History of IDEA
Jeannie Oakes, Founder and Former Director
Youth Voice in School Finance
NEW REPORT: Los Angeles' road to A-G for all
Without Dollars and Sense Powerpoint
Past Educational Opportunity Reports
Truancy crackdown should focus on class, not court
- 09-22-2011
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Editorial/Los Angeles Daily News
THE point of truancy laws is to get kids to go to school. The people who planned Los Angeles' age-old enforcement policy must have missed class the day that simple principle was taught. Critics say the current policy, in which students caught off campus get $250 citations from the cops, too often lands truants in courtrooms instead of homerooms and causes all sorts of related problems. A Los Angeles city councilman has suggested a promising alternative. Under a motion this week by Councilman Tony Cardenas, police would back off and schools would take more responsibility for dealing with students caught off campus. This would align city policy with an April policy change in which the LAPD agreed not to conduct truancy sweeps in the first hour of the school day, not to write citations for students on campus, and to give tardy students a chance to explain. Let's hope city and police officials can work out the details of what sounds like a less heavy-handed plan than we've had. There's a locker full of anecdotal evidence that what we've had doesn't work. (more...)
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