The Truancy Court Prevention Project (TCPP) was launched in September 2004 with the purpose of reducing Hartford's high dropout rate. The program currently provides case management services for 7th and 8th grade students at Quirk Middle School and kindergarten, 7th and 8th grade students at Burr School. TCPP is a collaboration between the Center for Children's Advocacy, Hartford Public Schools, the Village for Families and Children, and the Capitol Region Education Council.

Photo and quote courtesy of The Tow Foundation. Photo by Richard Freed.

  • Case Management that links students to needed services, such as mentoring, counseling, after school and youth development activities, tutoring, and job placement. Case managers from community-based agencies monitor students' academic progress and attendance and serve as liaisons between the school, student and his family. Case managers also facilitate family engagement in school by conducting regular home visits and updating parents on their child's progress.

  • Educational Review and Assistance A student's school record is reviewed by an educational consultant who makes recommendations for improved academic performance. The consultant also observes classrooms and attends Planning and Placement Team (PPT) meetings.

  • Informal Court Sessions held at school with Connecticut judges.

  • Legal Assistance to secure appropriate school plans for students in areas that affect attendance, such as education, special education, access to health and mental health services, and public benefits.

  • Legal Advocacy on systemic issues that may contribute to high dropout rates. Past and current examples of such issues include fair discipline policy, the entitlement to appropriate bilingual education, and access to tutoring and school choice under the No Child Left Behind Act.

  • Aftercare Services

Publications

 

Eva's Story

Eva, a 14 year old middle school student from Hartford, was struggling in school. Her teachers consistently reported that she was disruptive and disrespectful. She had been suspended from school for 15 days, had numerous disciplinary write-ups, and had actually been arrested for her disruptive behavior. School staff could not keep Eva in class and she was often found wandering the hallways.

Eva was failing all of her classes. She had been promoted by exception to eighth grade, meaning she had not met the academic standards for promotion.

The Center for Children's Advocacy became involved in Eva's case through our Truancy Court Prevention Project (TCPP), which works with middle school students to lower truancy and dropout rates. Despite her long-standing academic struggles, Eva had never been evaluated for special education services and no one had addressed the inadequacy of her educational program. The TCPP attorney and a project case manager worked with Eva to create a plan for academic and behavioral success.

Once identified as requiring special education services, Eva was placed in an educational setting with a significantly smaller student-to-teacher ratio, fewer transitions between classes and more structured behavioral redirection. She began to receive speech and language services to work on pragmatics (appropriate response to others), and benefitted from social work services at school.

The new educational placement greatly improved Eva's school life. Teachers reported that she engaged in the classroom, behaved respectfully, and began to understand that she can succeed. She has had no further suspensions or disciplinary write-ups and no longer wanders the hallways. Eva reports that she feels good about her schoolwork.

In addition to Eva's personal achievements, her story reflects the strength of the TCPP's collaborative partnerships. As a result of CCA's efforts in getting her an appropriate educational placement, TCPP case managers were able to have Eva's delinquency case diverted to the Juvenile Review Board (JRB) to keep her out of court and away from juvenile delinquency involvement.

Our Systemic Work Helps Many Connecticut Students

Individual cases like Eva's inform CCA's systemic advocacy. Many children in Connecticut are arrested at school for behavior that could be handled within the regular disciplinary system. Eva's arrest by a school resource officer (SRO), a police officer stationed in the school, became an integral part of our advocacy for passage of legislation to provide additional training to help SROs work with youth to resolve behavioral issues and avoid involvement in the juvenile justice system.

Eva's case also emphasizes the importance of our continued efforts to raise public awareness about truancy and its root causes. Dr. Andrea Spencer, CCA's educational consultant, compiles data from her TCPP work to make suggestions for systemic improvements for services to truant youth. CCA recently published Dr. Spencer's report entitled, "Las Niñas Silenciadas," which addresses the root causes of the truancy epidemic faced by Latina girls. This report has been provided to key policy-makers to improve discourse about important support services.

CCA's systemic advocacy extends to issues faced by youth who are considered status offenders, the majority of whom are truant from school, to provide services that address the root causes of status offense behavior and avoid court involvement. We continue to advocate for statewide Family Support Centers (FSC), one-stop locations where youth have access to community services that include counseling, academic assistance and anger management.

Later this year, the American Bar Association will publish a Center for Children's Advocacy paper on accessing interventions for status offenders to divert them from further court involvement. National publication of this paper will provide important information about appropriate legal response to schools' continued violation of state and federal law.

 

Information and History of Truancy Court Project

Changing the Judiciary's Relaltionship with a Community, One Child at a Time
ABA Judges' Journal Summer 2007
Features the work of Justice Richard Palmer and Appellate Judge Douglas Lavine with the Truancy Court Prevention Project.