Berkeley schools, nonprofit team up to combat truancy
1/18/07
The Post and Courier, Charleston SC
by Jamie McGee
MONCKS CORNER — The habits start as early as kindergarten.
A child is late to school or just doesn't show up one day. There
is no major repercussion, so the child is absent again, later that
month. Day absences accumulate, and the pattern is established.
When the child is a teenager, skipping school doesn't seem like
a big deal. But getting behind can lead to failing grades. And
if the student is failing, why go at all?
Truancy is a problem that many schools face across the nation,
with more than 1,000 truancy cases going before juvenile courts
in South Carolina each year.
Berkeley County School District is joining with Conflict Solutions,
a nonprofit in Columbia, to resolve truancy issues early on and
prevent dropouts later in the students' education.
"We find out what the main problem is and come up with a solution," said
Tracy Gould Sheinin of Conflict Solutions. "We come up with an
agreement of what the school, parent and student each can do to
amend the problem."
In a state-funded effort called Attendance Improvement Mediation,
or A.I.M, the student, a parent, a school representative, and a
mediator meet to find the root of the problem and to prevent recurrences.
Truancy is characterized in South Carolina as missing three consecutive
days or five days throughout the year, at which point the school
must intervene. If more absences follow intervention, the student's
parent must go to court for educational neglect.
After age 12, it is the student's responsibility to face truancy
charges, and they could be prosecuted in juvenile court.
Since the program's inception in 2001, the mediations have resolved
90 percent of 353 cases in South Carolina. The program now exists
in Lexington Richland District 5, Richland District 2 and Chester.
Gould Sheinin said many parents don't understand that attendance
is not a choice, but it is mandated by law. The mediations aim
to clear up the misconceptions parents have and save them from
making court appearances.
"But some parents just don't care," Gould Sheinin said. "Or they
have health care issues, or transportation issues. Or they could
be single parents overwhelmed with working three different shifts,
which makes it more difficult to get them there or get them there
on time."
The mediations allow the school to help parents develop better
ways to get their child to school and make them aware of how serious
the problem is.
If parents don't set a standard early on and don't emphasize the
value of attendance in elementary school, a middle school student
trying to assert his independence will be likely to skip, Gould
Sheinin said.
"If they don't go when they're in high school, they will get behind," Gould
Sheinin said. "If they are failing, they don't see a point in going
at all. They think, what's the point, and drop out."
While the financial gains of sticking through high school, or
even continuing through college are well known, the long-term effects
don't sink in at a young age, when habits are formed, Gould Sheinin
said.
Berkeley County will begin the A.I.M. program this semester at
Goose Creek High School and its feeder schools, Sedgefield Middle,
Sedgefield Intermediate, Boulder Bluff Elementary and Goose Creek
Primary. If the district can obtain more grant money, it will expand
the program to other schools.
A.I.M. is looking for volunteers in the area to serve as mediators.
Mediators are essential to the program because they serve as an
advocate for both sides and provide a neutral viewpoint. The volunteers
must attend a three-day training session on Jan. 26 through Jan.
28 and mediate a minimum of three cases in the year. |
