CHRIS ARDIS: Time card could keep school-skippers in check

Truancy.  It is against the law and it costs schools, taxpayers, and eventually society, an exorbitant amount of money.

In June, I wrote a column about Cameron County Precinct 6 Justice of the Peace Gustavo "Gus" Garza.  In his attempt to stop rampant truancy, he gave parents of truants a choice:  pay a fine or paddle your children.  It is a litigious society, so it was no surprise when some of those parents decided to sue the judge.  You see, they couldn't afford the fine and felt the paddling humiliated their children.  As I wrote in that column, I don't see this as a discussion on corporal punishment.  Rather, we must create a way to get parents to do their job and get students to understand the consequences (a word many teens today do not understand at all) of their failure to go, or to stay, in school.

In response to that column, I received an email I found compelling.  It was about Bryan Adams High School in Dallas and their decision to get tough with chronically truant teens last school year.  Under order of the Dallas County Truancy Court and administered by the Attendance Improvement Management (AIM) program, these teens are part of the GuardTrax initiative.  Truant teens were provided with GuardTrax GPS units (manufactured by NovaTracker), requiring them to "key in" when they arrived at school and returned home.  At any time, supervisors could detect the students' location with real-time Internet tracking software. 

The first pilot was conducted in 2005 with 10 students, the second in 2006 with 19.  In 2006, the formal pilot was done with Bryan Adams students.  All students in the program were Level 4 offenders, the highest-risk, court-adjudicated truants.  After the six-week test period, the students' average attendance was at 97 percent and half of the group registered 99.75 percent attendance.

First I went to the AIM web site.  "The road to graduation begins with showing up."  So true.  Their goal is to get students in school, to go through credit recovery and to graduate, knowing this will increase their chances of staying out of the criminal justice system.

I contacted Paul Pottinger, PhD and CEO of CJSolutions, who is also the co-director of AIM.   AIM is currently in discussions with seven school districts, including four in Texas, interested in implementing the program.  It is available nationwide.  Bryan High School plans to use the program with 400 students during the 2008-2009 school year because of the success they witnessed during the pilot. 

Voice recognition software was used during the pilot, but this year they will use live calls for personal interaction with the students.  The court makes it clear to students that if they attempt to "game the system," they can expect to be charged with contempt of court, landing them in juvenile detention and with a permanent juvenile delinquency record.  If a curfew is imposed in court, AIM also requires students to check in after school hours.

I asked Paul about the cost of the program.  There are variables, such as number of truants and terms of the program, but the base cost is $10.97 per truant per day.  He explained that if a truant is in the program for six weeks and stays in school for the total length of time he/she is under court order (180 days in Dallas), then the $462 program cost per truant gets a $5,160 return per truant, figured according to Average Daily Attendance, the system the state uses to provide funding to schools ($40 ADA x 129 school days in 180 calendar days).  To put that succinctly, "Only 11 days of attendance pays for the program for each truant," Paul told me.  The cost for keeping these teens out of the juvenile justice system could be considered priceless.

I had to ask Paul about Ricardo Pacheco, an 18-year-old former gang member who was part of the pilot.  The original story I received indicated that he was "about to become the first male on his father's side of the family to graduate."  I had to know.  Did he?  "Yes," Paul told me, "he did."  He told me to visit the AIM web site at www. AIMforAttendance.com to watch news report about similar cases.  I was impressed.

Sounds like a program worth investigating.  There are many other Ricardos out there.  It sure would be nice to see them graduate.

Chris Ardis is a teacher with the McAllen school district.  To reach her, send e-mail to cardis1022@aol.com.