I am Emily Patino, a current student of Austin Community College. I believe that changes to the current truancy law will significantly improve attendance at schools in Austin,
Texas. The current truancy law in Texas states that if a student has three to four unexcused absences in the period of four weeks, he or she is then sent to court for a hearing.
In San Antonio the school district and the court have been working together to improve attendance. One of the many reasons for wanting to improve attendance is due to the result of fewer funds over time. Their program has reduced the number of students facing charges for truancy by almost half. Truancy filings in San Antonio’s biggest school district have fallen from five thousand eight hundred
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One of the many ways the city is keeping students out of court is by having “parent intervention forums”. The forum is a contract where the parent and the student both sign, which can lead to the truancy case to be dropped if he or she abides by the terms listed on the contract. The forum is customarily comprised of avoiding any further absences, predominantly meant for those who have accumulated enough unexcused absences to be truant. Supporters have said it’s time they stop treating students as criminals, most of which might not have been their fault for missing school. Often times the problem is that the family is low on income so the child has to help out financially. How is someone supposed to be going to school early in the morning and coming home late at night from work and still have time to do homework.
San Antonio has a very different perspective on how to address the truancy law compared to many other cities. They are trying something new hoping the new method progresses. “We want them to start thinking about their goals,” says Alma Lozano. Alma
Lozano is the prosecutor on the case of a young boy in the San Antonio district, who if had lived in any other city but San Antonio, would be facing conviction for truancy. The boys
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Nobody was there to tell him that what he was doing was wrong. Since he was lucky enough to be in the San Antonio district the judge decides to not file a report of truancy conviction, but rather tries to find the root of the problem. The prosecutor talks to the mother and tries to get her more involved in the young boy's life.
In the court the judges try as much as possible to steer clear from treating truancy as a conviction. They believe the way to make attendance rates go up is to give the students a reason that would make them want to go to school. They do that by making the students set a goal for themselves, offering programs to help them better themselves and even helping the students look into potential colleges. Although the court, from time to time file for truancy, but it's seldom done.
Another effective program taking role in the municipal court in San Antonio, is using the
“parental shadowing” technique. Which is where the parent shadows the student in school so the parent gets a feel of what the student goes thru on a day-to-day basis. With all that being said action is taking place in San Antonio and they are having a positive outcome by doing so.
Progress has been reported and attendance rates have gone up by .5 percent, which might
20 May 2014. This article shows a majority of the cases that are relevant to the topic and research questions; it clearly shows the articles that are involved with public schools and how and what they did. It helps answer that research question because it shows that some of the schools are capable of bypassing the system, but sometimes get overturned. Paulson, Ken. A.
Although it may seem unnecessary to hire an attorney for a school expulsion hearing, the consequences of these hearings can drastically shape your child’s educational future. Section 48900 of the California Education Code outlines several acts that a child can commit to be recommended for expulsion. These include acts committed:
A recent study (Luo, 2009) at the University of California found that children in families where the head of the household had lost a job were more likely to repeat a grade. Children feel the stress of their parents not being able to pay bills because income has become less than normal. They lose focus in the classroom. Children can no longer concentrate on the school work and study for test for the fear of losing their homes. Although these are financial issues that parents discuss...
There are various reasons why many juveniles are ending up in the juvenile justice system unjustly. The pipeline commences with inadequate resources in public schools. Many children are locked into second rate educational environments in which they are placed in overcrowded classrooms, insufficient funding, lack of special education services and even textbooks. This failure to meet the educational needs of children leads to more dropout rates which could also increase the risk of later court involvement. Surprisingly enough, some school may even encourage children to drop out in response to pressures from test-based accountability regimes which create incentives to push out low-performing students to increase overall test scores.
irresponsibility lead to him not attending school. This has to do with the prompt because if
Answer: It can be a hard fight sometimes. There have been times when parents will pull their kids out of the school because they disagree. There have been times when parents will take it to court in order to have their kids stay in a general education setting, and at that point you have to rely on documentation and assessments and evaluations to help prove what’s in the best interest of the
children faced with the trauma of loss, they are also faced with a myriad of other
After the first year you get your licence, getting a "DUI", speeding, or getting in an accident revokes your license for six months, and to regain it you must retake the driver's ed course. The law proposes a similar punishment for having low grades: If you have a failing grade in two terms, you lose your licence for six months. This proposed law punishes a kid failing a class and a kid who physically wrecks his car at the same degree. It is absurd to hold kids at such high degree of punishment based on two grades. There are several reasons why a child might fail academically, like a loss in the family. If you do have a good reason for failing a class, you have to be reviewed by your principal and have him personally write a letter to the Department of Motor Vehicles. This tedious process unfairly gives students a very severe punishment for a minor, irrelevant
One way to handle truancy is to enforce harsher consequences. In the student handbook it states that, “Students are expected to attend school every day it is in session.” When I read this I laughed a little to myself. I take a class with a student who will, on a good week, show up to school three out of five days. If he does show up, he will never be on time. When asked why he does not show up to school more often his usual response is, “Why should I when there is no real punish...
Students being removed from the school due to police involvmenet in removing them, may also face possible criminal charges being filed against them, for infracttionsas minimal as non-prescription drug possession or being accused of sexual harassment as mentiond previously , happened to a student for hugging a teacher as a form of solidarity. Sexual harrsamentcharges that if prosecuted can lead to a student being labeled and listed as a sex offender for life. Egregious non-violent offenses that disproportionately affect black and Latino students, and due to law enforcement modeling, sets the stage for incarceration.
On the trip I had the opportunity to experience three juvenile court trials. Two of the proceedings were related to school truancy and the third was related to substance abuse. Sitting through the truancy cases I found myself asking what it took to be brought into court for missing school. I missed numerous days of school and I never had a warning. During a break in session, I had the chance to ask the magistrate what you had to do to receive such a charge. She stated that the charge is placed when a student misses 14 days of school in a row. I thought this was absurd. Missing 14 days of school in a row seems crazy to me. I did not feel bad for the kids who came in for having this on their record. In both cases, the case had been going on for awhile and the kids had shown progress with grades and attendance. She closed the case and under rule 29 expunge the offense off both of their records. I believe the rule 29 is a phenomenal
A plea of nolo contendere based on the violation of the code section should establish a sentence. When determining the number of previous convictions or pleas of nolo contendere pursuant to the felony provisions in paragraph four only those crimes in which a conviction is given or a plea of nolo contendere is approved on or after July 1, 2008 should be recognized. Limitations on penalties should apply when a defendant has been sentenced of violating by one transaction more than one of the four provisions of subsection a of the code section. The judge has the power to suspend up to one-half of a fine under subsection c of the code section upon the defendant’s treatment in a substance abuse treatment program according to code section 40-5-1. The code section 40-6-391.3 states that a school bus driver should upon being sentenced of violating this code section while driving a school bus should be penalized by imprisonment for no less than one year nor more than five years and
The purpose of this study is to explore the growing problem in schools in the United States with students not attending on a regular basis, this could be missing one class, or an entire day. American students are missing school or classes at a very high rate, and with added pressures on schools to increase graduation rates; schools need to discover why students are missing school and fix the problem.
...that all of them are valid. Remedies that involve the parents seem to be extremely effective as the parent?s awareness can surely play a big part in combating the problem as usually a lot of parents are unaware of their children?s school life. It is also obvious that if the school improves the atmosphere and teaching methods than the pupils are more likely to want to go to school. A good teacher ? pupil relationship is also important and can ensure better school attendance Truancy is the first sign of trouble and the first indicator that a young person is giving up and losing his or her way. When pupils start skipping school than they are telling their parent?s, school officials and the community at large that they are in trouble and need help if they are to move forward in life.
Juvenile delinquency is one of the major social issues in the United States today. Juvenile delinquency, also known as juvenile offending, is when “a violation of the law committed by a juvenile and not punishable by death or life imprisonment” (Merriam-webster.com). Although we have one justice system in America, the juvenile system differs from the adult juvenile system. Most juvenile delinquents range from as low as the age of seven to the age of seventeen. Once the delinquent or anyone turns the age of eighteen, they are considered an adult. Therefore, they are tried as an adult, in the justice system. There are many different reasons why a child would commit crime, such as mental and physical factors, home conditions, neighborhood environment and school conditions. In addition, there are a variety of effects that juvenile justice systems can either bad effects or good effects. Finally there are many different solutions that can reduce juvenile delinquency. As a result, juvenile delinquency is a major issue and the likeliness of it can be reduced. In order to reduce juvenile delinquency there has to be an understanding of the causes and the effects.