New AISD Partnership Seeks to Tackle Truancy
By Office of Communication
Posted on January 24, 2014, January 24, 2014

education

The Arlington ISD is partnering with Tarrant County Juvenile Services to implement the Attendance Improvement Project, a program that will target youth who are found to be chronically absent from the first to eighth grade on identified campuses.

Tarrant County Juvenile Services was awarded a prevention and intervention grant totaling $369,605 for 2014 and 2015 by the Texas Juvenile Justice Department to begin the Attendance Improvement Project. AISD will implement the program beginning in January 2014.

AISD has identified five elementary schools and two junior high schools with a large number of students who meet the definition of chronic absence - students with more than 10 percent either excused or unexcused absences from school days - during the 2012-2013 school year. With an understanding that there are a number of reasons for chronic absences and truancy, interventions will range from providing support for transportation, to case management and having contract providers to provide services to both the child and family.

"The Attendance Improvement Project will provide additional opportunities to help students who are chronically absent that can be personalized for each individual student," Superintendent Dr. Marcelo Cavazos said.

AISD, Tarrant County Juvenile Services and several community-based organizations that have a history of providing effective evidence-based models of intervention for youth and families have joined to provide case management, assessment, mediation and referral to the most appropriate intervention available.

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