Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 9, 1990 TAG: 9005090553
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: PATRICIA LOPEZ BADEN EDUCATION WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"There have been good efforts," he said, "but they have not coalesced. There is a lack of information sharing among schools. At this point, I'm not sure we know how many truants there are - how many are completely unaccounted for."
Trompeter said he is dismayed at the number of "hard-core" truants he is seeing, and had called a special meeting Tuesday evening of more than 100 Roanoke educators and social service agency representatives to propose a solution.
Using a law that went into effect in July 1989, Trompeter said that within one week he intends to form a 25-member group that will lay plans for a Truancy Review Team and help develop a new, cohesive approach to dealing with students who chronically miss school.
The team will survey existing truancy policies at elementary, middle and high school levels, survey available resources and programs, set up methods for dealing with truants, and, finally, training all school personnel, youth bureau, court staff, social services and other agencies, before September.
"Call me if you are dying to be one of those 25 people," he deadpanned, "before I order you to be one of those 25 people."
Trompeter noted that the schools and other agencies do not have to use the law at all if they choose not to.
"You will have to make that threshold decision," he said. "You'll either opt in or you'll opt out."
However, throughout his presentation, the judge left little doubt that he expects full participation.
"I want everyone on the same wavelength," he said. "We must go into the schools, every school. We have to make sure that everyone knows about this. We have to make sure that every agency in this room is totally on board.
"We're going to start over, ladies and gentlemen," he said. "We're going to develop a new policy from scratch."
Trompeter said the law allows courts to declare a chronic truant a "child in need of supervision."
Once that is done, he said, the court uses a team of local school officials and representatives from Social Services, Mental Health Services, the court and any other agency necessary, to draw up a report on what the child needs.
Based on that report, the court can virtually commandeer help from any government agency to meet those needs.
Trompeter noted that this approach is reserved for hard-core truant cases.
"We're not talking about children who are very, very intelligent kids who are well-functioning and who decide, in the 11th grade, to get a little rebellious and skip school for a week.
"If it were as simple as that, bring them on, no big deal."
Earlier, Probation Supervisor Virginia Brobeck said that of 49 cases screened last year, half the children had repeated two or more grades and 22 students had patterns of truancy going back to kindergarten.
Most of the children had not participated in any alternative school programs and 17 had prior delinquency records, she said.
As a final, ominous note, Trompeter warned his audience that "these children who are not functioning well, who don't go to school and don't become productive citizens don't leave our community.
"The well-functioning ones do," he said. "So we have every reason to be very concerned about this problem and do everything we can to stop it."
by CNB