Indicated Truancy Interventions: Effects on School Attendance among Chronic Truant Students

Abstract

This Campbell systematic review examines the effect of interventions on school attendance to inform policy, practice and research. The review summarise findings from 28 studies conducted in the US, Canada, UK and Australia. Overall, truancy intervention programs are effective. There is a significant overall positive and moderate mean effect of intervention on attendance, which increases attendance by 4.7 days per student by the end of the intervention. Studies did not measure longer‐term outcomes, so we do not know if these gains in attendance continue after the intervention ends. There was no significant difference in the effectiveness of different delivery channels (e.g. school, court or community‐based), different modalities (e.g., individual, family, group, or multimodal), or different lengths of time (e.g., one day versus a school year). Contrary to popular belief and recommendations for best practices in truancy reduction found in the existing literature, collaborative programs and multimodal interventions do not produce greater effects on attendance than other types of programs. However, small sample sizes and substantial variation between studies suggest caution is needed in interpreting and applying these findings. There are shortcomings in the literature, notably the lack of inclusion of minority students. Executive summary/Abstract BACKGROUNDTruancy is a significant problem in the U.S. and in other countries around the world. Truancy has been linked to serious immediate and far‐reaching consequences for youth, families, and schools and communities, leading researchers, practitioners, and policy makers to try to understand and to address the problem. Although numerous and significant steps have been taken at the local, state, and national levels to reduce truancy, the rates of truancy have at best remained stable or at worst been on the rise, depending on the indicator utilized to assess truancy rates.The costs and impact of chronic truancy are significant, with both short‐ and long‐term implications for the truant youth as well as for the family, school, and community. Although several narrative reviews and one meta‐analysis of attendance and truancy interventions have attempted to summarize the extant research, there are a number of limitations to these reviews. It is imperative that we systematically synthesize and examine the evidence base to provide a comprehensive picture of interventions that are being utilized to intervene with chronic truants, to identify interventions that are effective and ineffective, and to identify gaps and areas in which more research needs to be conducted to better inform practice and policy. OBJECTIVESThe main objective of this systematic review was to examine the effects of interventions on school attendance to inform policy, practice, and research. The questions guiding this study were: 1) Do truancy programs with a goal of increasing student attendance for truant youth affect school attendance behaviors of elementary and secondary students with chronic attendance pr...

Indicated Truancy Interventions for Chronic Truant Students

“…See Figure 1 for the flowchart detailing the search and selection process. A list of included studies and excluded studies with reasons for exclusion can be found in the full review (see Maynard, McCrea, et al, 2012).…”

Truancy: a look at definitions in the USA and other territories

“…There is no shortage of definitions for truancy and its related factors (see: Appendix 1 -Truancy Definitions). Admittedly, definitional concerns include more than truancy and absenteeism but also interventions and strategies used to respond to students who are constantly not in attendance (Reid, 2014) In fact, the discussions calling for common terminology or more inclusivity in the definitions of truancy are dated (Maynard, McCrea, Pigott, & Kelly, 2012) but the attempt to synthesize and present one such inclusive definition is new. In the state of Indiana for example, there is one official legal definition of truancy, missing ten days or having more unexcused absences.…”

“…Challenges in comparative assessments have been flawed with the absence of a consistently used definition of truancy. Maynard, McCrea, Pigott, & Kelly, (2012) in their systemic study of interventions found that the numerous gaps and deficiencies in the literature must change and doing the same thing expecting different results is simply not enough. Clear in this review is that much of the same continues and we were far from having a common definition.…”

Truancy in the United States: Examining temporal trends and correlates by race, age, and gender

“…In addition to educational outcomes, truancy has been linked to behavioral and health indicators, such as substance abuse (Best et al, 2006; Henry, 2010; Vaughn et al, 2013), delinquency, and other externalizing behaviors (Hirschfield & Gasper, 2011; Lochner & Morietti, 2004; Vaughn et al, 2013). Research findings suggest that those who are absent more frequently are at higher risk for and report more serious levels of substance use and externalizing behavior than youth who are absent less frequently (Maynard et al, 2012, 2013). …”