Alternate Practice Therapy Experiment The truant individual also tends to manifest through dangerous behaviors and travel a path of extremity with sad endings and wasted lives. This chapter will serve to review literature that speaks to and of the problem of the truancy that is so highlighted in schools at the top of the 21st century. Extremely a progressive problem that is firmly within the very root of belief, thought and process as the truant has through reactionary events and then formation of environment. Then there were those who made a difference in the very experientially gained concepts or expressions of purpose.

The students love her and called her their teacher with red hair. Mrs. Black, the teacher who loved to read and then you follow. Those teachers who are of the teaching essence as so to captivate the child's mind are often barred from governance within the educational practice of that which requires only is the portfolio of a well-educated and trained collaborators of education. According to the writer, Amy Webber:

"Truancy is often described as a "gateway behavior," a portal through which a child enters the juvenile court system via additional status and delinquency allegations, the adult welfare system via chronic unemployment or under-employment, or the penal system through adult criminal behavior. Research has demonstrated that truant students are at higher risk of being drawn into behavior involving gangs, daytime crime and violence, drugs, and/or alcohol. Many youths who are habitually truant and experience school failure are the same youths who bring weapons to school, bully or threaten their classmates, or regularly disrupt the school's learning environment. Youths not in school and not in the labor force are at a high risk of delinquency and crime."

Truancy persists, through children that labor through necessity locking into their mind a concept of not caring for development of oneself due to the lack of that in formative relationship environments. Thus is the truant does not know how to allow compelling of that which is truly worthy due to stunting at some juncture of development. What will be used to break the barrier of truancy in the educational institution today. Truancy is the product of an interactive on vast levels in the intellectual as well as within the individual's personal or business environment.

The following concepts give presentation to prevention of creation, forming of the truant.

Concept #1

-- In this study, performed by Franco-British Council in 2001, begins with the following questions:

- Why are violence and disruptive behavior in schools a growing problem in Britain and France?

- What are the long-term effects for the child and for the society as a whole?

Can partnerships between schools, parents, the police and others come up with innovative ways to reduce truancy?

It is difficult, in France, so it is said to obtain reliable information referenced this work it is difficult in France to obtain reliable national data on truancy although:

"Theoretically absentees must be notified to the local police. Truancy was said to stem both from family difficulties and from disaffection with the school; it is particularly high in vocational lycees which pupils may perceive as inferior to the more academic schools. " Ending up in the Expressed in this study were those of "partnership in tackling it among various departments."

According to this study in both; France and Britain, statistics are not very much help in "specifics" due to the fact that the absentee may be documented but vaguely so without listing the given reason for the absentee on a certain day. Stated is that reasons for truancies differ among urban and rural area schools shifting with incomes levels as there are those students that fail to attend school regularly because of the need to earn income for the household. Of course there too will be the student who is absent because they don't like a class or because the parent is agreeable with the child missing classes or days of school.

Stated within this work are points of referential information." It has been proven by France, that truancy cannot be linked to socio-economic class as students but through some development problem wherein the student is "harder to control, play hooky from school" with tendency toward that of being more difficult in terms of truancy and behavioral problems.

Concept #2 - Violence, Truancy and School Exclusion: Report (March 2001) London Seminar 28-29 May:

Studies have linked truancy to:

" ... Serious activity of delinquency in youth as well as to "significant negative behavior and characteristics in adults." "As a risk factor for delinquent behavior in youth, truancy has been found to be related to substance abuse, gang activity, and involvement in criminal activities such as burglary, auto theft, and vandalism" (Bell, et al. 1994)

A statewide study was performed by the State of Arizonia...

Recommendations were for amending the state laws in the "compulsory school attendance law to include criminal sanctions for parents or guardians who do not ensure that their children attend school:
"Key risk factors linked with crimes committed by youth were poor school attendance and truancy.'

Concept #3 - "School Attendance Improvement Strategies" (nd) California Department of Education

Focusing on "early intervention " and "stresses collaboration" between schools and juvenile probation officers:

. "This program has seen results in that after only four months participation in the program unexcused absences dropped 43% in the 1995-96 academic year. Strategies are inclusive of:

Clarify school standards related to attendance by making sure high school students understand that any unexcused absence of more than 30 minutes counts as an unexcused absence from school by state law."

Publicize the consequences of becoming classified as a truant and enforce them consistently.

Monitor student attendance and absence through a computerized attendance record-keeping system that keeps track of any unexcused absences that are more than 30 minutes.

Keep accurate attendance records that show who has been reported as a truant three or more times per school year and what efforts have been made to hold a conference with the parent or guardian and with the student. After three reports are made on a student's truancy and a conscientious effort is made to have a meeting with the student and parent, make sure the parent knows that the student is now deemed a "habitual truant"

"Place responsibility for verification of excessive excused absences for illness on parents and students. If reasons for absences are not verified by a doctor or appropriate school official, count those absences as unexcused.'

"Telephone parents/guardians in the evening or at work to verify absences.'

"Use bilingual aides to contact parents with limited-English-speaking ability and send out school attendance notification letters in the language appropriate to the family.

"Make home visits concerning student absences if parents/guardians cannot be reached by telephone.

#4 - Best Practice Number Eight Reducing Crime and Supporting Education through a Comprehensive Truancy Reduction Strategy:

"Ensuring that children attend school and receive a quality education has become a challenge for parents and society. For many students, however, it is the sheer factor of attending school regularly that is the greatest challenge for the juvenile, his or her parents, the school system, and law enforcement agencies. The federal government broadly defines truancy as prolonged, unexcused school absences in a child's life"

"Other equally broad but commonly used definitions of truancy are the act of being away from school without a legal decree, and the act of staying away from school without permission for a certain period of time"

"Truancy is often described as a "gateway behavior," a portal through which a child enters the juvenile court system via additional status and delinquency allegations, the adult welfare system via chronic unemployment or under-employment, or the penal system through adult criminal behavior."

Research has yielded the information that truant students are at a much higher risk of being drawn into any discrepancy.

"Research has demonstrated that truant students are at higher risk of being drawn into behavior involving gangs, daytime crime and violence, drugs, and/or alcohol. Many youths who are habitually truant and experience school failure are the same youths who bring weapons to school, bully or threaten their classmates, or regularly disrupt the school's learning environment. Youths not in school and not in the labor force are at a high risk of delinquency and crime. "

#5 -- Model Truancy Prevention Programs: this study shows several critical elements of effective presentation. This study shows that there are several critical elements of effective prevention programs that are inclusive of:

"Parent/guardian involvement, continuum of services, meaningful incentives, consequence and reports, collaborations within community, health based, mentoring, social services, school building-level, school creation and education, administrative support and commitment to maintaining youth in the educational mainstream.

Ongoing evaluation, including meaningful and relevant outcome data geared toward increasing protective factors and reducing risks. The ACT Program is one that utilizes a series of progressively intrusive steps to…