Elementary and Secondary Schools

This Model Bullying Prevention Policy is a comprehensive strategy that was developed for all youth-serving agencies in the District of Columbia. The policy employs a three-level public health model to prevent bullying, which involves shifting agency norms; delivering services to at-risk youth; and responding to bullying incidents in a way that inhibits subsequent acts, with an emphasis on data analysis to measure intervention success. The policy was developed by the Urban Institute in collaboration with the 42-members of the District of Columbia Mayor's Bullying Prevention Task Force and Office of Human Rights.

In the 2010-2011 school year, 2,500 high school students were chronically truant in District of Columbia Public Schools; at four schools over half of the students were chronically truant. High school truancy rates were moderately related to poverty and crime in students' residential neighborhoods and to violence near school. But the absenteeism of students in eighth grade was the strongest predictor of high school truancy rates. Focusing on middle school attendance issues may therefore be the most effective means of lowering high school truancy rates.

How has the recession and its resulting family instability impacted children’s residential and school mobility? Officials from housing, homeless, and school programs discussed the full spectrum of residential mobility in two recent Urban Institute roundtables: from chronic mobility, eviction, and foreclosure to doubled-up households and homelessness. Attendees explored programs and policies to reduce residential and student mobility, as well as brainstormed new ways for different organizations to work together. The discussion centered on examples of school districts, government agencies, and nonprofit housing counseling agencies working together to mitigate the negative effects of mobility.

High rates of truancy at some DC schools are receiving considerable attention. The Family Court cannot realistically be a primary response to the chronic truancy of thousands of chronically truant high-school students, Senior Fellow Akiva Liberman of the Justice Policy Center told the City Council. Liberman commented that family-based interventions for 9th graders may be necessary but insufficient to reduce truancy without simultaneously improving the attendance norms at high-truancy schools. Reducing absenteeism before high school may be the most effective way to reduce high school truancy.

This evaluation of the Case Management Partnership Initiative (CPMI) found that the program successfully linked high-need families with services designed to prevent truancy. The truancy prevention program, implemented at Anacostia and Ballou High Schools in 2011-2012, links chronically truant ninth graders and their families to social services and case management, and includes weekly interagency case management meetings. While the evaluation found that the program was implemented as intended, it is unclear whether the program's efforts impacted truancy among participants. Nonetheless, CMPI remains a promising platform for additional program experimentation, including possible modifications to timing, eligibility criteria, and program components.

An evaluation of the Truancy Court Diversion Program (TCDP) found that despite significant implementation challenges, parent-child communication and youths' attitudes towards school both improved. A voluntary program for middle school students at risk for chronic truancy, TCDP involves judicially-led sessions that address student attitudes combined with case management and service referrals to address family-level attendance barriers. The evaluation found that families of truant youth had high levels of need and were successfully connected to services. The evaluation suggests that the program should be formalized and better supported through dedicated resources and support from school administration prior to expansion.

The Truancy Court Diversion Program (TCDP) is a voluntary program for students at risk for chronic truancy. TCDP addresses attitudes of students and parents through sessions involving Family Court judges, and addresses barriers to attendance though case management and service referrals. An implementation evaluation of a pilot TCDP found key implementation challenges concerning recruitment and program participation, and the lack of regular team meetings. The program seems to have improved attitudes of regular participants, and provided families with needed services. Several modifications are recommended to strengthen the program. Structural changes would be necessary to take the TCDP to a larger scale.

The Case Management Partnership Initiative (CMPI) addresses chronic truancy by linking truant ninth graders and their families to social services and case management, along with regular interagency case management meetings. A pilot was conducted at Anacostia and Ballou High Schools in 2011-2012. The implementation evaluation found that the pilot program successfully implemented an interagency partnership and linked families to needed services, which likely improved family well-being. Whether this impacted truancy is not yet known. To reduce chronic truancy, the CMPI is a promising platform for additional program experimentation, including possible modifications to timing, eligibility criteria, and program components.