Introduction

The Truancy and dropout Prevention Program describes a one-year pilot program conducted at Sabal Palm elementary School in Tallahassee, Florida. The program was designed to take a problem solving approach to meet the unique needs of that particular school in solving the problems of poor achievement, low parental involvement, student disengagement, and high absenteeism, leading to eventual dropping out of school. After an in depth needs assessment, it was determined that we could best impact truancy by addressing four primary areas:

The following describes our program at Sabal Palm elementary school, with an emphasis on providing information in a way that it can be generalized to other schools. We have also attempted to provide a significant amount of information regarding general research in the area of truancy, other programs that we have reviewed, and links to additional resources for both teachers and parents.

Funding

This project is funded by a grant from the Student Support Services Project: A collaborative project of the Florida Department of Education and the University of South Florida.