Each year in the District of Columbia, approximately 8,500 students are truant, or chronically absent, from school. The Attendance Accountability Amendment of 2013 enacted steep requirements for schools and parents to try to reduce truancy. Access Youth partnered with DCPS and developed and implemented a program to provide early intervention to address truancy issues at: Anacostia, Ballou, Eastern, H.D. Woodson high schools and Kramer and Johnson Middle Schools.

The goals of the program are to:

• Increase student attendance rates and
• Prevent them from experiencing the escalation of penalties for truancy
• Enhance their school experience and academic performance
• Reduce their likelihood of contact with the criminal justice system

The program is fully implemented at Anacostia, Ballou and Eastern high schools, where we are focused on determining what kinds of interventions are most effective at increasing student attendance.