OUSD works to cut truancy

By: STACY BRANDT - Staff Writer
Ditching school can lead to trouble, officials say | Wednesday, November 28, 2007 12:04 AM PST ∞

OCEANSIDE -- School officials are focusing on new intervention strategies, mixed with increased police enforcement, to try to reduce the number of teenagers who are ditching class, Oceanside Unified School District administrators said this week.

Tim Ware, the district's school intervention manager, said he is updating the plan for dealing with truants, hoping to address the real problems that lead to such behavior.

"Truancy is just the tip of the iceberg," Ware said. "There's a lot of other stuff going on -- it just rears its head as truancy."

Those issues include drugs, gangs, emotional distress and problems at home, he said. By the end of the year, Ware said, he hopes it will be standard procedure for educators to talk about those problems when they meet with truants and parents.

Though state figures suggest Oceanside Unified has an above average truancy rate, state officials say there are many factors that make any comparisons between districts unfair.

According to the state Department of Education, the truancy rate in Oceanside Unified is higher than in other districts, 35 percent last year compared with 23 percent across the county, and 28 percent statewide.

Ware said he thinks the numbers are skewed because of discrepancies in how districts report the truants. Attendance rates are a far more accurate way to determine how many students are or aren't in their seats each day, he said. The district has about 96 percent attendance, which is similar to surrounding districts.

Districts with higher transfer rates -- such as Oceanside Unified -- often have inflated truancy numbers because students who leave the district through the year are still counted as truants, said David Kopperud, an education programs consultant with the California Department of Education.

Regardless of what the actual rates are, district officials said keeping these students in class is a priority.

Finding truants

In addition to revamping the truancy plan, educators are working with police to track down students who are ditching school.

In a sweep earlier this month, police caught 30 teenagers skipping school, including a couple who had arrest warrants, said police Officer Joe Sepulveda, who is assigned to Oceanside High School and coordinated the operation.

Sepulveda said he plans to organize similar truancy checks every six months or so.

Teachers and principals are helping officers with the sweeps by letting them know which students frequently skip class.

Joint efforts between school districts and police may be the key to cutting truancy rates throughout California, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O'Connell said.

"We need to do a better job of working with the law enforcement community and other agencies," he said Monday.

Catching truants benefits the whole community because students skipping class are sometimes involved in burglaries and assaults, Sepulveda said.

"There's definitely a direct correlation between daytime juvenile crime and truancy," he said. "If they're not in school, we believe that a lot of them are getting in trouble."

'A warning gauge'

A student is labeled a truant if, during a school year, they miss at least 30 minutes of class, for three or more days, without a note from home. After 10 days of unexcused absences, students may have to go to court and could face fines and as many as 40 hours of community service work.

Though roughly 7,000 Oceanside Unified students are counted as truants each year, only about 50 of those typically end up in court, Ware said.

"A lot of times that first letter, that's it. That's all they need," he said, referring to a letter the district sends home after three unexcused absences.

Keeping an eye on truancy rates is important because it can alert educators when a student may have other problems and may be at risk of dropping out of school, Kopperud said.

"I like to compare them with a warning gauge on a car that lets you know you need some more gas in your car pretty soon," he said. "A lot of kids can be truant, and it doesn't mean they are in real trouble yet, but it should be a signal to someone at the school."

-- Contact staff writer Stacy Brandt at (760) 901-4009 or sbrandt@nctimes.com.