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.