What's being done to address Nashville schools' 35% truancy rate

It's a category that more than 35 percent of students in Metro Nashville Public Schools fall into, one that many fear is a gateway leading students to future problems.

Truancy.

Students with five or more unexcused absences, those deemed truant in Tennessee, can get a ticket into the court system. A new program pairs those students with lawyers earlier in the court process, allowing volunteer attorneys to act as another advocate for the students.

"There is no community safety net," said Sara Beth Myers, president of AWAKE, a nonprofit group leading the charge on the new initiative. "And this program seeks to be that safety net, a buffer between a more serious problem by, not a member of the state or the judicial system, but a member of the community. An attorney who can step in and volunteer and represent that student in the truancy proceeding."

AWAKE, or Advocates for Women’s and Kids’ Equality, focuses on women's and children's issues and policy change. The formal name of the truancy intervention program is Connecting Attendance to Results in Education.

It is part of an ongoing drive to build a framework for children who are at risk, to prevent further trouble and keep them out of the court system. Myers noted Nashville's effort, led by Mayor Megan Barry, to combat youth violence.

"There is a correlation between truancy and problems that arise later," Myers said.

"What this program is trying to do is provide a group of advocates to help one student at a time with their individual circumstances."

Brad Redmond, coordinator of attendance services for Metro Schools, and his team of 16 truancy intervention specialists work in the district to help students and parents. He said more than 31,000 Metro students had five or more absences last school year.

If absences continue, Redmond's team makes a decision to send the student to juvenile court.

"Truancy, chronic absenteeism, that’s always a symptom of something else," Redmond said. "Oftentimes people think students skip or just don’t go to school."

He pointed out other factors: Children can't find transportation. They don't have stable housing. They have to be home caring for someone else. They have health issues.

"There are always other things that contribute to it," he said. "Our thing is, let's eliminate those barriers."

Hence the wrap-around approach that is housed at the Metro Student Attendance Center, an old police precinct off Trinity Lane. The locked-down building is where students with attendance issues go to report to juvenile court Magistrate Jennifer Wade. When police pick up students for loitering, not being in school, they go there. Instead of detention, like a jail, the students spend time in a recreation room with no Facebook and no cellphones, but trivia games and books and tips to work on resumes.

Wade, a Michigan native who went to Tennessee State University for her undergraduate studies, knows how important education is.

She grew up in a low-income area in a single-parent household, she said, raised by her mother. Her father was an alcoholic.

"The only thing that changed that situation for me is probably the grace of God and education," she said. Wade loved to read. It was an outlet for her.

So when she looks into the eyes of teens in truancy trouble, she feels like she gets it.

"There’s nothing that separates me from these kids," she said.

"I do see those students who have such great potential; they just don’t see it. These are students I see who could easily be engineers, medical professionals, teachers, business owners. They just need to have the frame for it."

Lawyers wanted

The Nashville Bar Association is offering free continuing legal education credits for lawyers who participate in the truancy intervention program. A training session is set for Monday morning, and spaces are still available. For more information on the requirements or to register, click here. 

Attendance Awareness Month

September is Attendance Awareness Month. The Metro Student Attendance Center, a court program that deals with attendance issues in collaboration with Metro Schools and the Metro Nashville Police Department, is hosting a free public event to support students and connect them and their families to resources in the community.

The block party is noon to 3 p.m. Sept. 17 at 945 Doctor Richard G. Adams Drive. For more info, call 615-862-6722.

Reach Stacey Barchenger at 615-726-8968 and on Twitter @sbarchenger.