Can You Go to Jail If Your Kids Don't Go to School?

The answer is, yes, but not always (and hopefully truancy doesn't get to that point!). The Colorado School Attendance Law requires that each child between the ages of 7 and 17 shall attend public school unless otherwise excused. It is the obligation of every parent to ensure that every child under the parent’s care and supervision between the ages of 7 and 17 be incompliance with this statute.

In the St. Vrain Valley School District, "If a student is absent without a parent/guardian excuse or if the student leaves school or a class without permission of the teacher or administrator in charge, the student shall be considered truant. A 'habitual truant' shall be defined as a student of compulsory attendance age who has four unexcused absences from school or from class in any one month or 10 unexcused absences during any school year. Absences due to suspension or expulsion shall not be counted in the total of unexcused absences." (Code of Conduct and Discipline and Board of Education Policies, Rights and Responsibilities of Students and Parents, www.stvrain.k12.co.us/parents/disciplineConduct.php).

Each school has its own policy and procedure to handle truant and habitually truant students. At two schools in which Alternatives for Youth's staff work with habitually truant students, the process is as follows:

1. Parents receive a phone call about their child's truancy.
2. If there is no response, the parents receive a letter about setting up a meeting with the appropriate school personnel, possibly to include the school principal and attendance officer and/or Alternatives for Youth's community advocate, to review and evaluate the reasons for the student being habitually truant. If there is no response, a meeting time is set and parents are expected to attend.
3. During the meeting, a plan is developed for a student who is declared habitually truant with the goal of assisting the child to remain in school. When feasible, the child's parent, guardian or legal custodian participate with district personnel during the development of the plan. Appropriate school personnel make all reasonable efforts to meet with the parent, guardian or legal custodian to review and evaluate the reasons for the child's truancy.
4. If the plan is followed and students are no longer habitually truant, no further action is required. If the plan is not followed, the parent and student are referred to court for mediation with Judge Cole. During mediation, a plan is formed for the student to get back on track and a hearing date is set for follow-up.
5. If the plan is followed and students are found to be no longer habitually truant at the hearing, no further action is required. If the plan is not followed, either the parent(s) or student may serve jail time, depending on the court findings.

Truancy may seem like a "light" issue and jail time an extreme consequence; however, truancy is a risk factor for other problems, including warning signs of students headed for potential delinquent activity, social isolation, or educational failure via suspension, expulsion, or dropping out; and evidence of a lack of commitment to school, which has been established by several studies as a risk factor for substance abuse, delinquency, teen pregnancy, and school dropout. (www.schoolengagement.org/TruancypreventionRegistry/Admin/Resources/Resources/40.pdf)

As a parent, it is worth the time and effort to encourage your children to attend school. If you are a student, do all you can to go to school. Seek out resources if you need help - a great place to start is at your school. Extreme cases can end in jail time for parents or students.

No "Kid"ding . . . Homework Help

October is a big month for our students with first quarter report cards coming out and October 1 being Colorado's student count date. As grades come home, parents may be wondering how to help students improve their grades. Although we are all tempted to spend our afternoons and evenings relaxing and having fun, one way parents can help is through homework. Did you know:

- Homework is good for children and can boost academic learning and teach them responsibility.

- Research indicates that children who spend more time on regularly assigned, meaningful homework, on average, do better in school and that when homework is turned in to the teacher, graded, and discussed with students, it can improve students' grades and understanding of their schoolwork.

- The academic benefits of homework increase as children move into the upper grades.

- While extending what students learn in school and linking school to the home, homework is also a time for students to learn important study skills, organization and time management.

- Parents and families play an important role in the process. Together, families and teachers can help children develop good study habits and attitudes to become lifelong learners. Some things that parents can do to help their students include:

• Provide a quiet, well-lit space, away from distractions. Be creative if space is limited.
  
  
• Provide all the right study materials - paper, pens and pencils, books, a dictionary, a desk - in that one spot.
  
  
• Try to find a separate space for each of your children or schedule quiet times for homework in designated spaces.
• Set a regular family "quiet time" where you and your children can work together on homework, reading, letter writing and playing games.
  
  
• Turn off the TV set. Some children do seem to study well with music or the radio playing so allow music if your child is still able to study.
• Allow your children to study in the way each of them learns best. For example, some children work best when they're lying on the floor with background music playing.
  
  
• Teach your child that studying is more than just doing homework assignments. Encourage your child to do things like: take notes on a chapter he or she is reading and learn to skim material, to study tables and charts, to summarize what he or she has read in his own words, and to make his or her own flashcards.
• Help if it is clearly productive to do so, such as calling out spelling words or checking a math problem, but don't help if it is something the child can clearly handle himself and learn from the process.
• Avoid simply giving an answer. Instead, ask questions that let your child see the problem in smaller, sequential steps.
• A number of schools have after school programs to help with homework. Check your school to see if this available if your child needs it. Alternatives for Youth provides Homework Clubs at Columbine and Rocky Mountain Elementary and Heritage and Longs Peak (for 8th grade) Middle Schools.
  
  

You can find more information about how to help with homework (and what to do if you don't know how to help) at the following websites:
Child Development Institute
Family Education
National Education Association

Teen Girls and the Media

An article in the September 22, 2008 issue of Time, "The Truth about Teen Girls: So you think they're having sex too soon and it's the media's fault. It's not that simple," discusses the interplay of media, girls' self-image, and what appears to be an increasingly younger girlhood sexiness (even if girls may or may not actually be having sex at a younger age). Celebrity teen pregnancy scandals, Massachusetts' Gloucester High School pregnancy pact among teen girls, the movie Juno, tv shows like The Secret Life of the American Teenager and Gossip Girl draw attention to the issue of early sexual activity and teen pregnancy. According to data released by the Centers for Disease Control in 2007, the rate of 15- to 19-year-old girls giving birth is increasing, and Longmont continues to have the highest teen birth rate in all of Boulder County, accounting for 60% of teen births in the county in 2002-2003.

What are parents to do? In regards to media, parents can help educate teenagers - especially girls - about media literacy and direct their girls to positive media, such as Girls, Inc. Media literacy is the ability to access, analyze, evalute and produce a variety of media texts. In other words, media literacy is becoming an active viewer who understands the impact of media. PBS Parents recommends the following tips for helping teens to develop media literacy for TV and movies (more information about younger ages and other media can be found on the PBS Parents' website):

1. Talk to your teen about TV's "tricks of the trade." Point out patterns: laugh tracks and live audiences on half-hour sitcoms, themed subplots running through hour-long dramas, unrealistic elements in "reality" shows or a dominant point of view that drives documentaries. Rather than channel-surf during commercials, mute the sound and talk to your teen.

2. Find out if TV images affect your teen's self image. Popular culture can dictate what's cool and what it means to be accepted. Knowing this, talk to your teen about media messages. Start a conversation by asking your teen how she feels (Do you envy that character?), whether the show reflects her life (Do you know anyone who looks or acts like that?) and what she knows (Do you think that's really what happens in a trial?).

3. Help your teen question what he sees. By talking back to the TV when a show doesn't make sense or an ad makes unrealistic claims, your teen will learn not to accept what is portrayed on TV as the truth.

4. Talk to your teen about the links between content and ads. To grasp the economics of programming, get your teen in the habit of spotting product placement. Why do companies use TV shows to market their products? (to get viewers to link a brand with popular actors; to build brand awareness). You might ask about a certain ad: Who do you think is watching this show? What are the marketers trying to sell? How do you react emotionally to that ad?

5. Exercise remote control. When watching a movie at home, go back to certain scenes and pick them apart with your teen. Decide if the scene was important by hashing out questions like these: How did that scene develop the story? Did it set a mood? What did it reveal about the lead character?

6. Talk about how media coverage shapes our understanding of the world. Ask your teen how she knows what she knows about life in other countries. When watching a news report, pose questions about the story's images, "facts," quotes and "experts." Make connections between how a news story is put together, how it makes you and your teen think, and what it makes you both feel. Explain how bias can infect journalism. Urge your teen to find out more rather than believing what she hears from a single source.

For more information, check out the following websites:
National Association for Medial Literacy Education
PBS Parents
Project Literacy Among Youth (PLAY)