Consulting on Crime and Public Policy

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• Consulting on Crime and Public Policy

School-Based Partnerships
What We Learned At Booker T. Washington School
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Overview

• Scanning
• Analysis
• Response
• Assessment
• Next Steps

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Scanning

• Completed during application process
• Request of school and community leaders
• 60 of juvenile arrest in Overtown Area
• 48th out of 48 middle schools for attendance
• 8 Internal Suspension
• 35 Out-door Suspension
• Only Title 1 High School

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Scanning

• They thought truants
• Were using mass transit
• Going to local shopping areas causing nuisance
  crimes
• Hanging out at mini-marts (not reported)
• Pregnant teenage girls
• Taking care of younger children

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Data Sources

• Police Records
• School Resource Officers
• Survey of truant and non-truant students
• School information on absences, suspensions, and
  other disciplinary actions
• Environmental Survey
• Follow-up reports from interviews with parents of
  truant students

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Analysis Findings

• Calls for Serivce
• 15 at the School/ 33 in the area
• 20 involved no reports
• 100 Student Surveys 44 truants
• Go to school to get an education
• Only 2 of the habitually truant students had been
  on outdoor suspension.

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Background Student Survey

• Why are they skipping?

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Absence Reports
of Unexcused Absences
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Background Skipping Specific Periods (avg.)
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Analysis Findings

• Offenders
• 9th graders accounted for 70 of the unexcused
  absences
• Walking home by themselves or with a friend
• 77 lived within 2 miles of school

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Environmental Survey

• Officers observed the areas around each side of
  the school
• 5-6 Abandoned Buildings
• Up to 20 People hanging out - lots of areas for
  loitering
• Small piles to few pieces of trash seen on each
  side of the school
• Bordered by residential, commercial and
  industrial
• Grocery stores and service providers mainly
• Ready access to transportation on each side

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Responses

• Officer Contacts at home (could not find 21
  students)
• Bonding with 9th Graders orientation,
  breakfast, mentors, enhanced school calendar
• Targeted 65 students with between 40 70
  absences in the prior school year - Reached 30
  students
• Home visits with parents Report Letters
• Bi-weekly meetings
• Mentors
• Information about graduation requirements and
  truancy laws
• Alarm clocks and clothes

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Assessment

• Simple interventions worked
• Students understood graduation requirements
• Students were held accountable for their actions
• Students appreciated officer involvement
• Problems with the partnership with the school
  caused implementation delays
• Calls for service?
• Attendance rates improved slightly (26th out of
  29 high schools)
• Of the 31 targeted students, only 6 exceeded 15
  unexcused absences

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Next Steps

• One officer continued to use the model with the
  school with the most truants in 2000
• Improved the process
• overcame the implementation/partnership problems
• Started at the beginning of the school year
• Focused on school, student and parental
  involvement
• Worked with a community leader to start a
  not-for-profit foundation to help students in the
  Overtown Area

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• Consulting on Crime and Public Policy

Dr. Craig D. Uchida President P.O. Box
12279 Silver Spring, MD 20908 (301)
438-3132 [phone] Fax cduchida_at_aol.com
Shellie Solomon Director, South FL Office 3000 NE
190th St Aventura, FL 33180 [phone] (301)
438-3134 Fax sesolomon_at_aol.com