By Ronald Taylor,
Special to the AFRO
D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser is zeroing in on truancy to reverse stubborn trends in school attendance and youth violence and crime.
In a bill labeled the UPLIFT Act, the administration is tackling chronic truancy in the District. According to the Office of the State Superintendent of Education, more than a third of D.C. students are chronically truant, accumulating more than 10 unexcused absences.
What Bowser wants is a new system melding D.C. social services with counseling and increased parental involvement to bring children back to school.
The proposed legislation would combine early intervention, alternative in-school placements, enhanced family engagement, and accountability to keep young people safe, in school and engaged, Bowser said in a statement, unveiling the proposed legislation on April 3.
“We know that the safest place for our young people is in schools. Not only is school the safest place for our young people, it is also where they connect with trusted and caring adults who can assess their needs and make sure they have what they need to be safe, healthy and happy,” said Bowser.
The goal, said Deputy Mayor for Education Paul Kihn, is to “help support families as they navigate their students’ attendance” with a bill that helps “all families understand their students’ need to be in school every single day.”
This legislation would:
-Establish temporary alternative school placement as an alternative-to-suspension model for students (grades 6 – 12) involved in serious incident
-Fine tune the District’s approach to discipline by defining allowable suspensions for serious safety incidents for middle school students (grades 6–8), clarifying definitional language,
-Allow a designee of the head of a local education agency (LEA) to approve suspensions for more than 20 cumulative days.
Under the bill, chronic truants would be the subject of a mandatory family meeting with the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services when a child is charged with a violent crime. There would also be family support from the Department of Human Services for truant students.
The initiative would also reduce the use of a judicial tactic known as diversion to give accused juveniles a second chance when accused of violent crimes.
“We believe in diversion; we believe that it’s appropriate for certain young people,” Deputy Mayor for
Public Safety and Justice Lindsey Appiah said. “But we are seeing an increase in young people who are involved in more serious crime, and dangerous and violent crime, and gun crime.”
“We believe in diversion. We believe that it’s appropriate for certain young people,” Deputy Mayor for Public Safety and Justice Lindsey Appiah said. “But we are seeing an increase in young people who are involved in more serious crime– dangerous and violent crime.”
Last week, D.C. police arrested three girls, ages 12 and 13,charging them with beating a handicapped man to death. Prosecutors say 64-year-old Reggie Brown didn’t know his attackers and tried to get away before he was killed. Police said the girls each had a history of truancy.
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