Posted June 8, 2011 10:24 a.m.

by Debra Schell Press And Journal Staff : 6/8/2011

Three Dauphin County school districts, including two with the highest truancy rates, have been approved for a program designed to reduce absenteeism.

Harrisburg, which had a truancy rate of 43 percent in 2009-10; Steelton-Highspire, 32 percent; and Lower Dauphin, 0.3 percent, will take part in a program coordinated by Communities That Care of the Capital Region and Communities In Schools, a nationally known truancy reduction program.

The program places caseworkers in the schools to work with students, parents, and administrators on a one-on-one basis to ensure students go to class, said Steel-High officials.

The program, which will begin in the 2011-12 school year, covers four areas of service, according to Scott Kuren, coordinator of pupil services for Steel-High.

“There is no cost to the district,” he said during the district’s May 9 planning meeting.

The Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency is supporting the program with a $130,000 grant. Fundraising efforts will provide the balance of the funds, he said.

Americorps’ employees are placed in each district, Kuren said.

“They are designed to build one-on-one relationships with students who may be at risk for dropout and truancy,” he said. Steelton-Highspire had a 32 percent truancy rate in 2009-10 [394 students], the latest year for which data was available. The district’s truancy rate has increased 55 percent since 2005-06.

Harrisburg’s rate jumped 72 percent over the last five years, according to state data, while Lower Dauphin’s rate declined by 83 percent (1.5 percent to 0.3 percent.)

Lindsay Frank, executive Director for CIS for five counties, including Dauphin County, said the program will provide accountability.

“Since a lot of problems come from communities and not necessarily the school, we are working on getting both sides together, the district and the community,” Frank said.

Two caseworkers will be at Lower Dauphin, three at Steel-High, and four in Harrisburg.

“Under the grant we serve around 6,000 students,” said Frank. CIS has been proven to decrease truancy and increase graduation rates, according to a 5-year evaluation conducted by Atlantic Philanthropies.

Atlantic’s report said CIS produced the strongest reduction in dropout rates of any dropout prevention program. CIS, the group found, reduced dropout rates and increased graduation rates and was effective across states, school settings, grade levels and student ethnicities.

The first base is the Americorps workers; the second base is working with the counties’ Adult Probation, Kuren said.

“By looking at reports and lists of those who are in the probation system, we can work with the families having those difficulties,” he said.

The district will complete a Truancy Elimination Plan before submitting citations to families, Kuren said. The program will also work with Steelton Highspire Initiative Roll Together, or SHIRT, a grassroots organization started in 2008 to unite the two communities to improve and build relationships.

SHIRT is focused on outcomes and established a group to monitor its progress, Kuren said.

Currently the CIS caseworkers are becoming familiar with the schools where they are placed, and will begin to focus only on students who have truancy issues, Kuren said.

In the past Dauphin County Children and Youth Services had a representative in Steel-High, but the caseworkers were dealing with too much paperwork and an overload of cases, Kuren said.

So they overhauled the system, he said.

“They went to every school district and after several meetings, established a Truancy Task Force,” Kuren said.

Caseworkers will track students’ daily attendance, identify those with high absentee rates, and find out why they aren’t coming to school, officials said.

Debra Schell: 717-944-4628, or dschell@pressandjournal.com