West Valley School District's Community Truancy Board Success

WEST VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT’S COMMUNITY TRUANCY BOARD SUCCESS It is a community priority to address the needs of drop-out, truant, and at-risk youth Two West Valley programs were included in this priority work. 1. The West Valley School District (WVSD) Community Truancy Board (CTB) 2. Incorporation of a court probation officer (Truancy Specialist) utilizing the Check and Connect follow-up approach with students who attended the WVSD CTB. West Valley School District (WVSD) agreed to have WSU conduct an evaluation of their Community Truancy Board. The West Valley School District Community Truancy Board • Students who attended WVSD had a higher rate overall of graduating or obtaining a GED and correspondingly lower dropout and transfer rates than truant students in comparison districts. • The WVSD CTB is an effective and promising intervention for truancy. • The WVSD CTB is an attractive program for replication and sustainable because start up and sustainability costs can be kept minimal through re-allocation of existing resources. Check and Connect Truancy Specialist Data collection and analysis of the three year Truancy Specialist project concluded the incorporation of a Truancy Specialist and the Check and Connect model substantially enhanced the effectiveness of the WVSD CTB. As a result of the WVSD CTB and Truancy Specialist, substantial numbers of WVSD CTB cases were kept out of the formal court process. • The average number of Fact Finding hearings being set county –wide dropped to 341, or a 37% reduction • The average number of Contempt Orders county-wide fell to 137, or a 45% reduction. **These reductions occurred even though the average numbers of petitions filed were essentially the same. The Truancy Specialist also collected data to obtain information potentially useful in working with youth and to inform development of a risk instrument that could be used for status offenders. Replication efforts Truancy and drop out rates are not just Spokane or Washington State issues. “There is an established link between truancy and later problems, such as increased poverty, job problems, poorer health and mental health, adult criminality, and incarceration.” Spokane County Replications: • East Valley School District • Mead School District • Rogers High School • North Central High School • Shadle Park High School will begin January 18, 2012. Other Washington State Replication Sites: • Port Townsend School District (Jefferson Co.) will hold their first Community Truancy Board Training on 1/10/2012 with CTB start up shortly after. Port Townshend plans to have one CTB for Middle school and one for High school students. • Okanogan County visited the WVSD CTB and EVSD CTB on 11/3/2011. They are working to attain court and school support to develop their own CTB. • Kitsap County has conducted conference calls with West Valley staff and obtained a CTB Replication Toolkit. Other States in the U.S.A.: • Louisiana “I want to thank you in advance for your sending the video. I viewed it in DC recently and was very impressed” • New Hampshire “I am interested in starting a Truancy Board in my high school in New Hampshire.” • Colorado “I am the JJ Specialist for Colorado and looking at various truancy programs, yours looks very promising.” • Illinois “Hello from Decatur, Macon County Illinois. We are further developing our truancy prevention and intervention models and are looking for any research that would be helpful.” • North Carolina. “We are trying to start a community truancy committee in Durham, North Carolina. I would like any information you can provide to give us to help us start our committee in the Durham community.”.

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