Best+Practices+&+Lessons


 * Sharing Chittenden County Truancy Project Best Practices among districts, Burlington schools & courts etc.**
 * Identify Truancy and school success as a //**community**// problem, not just a school problem. Get the buy-in from key community partners to work collaboratively to address issues that impact school success.


 * Availability of assessment that inform the court (including substance abuse, mental health, general family, full-blown psychiatric)


 * Schools participation in truancy hearings is critical. They know a lot.


 * Coming at truancy issue from a strength-based perspective.


 * State’s Attorney support and partnership is critical.


 * Family court responsiveness and willingness to see these cases as a critical early intervention step- these are the kids the court will see later on if we don’t address school success now.


 * Having DCF custody as a last resort is, at times, what it takes to get the student back into school.


 * Connecting Truancy to decreasing drop-out rate. Making that connection helps make the case


 * 15 day meeting discussion between school, family, social work can really be a good planning opportunity to get barriers addressed.


 * Keeping good data of attendance, drop-outs, reasons, etc. is critical to monitoring and measuring progress.


 * Phone calls / first contact home before family gets first letter saying child has missed X number of days is good relationship building.


 * Having counseling and support services attached to court through MOU with Centerpoint has been very helpful.


 * School social work services are critical to working with the students, siblings, families. The social workers usually have identified the kids before the system even identifies them.


 * Educational support teaming (in school) process for putting leads together


 * IFBS and mentors for kids


 * Collaboration between school district s so if a student moves to another district, his/her attendance record follows. The new school doesn’t need to wait for absences to add up before intervening.


 * Requires training when turnover means new school staff aren’t familiar with or aware of the school’s attendance policy and practices.


 * Kindness - As I listened to everyone talk about how to provide consequences for families when truancy becomes an issue, it struck me how that was the last thing my family wanted or needed, and it was a big hurtle to creating my own engagement. By the time kids hit adolescence, when truancy is most likely to be an issue, I think having a designated ally for that kid could work wonders. If I hadn’t felt as though my entire family was being exposed, judged, and condemned, perhaps it would have made a difference. We can condemn, and judge, and hold families accountable until the cows come home, but if those kids don’t feel as though there is someone loving, and caring about, and looking out for them, they won’t go to school. School ceases to be a safe place, in a world too often full of dangerous places for them.