Keeping Kids in the Classroom

In Maryland, for example, the rate of public school students classified as habitually truant was an average of about 2 percent in the 2005-06 school year. Baltimore schools had the highest rate -- more than 10 percent -- followed by Prince George's schools, with slightly more than 4 percent. The habitual truancy rate for Montgomery County schools was less than 1 percent.

Figures from the Virginia Department of Education for the 2004-05 school year, the most recent available, show that Fairfax public schools, the largest system in Virginia, had 1,129 students with six or more reported unexcused absences. There were 799 such cases in Alexandria, 277 in Loudoun County, 275 in Arlington County and 247 in Prince William County.

In the District, prosecutors reported 122 cases in the 2005-06 school year in which parents or guardians were charged with failing to ensure children were attending school. That statistic underlined a point many authorities and educators make: Parents are critical to school attendance and might be held responsible if their children are truant.

Prince George's offers a case study in what school systems are doing to combat truancy.

The county has about 50 "pupil personnel workers," based in schools and regional offices; they function as truancy officers but also work on matters including immunizations and faltering academic performance.

In many schools, an automated system notifies parents when a student is absent. Otherwise, staff members will call. Interventions begin after three consecutive days of absences or after suspected truancy. The pupil personnel workers call and write to the parents, hold conferences at school, make home visits, provide counseling and, in extreme cases, refer the case to social services. Parents can also be petitioned to attend court to meet with a judge who can require them to take part in an intervention.

In the next few years, Prince George's schools Superintendent John E. Deasy seeks to have pupil personnel workers in each of the county's roughly 200 schools.

The school system has also said it is going to identify students showing signs that they might become habitually truant, such as changes in attitude, tardiness and poor sibling attendance.

Prince George's school board member Verjeana M. Jacobs (At Large) said she hopes those steps would cut back on the number of young people she saw in her other line of work -- as a division chief at the county Department of Corrections.

"The kids who are truant are the ones who are getting into trouble," she said. "Those are the kids who . . . end up hanging out with the wrong people and committing adult crimes. That's when I get them. Yeah, it's a very important issue for me."