Truancy Success in Queensland

In 2009, the Australian town of Beenleigh began to work against a known truancy problem within their schools. At the time, an average of fifty students a week spent their days “wagging,” the Australian term for skipping school.  A partnership was created between local schools, businesses, and the police department called the Beenleigh Together Against Truancy program.

 The new truancy program involved the schools’ administrators, a coalition of local businesses promised to help work against the problem, and a full-time truancy officer. Businesses that joined agreed to refuse service and report truant students to the police department. The new truancy officer traveled to areas identified as “wagging hotspots” or visited businesses that reported students. Students he found were returned to school. (Australia does not impose fines for truancy, but will withhold some forms of public welfare if a child is found truant multiple times.)

                Beenleigh is a small town located in the Australian state of Queensland; its total population is roughly 7,500 people. The town’s small size worked to its advantage. For one, the limited population allowed the appointed truancy officer to personally return students to school in a very direct method of combating truancy.  Our population here in York would have made this tactic unfeasible: York city itself has a population of nearly 44,000. The greatest benefit was that local businesses were easily united against truancy. By September of the 2009 school year, 140 businesses had signed on. The first year of the program saw an 80% reduction in truancy.

                Beenleigh’s story is a great example of how a community can come together to work against truancy. Although some aspects of the program may not work in other communities, a few of the concepts could apply elsewhere or here in York. For instance, businesses close to schools with high-truancy rates could be brought together for the purposes of identifying and reporting truant students. All community issues are best tackled by the community at large and Beenleigh applied this concept to great success.

By Derek Shaw

 If you’d like to read more about Beenleigh’s truancy program check out their website:

http://www.beenpcyc.org.au/Templates/truancy.html

Spring Grove class of 2020 starts out on the right foot!

The Spring Grove Area School District, in partnership with Glatfelter Co. and the Truancy Prevention Initiative, sponsored a team day for the 4^th grade students.  Currently these students attend three elementary schools within the district and will merge into a single 5^th grade class at Spring Grove Intermediate School for the 2012-13 school year.  This event offered a tour of the Intermediate School and several team building activities.  Students were assigned to mixed groups from the various elementary buildings.  Due to the growing drop out concern across the nation, districts and community business partnerships are collaborating to support students as they transition to the upper elementary and middle level grades.  Truancy issues often stem from a lack of connection to the school community, low self-esteem and difficulty making new friends.  The team day activities generated discussions within the groups related to working with others, diversity and acceptance.  The Spring Grove Class of 2020 is off to a great start!!!

Parents: Looking for summer activities?

It's summertime (obviously) and you know what that means- PLENTY of free time. This is usually highly desired, but if you have kids, free time can mean planning things to occupy their time. Older children can get a job, even if that is babysitting or lawn work, but younger children need activities that expend some of their energy or keep them engaged.
If it's hot out then try to do some water activities whether that may be going to Lake Redman to boat or canoe or trying a local swimming pool or even just setting up a sprinkler and making a fun game out of that. Just remember to get sunscreen on them-and yourself-and reapply every few hours!
If it's a dreary day with rain and high winds then stay inside and make a fort in the living room or spend a day alternating movies or tv shows with books and crafts. You can try baking something or having the kids help make a special dinner that night. Try to find little lessons in every activity or have them help out with tasks increasing in difficulty as they continue to accomplish more.
There are many websites dedicated to finding fun and creative activities for kids to do during any month of the year, but especially summer. Other parents can post on some of these websites and blogs. If you want to look over some of them to get ideas or post fun things that you have done in the past, check out www.pinterest.com; http://greatschools.org/students/summer-activities/68-summer-learning-activities-that-are-practically-free.gs; http://school.familyeducation.com/summer/family-learning/36089.html
You can also try googling a phrase like "fun and inexpensive learning activities for kids during the summer!" Remember to have a fun and safe summer and to keep your kids involved with interactive activities!
By Katie Lamb

Career Mapping........ for First Graders?

Did you know that half of all states require students to create an ‘Individual Learning Plan’ as early as middle school? ‘Individual Learning Plans’, also known as ‘Student Learning Plans’, are computer based programs that allow to students to create a portfolio of their work and grades, as well as guide them in selecting classes based on possible career paths. These programs are 100% controlled by the student and also allow students to research careers and organize their college search.

School officials are finding the purpose of these plans has become two-fold. Having a ‘plan’ for mapping and completing courses has helped ‘at-risk’ students to visually see the ‘road-to-graduation’ as a path set before them. Having made this plan and marked milestones along the way, students begin to develop a sense of personal accountability in terms of their school career. It can help these students decide a career path, even if college is not the goal for them. For college preparatory students, having a ‘student learning plan’ helps them to create a virtually limitless portfolio of grades, test scores, art work and any other information they wish to add. It also helps these students select the appropriate courses they may need based on possible career paths in which they have indicated an interest in. Often times, students will be prompted to enroll in ‘advanced placement’ classes based on a possible career choice. While student-led learning plans were often thought of as a ‘reform strategy’ in the past, state policy makers are beginning to tout the concept as way to drive career and college readiness.

Student-led plans are just beginning to gain some real momentum, though some significant strides have been made in terms of making program software available to all students and in some cases, mandatory.  Typically, students begin working on their ‘plans’ as early as middle school by taking career surveys which give students a broad idea of the kind of career path that might interest them. However, U.S. Sen. Chris Coons, D-Del., recently introduced a bill to pilot a project in which students beginning in 1st grade could start portable online college-planning and -savings accounts.

Still there are many issues that need to be addressed such as funding for software, licensing, technical support and training.  Policy-makers hope that by making these student-led plans mandatory, funding will be made available to better train educators on how to help students properly develop their plans use the software effectively. “Kids are saying the plans helped them to know the process and it challenged them,” says Shelly Landry the leader counselor in the office of secondary transformation in Minneapolis school district’s guidance and counseling department. ““It opens their eyes to careers they hadn’t considered and just the idea of going to college.”