Truancy Court Program Receives Second Maryland Administrative Office of the Courts Grant
June 20, 2008
Contact: University Relations
Phone: 410.837.5739
The Maryland Administrative Office of the Courts has renewed its substantial funding for the University of Baltimore School of Law Center for Families, Children and the Courts' Truancy Court Program with a grant of $170,000. CFCC plans to establish and operate the TCP in six elementary/middle, middle, and high schools during the 2008-09 school year. The TCP is an innovative partnership among the School of Law, the District and Circuit courts for Baltimore City, and the Baltimore City Public School System.
CFCC began the program three years ago with funding from the Charles Crane Family Foundation, which has continued to support the TCP with funding through 2010.
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 teams meet 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.
Barbara Babb, CFCC's director and associate professor at the School of Law, said the Administrative Office of the Courts' renewed funding guarantees that the program will continue to thrive in those public schools that need and deserve assistance in encouraging students to return to school and stay there.
"We have always believed that school is the right place for these young people, and that the way to draw them back into that positive environment is not to punish them, but to encourage them," Babb said. "Our methods are having a positive effect, and we are grateful to the Administrative Office of the Courts for recognizing our success, as well as our need to continue the program."
Truancy is considered to be one of the most pervasive problems affecting Baltimore's K-12 system of education. A student is considered to be a habitual truant if he or she has missed 20 percent or more of days enrolled—about 20 to 25 days each semester. Nearly 10 percent of Baltimore City public school students, about 7,500 youths, are habitually truant each year. Experts report that truancy is a strong predictor of dropout rates, which helps to explain why Baltimore's high school graduation rate (35 percent) is the fourth lowest in the nation's 50 largest school districts. In addition, truancy is linked to delinquency, unemployment, violence and substance abuse.
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.