Safe & Sound October Anti-Truancy Outreach Initiative

Truancy is a serious issue in Milwaukee. Safe & Sound’s Community Partners led an October outreach initiative which sought to increase awareness while reducing school truancy in several targeted neighborhoods. During the first weeks of the initiative over 2000 anti-truancy informational resource pieces were provided to residents door-to-door. Several parents were referred to Truancy Abatement and Burglary Suppression (TABS), Family Intervention and Support Services, and Wisconsin Children Services regarding truancy.

The outreach focused on residents in high-crime neighborhoods and promoted the TABS program, which began in Milwaukee in 1993. The mission of TABS is to intervene with students who are truant, deterring them from involvement in the criminal justice system. This is accomplished by promoting school attendance through a collaborative team approach, involving students, parents, schools, law enforcement and the Boys and Girls Clubs of Greater Milwaukee. Safe & Sound staff was given an overview presentation of the TABS services and advised on how to refer residents concerned about truancy on their block and parents of truant students in need. It is evident that truancy is a major issue:

• Truancy rates in Milwaukee are among the highest in the nation, with 76% of all MPS high school students reported habitually truant (five or more unexcused absences in one semester) according to the Milwaukee Public Schools 2007-2008 District Report Card.  81% of all ninth graders were habitually truant.
• Thirty-four percent of high school students are “chronically absent” (20+ unexcused absences), up from 28% in 2005-2006.

Although truancy is still a big problem in Milwaukee the TABS program has made some major strides. The habitual truancy rate in MPS was 46.3 percent in the 2006-07 school year. In the 2006-07 school year, 6,453 juveniles were stopped by TABS officers, 2,954 were counseled by TABS staff, and 294 received additional services, such as home visits and social service referrals. Among those who received additional services, 78 improved their attendance by an average of ten percentage points.

The Milwaukee Police Department provides officers who work in teams. They comb the streets during the day, identifying truants and conveying them to one of two centers. Safe & Sound organizers come upon youth on the street or in homes who may be skipping school and can talk to kids about why they are not in school.

Organizers can also report youth and afternoon party houses to the police for follow-up. Oftentimes, youth state that they go to a private school or have a different schedule and are legitimately off of school. However, with the high rates of truancy in the city it may only be a ploy, especially when youth are “sick” but hanging out with friends. The house address can be run through TABS computers to determine if the students should be in school before a police response is warranted.

Once youth are picked up and brought to TABS, Milwaukee Public Schools provides school liaisons who complete an initial intake with the student and access current attendance information. They also notify parents of the students contact with TABS and instruct them to come to the centers to pick up the youth. TABS also has a School Social Worker who provides follow up activities with habitual truants and families, some who may not be enrolled at all.

Safe & Sound’s contribution will not solve the truancy problem but it does provide residents with a course of action for youth loitering and hanging out at homes when adults are at work, or worse yet, burglarizing homes and businesses.  At a Police District 2 “Meet and Greet” in October a woman, Belinda, came up to the resource table staffed by Safe & Sound organizer Annie Weidert. Belinda took one look at the truancy flyer and exclaimed, “I need this!” Her son had apparently been skipping a lot of school and she had to go to court as a result. She was very appreciative of the information and wish she had known of the resources before her son had gotten into trouble. Truancy is a massive problem for parents, schools and the community and collaborative strategies will be necessary to develop a long-term solution.