and conduct disorder. Early conceptualizations of school refusal b ehavior focused on attachment and family issues such as overdependence, enmeshment, separation anxiety, and other psychodynamically-oriented constructs (Haight, et al., 2011). Attendance problems are particularly acute in urban settings among students from low-income families (Spencer, 2009). Research findings show that large school systems in lowincome, inner city urban school districts experience higher rates of absenteeism and truancy compared with suburban and rural school systems (Teasley, 2004). This connection between truancy and delinquency appears to be particularly acute among boys (Zhang, et al., 2007). Recent studies have indicated that African American adolescent male students are more prone to truancy and aggressive behavior in school environments than peers of other races (Martin, et al., 2007). In another study it was found that girls demonstrate higher rates of absenteeism in high school than boys; however, boys demonstrate increased rates of chronic truancy as they advance in grade level (Teasley, 2004). In adolescence, truancy has been linked with serious delinquency, violence, and substance abuse (Zhang, et al., 2007). Oman and colleagues' (2002) investigation of risk factors across adolescent age groups determined that "tabacco use, alcohol use, drg use, sexual intercourse, being arrested or picked u p and truancy all increase significantly in prevalence across the adolescent age span (as cited in Teasley, 2004). There’s a direct line from truancy to juvenile crime, gang membership, and drug use according to the U.S.
Department of Justice. There is an equally direct line from truancy to dropping out of school, and from there to increased incidences of teen pregnancy, poor health and dependency on welfare (Kronholz, 2011). The link between truancy and crime has been established for over 100 years and there is no evidence that the importance of the link is diminishing (Reid, 2010).Truancy is the also the first sign of “trouble” and the most powerful predictor of delinquent behavior (Zang, et al., 20007). There is also evidence to suggest that the negative effect of truancy persists past adolescence, predicting poor adult outcomes, including violence, marital instability, job instability, adult criminality, and incarceration (Henry, 2007). Furthermore, those who co ntinue to commit truancy and/or progress into more serious delinquency are more likely to be male, minority, drug users, attend special education classes, and have family members with criminal histories (Huck, 2010). Truancy and persistent school absenteeism have been adversely linked with lower levels of pupils’ self-esteem, behavior, career ambitions, and their subsequent qu ality and economic status in adult life (Reid, 2010). For example, at the individual level, truancy is predictive of maladjustment, poor academic performance and school dropout, substance abuse, delinquency and teenage pregnancy (Henry & Huizinga, 2007). “Research studies have consistently shown that certain factors are associated with truancy. For example, family factors, school factors, economic influences (e.g., family income and neighborhood), and student variables (e.g., gender and minority status) are also often reported as correlates of truancy” (Zhang et al, 2010). School social workers who seek to reduce truancy rates must evaluate the context in which truancy occurs including individual and developmental factors and parental, family, mental factors and parental, family, socioeconomic, and community influences (Teasley, 2004). School social
workers need to be more proactive in helping families become informed about the importance of good school attendance and the problems students face when they are absent from school, such as missed learning op portunities (Campbell, 2011). Government have tended to shy away from penalizing parents to much for their children nonattendance, even when they have been direct cause, as in taking their children out of school for a holiday in term time (Huck, 2010). Studies say that the justice system integration with community-oriented services is better than using it as the sole a pproach to reduce truancy. Findings suggest that truants and juveniles delinquents are different and perhaps distinct approaches are necessary to combat truancy (Huck, 2010). It has become apparent that in order to combat truancy and other forms of non-attendance within some schools, it is first necessary to change the pu pils', parents' and teachers' attitudes within some of these schools as well as the pe rvading culture and ethos (Reid, 2006). The U.S. Department of Education (2009) divided the causes of truancy into four categories: school factors, family factors, economic factors, and student factors (Butts, 2009). SCHOOL FACTORS
Truancy is also associated with factors within the school environment (DeSocio et al., 2007). Attendance is one of the most overt indicators of school engagement; this indicator also expresses a sense of alienation, lack of belonging, and dislike of school (Zhang et al., 2007). Characteristics of school environments that inhibit truancy include attending to individual student needs, engaging students in supportive relationships, establishing incentives for attendance, promptly addressing student absences, minimizing punitive responses, and forming alliances with health and human services to address the
problems of students and their families (DeSocio et al., 2007). School factors can also include school size, economic status, quality of teachers, and other staff, school climate, and school policy enforcement (Zhang et al, 2010). Within schools, the main issues were poor management, the ease at which some pupils could slip away unnoticed, poor teacher pupil relations, the school “ethos”, the perceived irrelevance of some aspects of the national curriculum, bullying and poor learning-teaching strategies (Reid, 2010). In order to prevent truancy, it is necessary to understand the characteristics that describe truant youth as well as factors that may put them at risk of truancy (Henry & Huizinga, 2007). Unfortunately, schools often attempt to address truancy problems with disciplinary exclusions, which may exacerbate the potential for further absences and disengagement (Zhang, et al., 2007). It became clear to us that most of the students who eventually dropped out began disengaging from school long before. Research indicates that middle or high school student's decision to not attend school regularly, to misbehave, or to expend low effort are all consequential behavioral indicators of a student's growing disengagement from school and thus might be strongly predictive of dropping out (Balfanz et al., 2007). Youth with poor school engagement are also more likely to participate in risky behaviors to compromise their health (DeSocio et al., 2007). Disengaged dropouts were students who had average or below-average levels of school misbehavior, low commitment to school, and average grades (Balfanz et al., 2007). Actions by school officials to stop the student's disruptive behavior may be followed by parental involvement, which often increases the student's negative attitude about school (Teasley, 2004). State and federal data indicate that truants tend overwhelmingly to be African
Americans and Hispanics (Kronholz, 2011). Many African American and Hispanic youths from poor inner-city urban neighborhoods attend overcrowded school with lower funding per pupil, compared with schools in affluent suburban communities (Teasley, 2004). Educators have generally pursued multiple strategies to curb absenteeism, including legal means and counseling approaches (Kearney, 2008). Schools that do not have consistent enforcement in place see more truancy cases than those with proper and consistent enforcement practice (Zhang et al., 2 010). Truancy laws generally target parents because, the reasoning goes, they have violated the state’s attendance laws by not getting their kids to school. Educational neglect, the legal term in many jurisdictions, is a misdemeanor that generally carries the threat of jail time and a fine (Kronholz, 2011). However, most parents have little direct control over whether their children attend school regularly or not. Nevertheless, the law still holds them to b e responsible (Reid, 2010). Conflict between teacher expectations and classroom behavior frequently results in authoritarian demands on the student, thus discouraging the promotion of positive developmental outcomes (Teasley, 2004). FAMILY FACTORS
Research studies demonstrate that family dynamics play a key role in absenteeism and truancy (Teasley, 2004). Family and parental factors including parent-child relationships, family history (e.g., drug or alcohol abuse, criminal history), attitudes towards education, parental supervision, and family socioeconomic status (SES), (Zhang et al., 2010) also impact attendance. Parenting styles that foster beneficial communication
between parents and children appear to positively affect academic performance (Teasley, 2004). Parents of truants are atypical. When parents (and pupils) receive constantly negative feedback about their children’s academic and behavioral progress they may tend to judge teachers and their school as being unsympathetic, ineffective and even unsafe (Reid, 2010). The role of the parents and careers is to look after the well-being of their children and to raise them in safe, happy and developmentally friendly environments (2010). Parents who spend more time with their children in activities that improve cognitive development help boost their children's school performance (Teasley, 2004). “Parent involvement in education has also been raised as an issue that influences attendance. Though less well defined than school violence or climate, parent involvement generally refers to actively developing a child’s academic progress, monitoring attendance and homework, and enhancing school quality via participation in parentteacher associations and other activities. Parents who promote responsible be havior in their children encourage academic achievement (Teasley, 2004).Positive parent involvement relates closely to a child’s success in school, but poor parent involvement obviously does not (Kearney, 2008). Parents who impart appropriate values as aspirations to their children motivate them to succeed in school (Teasley, 2004). In addition, truancy's consequences extend beyond the individual and his/her family to the society at large (Henry, 2007). ECONOMIC FACTORS
Truancy’s consequences extended beyond the individual and his/her family to the society at large. The costs of truancy are high. The direct and indirect consequences of
truancy for individuals, schools, communities, and society in the short- and long-term are so serious (Yeide & Korbin, 2009). That is, truancy exerts a negative effect on communities because of its effect on delinquency, crime, and negative adult outcomes (Henry, 2007). Communities with high levels of truancy are more likely to have correspondingly high rates of daytime criminal activity (Reid, 2010). For many students, truancy is symptomatic of personal and family problems. At times, poor school attendance is part of a family’s efforts to cope with social and economic demands (DeSocio et al., 2007). Family aspects included parentally condoned absences, not valuing education, domestic problems, inconsistent or inadequate parenting and economic deprivation (Reid, 2010). For example, in one research study, some parents acknowledged that family needs took precedence over school attendance, and kept youth at home to provide child care, care for ill relatives; or they worked to contribute to the family’s income (DeSocio et al., 2007). Research has demonstrated that parents with higher SES are more involved with teachers and schools, and such involvement enhances children's academic performance. Parents with high socioecono mic status (SES) tend to be more involved in their children's education than parents with low SES. (Teasley, 2004). Because truancy has a direct negative effect on individuals, it also has an indirect negative effect on communities (Henry & Huizinga, 2007). Truants were found to be more likely to smoke, drink, and use illegal drugs than non-truanting pupils (Reid, 2010). there is a strong relationship between truancy and the start of substance abuse largely due to the amount of supervised time that truants spend with peers (Yeide & Korbin, 2009).
When more people within a community engage in delinquent behavior and express negative adult outcomes the community as a whole suffers (Henry & Huizinga, 2007). Researchers have also examined neighborhood disorganization and school absenteeism, claiming that unsafe or unsupportive communities often result in poor adult supervision, high rates of child self-care, and lack of responsiveness to truancy (Kearney, 2008). Community factors include economic influences, peer relationships, and neighborhood safety. Home dynamics such as crowded living conditions, weak parentchild relationships, and frequent relocation may negatively affect school attendance (Teasley, 2004). Students living in disorganized, unsafe, or unsupportive neighborhoods are at substantial risk for absenteeism and truancy (Zhang et al., 2010). Neighborhood disorganization and excessive school absenteeism may be related as well to family chaos marked by high rates of divorce, separation, child maltreatment, conflict, foster care, and parental alcohol and other drug use (Kearney, 2008). Community issues revolve around socio-economic factors, location, housing, local attitudes, culture, criminality, vandalism and a sense of feeling safe (Reid, 2010). Social/criminal justice researchers have generally concentrated their attention on factors such as homelessness, poverty, teenage pregnancy, neighborhood disorganization, family chaos, and association with delinquent peer groups (Kearney, 2008). The level of family SES determines the neighborhood in which students attend school and exposure to mental and physical health stressors (for example, abuse, neglect, neighborhood and domestic violence, family and parental strife) and incivilities (for example, abandoned buildings, abandoned cars, empty lots, condemned housing, underground markets, and disruptive social behavior) that are associated with truancy (Teasley, 2004).
STUDENT FACTORS
Researchers also found that when students attend school more often, they are less likely to engage in delinquent or destructive behaviors (Sheldon, 2007). The usual pattern begins with the pupil losing academic interest, falling behind academically, and avoiding classes (Teasley, 2004). Truancy coexists with student and family mental health problems and may be an indicator of an existing or emerging mental health disorder, including post-traumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, or substance abuse (DeSocio et al., 2007). Psychological interventions for youth with problematic absenteeism are typically circumscribed to focus on key symptoms and proximal variables. Many of these interventions involve cognitive-behavioral based manualized or otherwise specific techniques such as psycho-education regarding anxiety, somatic management skills such as relaxation training or breathing training, cognitive therapy, exposure-based practices, supportive therapy and parent-based contingency management (Kearney, 2008).Even with numerous studies explicating causes and effects of truancy program evaluations are rare and may be partially to blame for why “on one has yet found the magic panacea to overcome all the difficulties in preventing non-attendance and truancy” (Huck, 2010).
