Truancy in the United States

Truancy is generally related to the absence from school, against the U.S. states school attendance laws

Risk of entering the Juvenile Justice System

Sydney McKinney wrote that the legal definition of truancy may vary from state to state, and that:

“Every day, youth across the country enter or are at risk of entering the juvenile justice system because of behaviors that are problematic but noncriminal in nature. The most common of these behaviors —known as status offenses— is truancy. While missing or skipping school occasionally may not have a significant impact on students, parents and school systems often struggle to find effective ways to respond to chronic truancy—which is often both a symptom of and risk factor for more serious problems in the lives of young people.

Forty-three states include truancy as a status offense allegation in local statutes. Over the last two decades, truancy violations have comprised the largest proportion of all status offense cases petitioned to juvenile courts nationwide. In 2010, truancy was the most serious offense in 36 percent of the 137,000 status offense court cases. Once in the juvenile court system, young people in approximately 2,400 cases found themselves in detention and approximately 2,100 cases resulted in a court disposition (sentence) of out-of-home placement.3 That same year,
schools were the referral source in nearly half of all truancy petitions, followed by law enforcement (33 percent).”

Truancy in the Criminal Justice System

Resources

Further Reading

• Christopher Flaherty, Richard Sutphen, and Gretchen Ely, “Examining Substance Abuse in Truant Youths and Their Caregivers: Implications for Truancy Intervention,” Children & Schools 34, no.4 (2012): 201-211.;
• Eyitayo Onifade, et al., “Truancy and Patterns of Criminogenic Risk in a Young Offender Population,” Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice 8, no.1(2010): 3-18.;
• Kimberly Henry, “Skipping School and Using Drugs: A Brief Report,” Drugs: Education, Prevention, and Policy 17, no.5 (2010): 650-657.;
• Kimberly Henry and Terrence Thornberry, “Truancy and Escalation of Substance Use
  During Adolescence,” Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs 71, no.1 (2010):115-124.;
• Kimberly Henry, Terrence Thornberry, and David Huizinga, “A Discrete-Time Survival Analysis of the Relationship between Truancy and the Onset of Marijuana Use,” Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs 70, no.1 (2009): 5-15.;
• Kimberly Henry, “Who‟s Skipping School: Characteristics of Truants in 8th and 10th grade,” Journal of School Health,77, no.1 (2007): 29-35.;
• Denise Hallfors, et al., “Truancy, Grade Point Average, and Sexual Activity: A Meta-analysis of Risk Indicators for Youth Substance Use,” The Journal for School Health 72, no.5 (2002): 205-211;
• Martha Abel Mac Iver et al., “The Challenge of On-Time Arrival: The Seven Year Flight Paths of Baltimore Sixth Graders of 1999-2000,” Baltimore: MD: Baltimore Education Research
  Consortium, (2008).
• Brandy Maynard, et al., “Who Are Truant Youth? Examining Distinctive Profiles of Truant Youth Using Latent Profile Analysis,” Journal of Youth and Adolescence 41, no.12 (2012): 1671-1684.;
• Kimberly Henry and David Huizinga, “School-related Risk and Protective Factors Associated with Truancy among Urban Youth Placed at Risk,” Journal of Primary Prevention 28, no.6 (2007): 505-519.
• Arthur Garrison, “„I Missed the Bus‟: School Grade Transition, The Wilmington Truancy Center, and Reasons Youth Don‟t Go to School,” Youth Violence and Juvenile Justice 4, no.2 (2006): 204-212.;
• Heeyoung Kim and Juan Barthelemy, “A Tool for Assessing Truancy Risk Among School Children: Predictive and Construct Validity of the Risk Indicator Survey,” Journal of Social Service Research 37, no.1(2011): 50-60.;
• Melissa Hunt and Derek Hopko, “Predicting High School Truancy among Students in the Appalachian South,” Journal of Primary Prevention 30, no.5 (2009): 549-567.
• Ralph McNeal, “Parental Involvement as Social Capital: Differential Effectiveness on Science Achievement, Truancy, and Dropping Out,” Social Forces 78, no.1 (1999): 117-144.
• Christopher Kearney, “Forms and Functions of School Refusal Behavior in Youth: An Empirical Analysis of Absenteeism Severity,” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 48, no.1 (2007): 53-61.
• Erika Felix, Michael Furlong, and Greg Austin, “A Cluster Analytic Investigation of School Violence Victimization Among Diverse Students,” Journal of Interpersonal Violence 24, no.10 (2009): 1673-1695.
• Courtney Haight, “Confirmatory Analyses of the School Refusal Assessment Scale-Revised: Replication and Extension to a Truancy Sample,” Journal of Psychopathology and Behavioral Assessment 33, no.2, (2011): 196-204.;
• V. Paul Poteat et al., “The Effects of General and Homophobic Victimization on Adolescents‟ Psychosocial and Educational Concerns: The Importance of Intersecting Identities and Parent Support,” Journal of Counseling Psychology 58, no.4 (2011): 597-609.
• Michelle Birkett, Dorothy Espelage, and Brian Koenig, “LGB and Questioning Students in Schools: The Moderating Effects of Homophobic Bullying and School Climate on Negative Outcomes,” Journal of Youth and Adolescence 38, no.1 (2009): 989-1000.
• Brandy Maynard et al., “Indicated Truancy Interventions for Chronic Truant Students: A Campbell Systematic Review,” Research on Social Work Practice 23, no.1 (2013): 5-21.
• Sarah Ovink. “„This Ain‟t My School!‟ Criminality, Control and Contradictions in Institutional Responses to School Truancy,” Qualitative Sociology 34, no.1 (2011): 79-99;
• Louie Rodriguez and Gilberto Conchas, “Preventing Truancy and Dropout Among Urban Middle School Youth: Understanding Community-based Action from the Student‟s Perspective,” Education and Urban Society 41, no.2 (2009): 216-247.
• ohanna Thomas et al.,“Early Truancy Intervention: Results of an Evaluation Using a Regression Discontinuity Design,” Children and Youth Services Review 33, no.9 (2011): 1563-1572.;
• Judith Rhodes et al., “Truancy Assessment and Service Centers (TASC): Engaging Elementary School Children and Their Families,” School of Social Work Journal 35, no.1 (2010):
  83-100.
• Michelle Hendricks et al., “Evaluation of Truancy Court Intervention in Four Middle Schools,” Psychology in the Schools 47, no.2 (2010): 178-183.
• Anita Larson, Timothy Zuel, and Mira Swanson, “Are Attendance Gains Sustained? A Follow-up on the Educational and Child Welfare Outcomes of Students with Child Welfare Involvement for Educational Neglect,” Children & School 33, no.1 (2011): 25-35.
• John Fantuzzo, Suzanne Grim, and Herb Hazan, “Project Start: An Evaluation of a Community-Wide School-Based Intervention to Reduce Truancy,” Psychology in Schools 42, no.6 (2005).
• Richard Fry, Hispanic Youth Dropping Out of U.S. Schools: Measuring the Challenge, (Washington, DC: Pew Hispanic Center, 2003);
• Gilberto Conchas, “Structuring School Failure and Success: Understanding the Variability in Latino School Engagement,” Harvard Educational Review 71, no.3 (2001): 475-504.
• George Thomas, Truancy In Washington State: Trends, Student Characteristics, and the Impact of Receiving a Truancy Petition (Olympia: Washington State Center for Court Research, 2011).
• Robert Balfanz and Vaugn Byrnes, Meeting the Challenge of Combating Chronic Absenteeism: Impact of NYC Mayor’s Interagency Task Force on Chronic Absenteeism and School Attendance and Its Implications for Other Cities (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins School of Education, Everyone Graduates Center, 2013).