Truancy Court Program Receives Third Grant from Maryland Administrative Office of the Courts
July 21, 2009
Contact: University Relations
Phone: 410.837.5739
For the third time, the Maryland Administrative Office of the Courts has provided funding for the University of Baltimore School of Law Center for Families, Children and the Courts' Truancy Court Program, with a grant of $170,265. CFCC operated the program in six elementary/middle, middle, and high schools in Baltimore City during the 2008-09 school year. The Administrative Office of the Courts funding, combined with a current Charles Crane Family Foundation grant and a $500,000 federal grant, now enable the center to add two schools in Baltimore City and establish the program in schools in Baltimore, Anne Arundel, Prince George's and Montgomery counties over the next two years.
The Truancy Court Program is an early intervention, school-based effort that targets students who have five to 20 unexcused absences during the prior semester of school. Using a therapeutic and non-punitive approach, CFCC brings together a team in each school consisting of a volunteer District or Circuit Court judge or master, students from the School of Law, public school administrators and teachers, and volunteers. Together with CFCC faculty and staff, the team meets with truant students and their families to identify and address the reasons underlying a child's truant behavior. The program helps the child and the parents learn to manage these problems, so that the child can reconnect with his or her school in positive ways.
The program is the result of an innovative partnership among the School of Law, the District and Circuit Courts for Baltimore City, and the Baltimore City Public Schools. CFCC began the TCP in 2005 with funding from the Charles Crane Family Foundation, which has continued to support it with funding through 2010.
Barbara Babb, CFCC's director and associate professor at the School of Law, said the combined funding effort will enable the center to further refine the operation and implementation of the program, bringing it to bear in a wider variety of school settings and student-adult dynamics.
"In each of these school districts, there are markedly different reasons why students become truant," Babb said. "But regardless of the cause of truancy, the effect of a student chronically skipping school is the same: a breakdown of that child's belief that he or she belongs among peers in the safe, positive environment that exists in a school. I expect that as we extend the program into more and different kinds of schools and communities, we'll find that many truant students will welcome the intervention no matter why they started missing school in the first place."
Babb said a specific plan to introduce the program into the new jurisdictions will be announced prior to the Fall 2009 semester. The AOC has provided a total of $510,807 in support over the past three years.
"We deeply appreciate the Administrative Office of the Courts' commitment to and belief in this program," Babb said.
The University of Baltimore is a member of the University System of Maryland and comprises the School of Law, the Yale Gordon College of Liberal Arts and the Merrick School of Business.