The PAO’s Truancy and Dropout Prevention Program

Many do not know that the PAO runs a truancy/dropout prevention program designed to keep truant youth out of court and to get them reengaged in the school process.  Under our State’s truancy laws, school representatives can file truancy petitions in court against students who have seven unexcused absences in a month or 10 unexcused absences in a semester.  As part of its program, the PAO has developed a series of court alternatives, designed to get students, their parents or guardians, and school representatives together to find out why students are truant, and devise a plan to get them back in school and caught up with their peers.

From L-R, program manager DPA Stephanie Sato, coordinator Amber Bryant, Chief of Staff Leesa Manion, paralegal MeLisa Carson, and coordinator Jeff Morrison.

Those efforts have been successful.  Last year, approximately 1,200 truancy petitions were filed.  However, only 258 of the petitions proceeded to an initial hearing in Juvenile Court.  The remaining 942 petitions were dismissed without hearing because of the early intervention and because the vast majority of students eventually returned to school or an alternative school.

Encouraging students to go to school and investing in education is our best crime prevention strategy.  The statistics are sobering:

• 75% of state prison inmates are high school dropouts;

• High school drop outs are 3 ½ times more likely to be incarcerated than graduates;

• The unemployment rate for high school dropouts is 55%;

• High school graduates will, over the course of their lives, earn an average of $260,000 more than high school dropouts.

External Links to recent news coverage of truancy and crime prevention:

• Renton Reporter.com 

• Q13Fox.com