Excerpt from Term Paper :

" (Ibid) the schools in Chicago are "being held up as a model for other parts of the nation for reducing detention among juvenile delinquents, without seeing recidivism rates or crime rates increase." (Wheeler, 2002)

Summary

Each of these articles looks at truancy in the state of Illinois, in the work of Johnston (2005) it is noted that the characteristics attributed to students who have poor attendance in school include the negative perception of school in the minds of these students and further the student's perception that the parents are either too lax in their discipline or either too controlling in their discipline. These students are noted by Johnston (2005) to feel interior to other students academically and to be students who have family conflict in their lives or perceive family conflicts in their lives. Finally, Johnston notes that these students tends to feel socially incompetent in the classroom. The study of Johnston suggests transitions programs, school-based health programs, career education...

The work of Wheeler (2005) goes further into the outcomes for these students providing statistics of incarceration for students who tend to be found guilty of truancy. The state of Illinois experienced such a high incarceration rate of these delinquent that communities are now developing their own program in an attempt to redirect these students. These programs are a great success with these students advancing as much as a grade level in six weeks. The applications being used in this model include community development of reporting centers, education classes for parents, art programs, one-on-one mentoring. The key is the design being individualized for each community depending upon the needs of that community.

Conclusion

Because communities are different in terms of their needs in terms of bringing truant students back into the classroom, the individualized development of the programs to address these needs are more likely to experience success than if the community attempts to initiate a generic model for these students. Both of these works report genuine efforts in regaining the interest of the students who have been truant in school. Wheeler (2002) illustrates the dire need for initiatives to bring these students back into the classroom instead of the alternative route of incarceration being experienced by so many of these…