Missing School

States have different definitions of what it means to be truant. Typically, a student is not considered truant until he or she misses a specified number of school days without a valid excuse. For example, a state may define truancy as missing three full days of school in a single month, or 10 full days of school in a single year. States may also consider a child truant if the child is late without an excuse. For example, a child who is more than 30 minutes late for any class three or more times in a single month may be deemed truant.

Examples of excused absences include:

• Sickness
• Medical or Mental Health Appointments
• Religious Holidays
• Extreme Family Emergency

Examples of unexcused absences include:

Truancy - Causes

Research on the causes of truancy from mainstream education suggest that a range of factors such as poverty, ethnicity, the quality of relationship between students and teachers, and the nature of the classroom environment impact on students’ attendance in schools. The majority of the studies on truancy have been carried out with students in alternative education in the U.S.A and Australia. In New Zealand, research has focused on the truancy of Maori students. This study investigates the causes of truancy for Pasifika students in alternative education in New Zealand. Using a qualitative approach, data were collected using questionnaires and three focus group interviews. The findings from this study suggest that a number of factors affected students’ motivation to study. The behaviour of teachers and the school environment were found to affect approach to learning. Some students had negative views of their own ability and lacked perseverance. Other students believed that a lack of parental or family support impacted negatively on their attendance.Have poor physical and mental health.

Truancy laws

Truancy laws

the law states that the school district must notify the parent or guardian of the truant by the most cost-effective method possible, and that the notification must include specific information related to the student's unexcused absences.

The law further requires that after a student has been reported as a truant three or more times in one school year and after an appropriate school employee has made a conscientious effort to hold at least one meeting with the parent and the student, the student is deemed a habitual truant.

When a student is a habitual truant, or is irregular in attendance at school, or is habitually insubordinate or disorderly during school, the student may be referred to a school attendance review board (SARB) or to the county probation department pursuant to EC Section 48263. The student may also be referred to a probation officer or district attorney mediation program pursuant to EC Section 48263.5. The intent of these laws is to provide intensive guidance to meet the special needs of students with school attendance problems or school behavior problems pursuant to EC Section 48320. 

What is Truancy?

The definition of truancy is usually established by school district policy and may vary across districts.  Definitions for an excused absence, an unexcused absence, or a truancy can vary by state and even school districts.

Any unexcused absence from school is considered a truancy, but states enact their own school attendance laws. State law determines 1) the age at which a child is required to begin attending school, 2) the age at which a child may legally drop out of school, and 3), the number of unexcused absences at which a student is considered legally truant.

Truancy is a status offense – an act that is a crime due to the young age of the actor, but would not be illegal for someone older. The other most common status offenses are running away from home, alcohol use, curfew violations, and ungovernability.

How to end Homelessness?

Homelessness is an extreme form of poverty and social exclusion. Simply put, people who are homeless do not have safe, affordable, appropriate, permanent housing to which they can return whenever they choose.

The Canadian Alliance to End Homelessness leads a national movement of individuals, organizations and communities working together to end homelessness in Canada.

There are four core elements of a Plan to End Homelessness:

• Plan for outcome.
• Close the front door.
• Open the back door.
• Build the infrastructure.

Homelessness

A homeless individual is defined as “an individual who lacks housing (without regard to whether the individual is a member of a family), including an individual whose primary residence during the night is a supervised public or private facility (e.g., shelters) that provides temporary living accommodations, and an individual who is a resident in transitional housing.” A homeless person is an individual without permanent housing who may live on the streets; stay in a shelter, mission, single room occupancy facilities, abandoned building or vehicle; or in any other unstable or non-permanent situation.

Cause of homeless

The most common reasons people give for losing their accommodation is that a friend or relatives  are no longer able to provide support or because of relationship breakdown.

However, there are often a wide number of factors at play. Individuals can arrive at the point of homelessness after a long chain of other life events.

Houselessness

Many think so, but they are different and overlap. Many think that if you have a roof over your head – housed that is (shelter, rooming house, somebody’s couch) then you are not homeless. They think you are homeless only if you live outside, on the streets. They are wrong.

If you don’t get the difference, think about it until you do. Read the words of the homeless veteran below and see if anything clicks. The old saying, “home is where the heart is” is quite valid and true. Just because a homeless person is in shelter or sleeping on a friend’s couch, or living in a cheap motel, doesn’t mean he or she is not still homeless.

They may be housed and homeless at the same time. This is a big issue and a terribly sore spot with the homeless. To them there is a world of difference; almost fighting words! There are homeless veterans and houseless veterans, two different levels of homeless, but don’t say that someone housed cannot be homeless. The houseless veteran is one that sleeps in a doorway or back alley or along some creek bank somewhere. The homeless veteran covers that and also the housed that cannot make a home out of their accomidations

Written and edited by: Héctor Triviño

Source:

• https://oldtimer.wordpress.com/2007/05/21/houseless-and-homeless-not-same-thing/

How to End Houselessness?

They may be housed and homeless at the same time.  This is a big issue and a terribly sore spot with the homeless.  To them there is a world of difference; almost fighting words!   There are homeless veterans and houseless veterans, two different levels of homeless, but don’t say that someone housed cannot be homeless.  The houseless veteran is one that sleeps in a doorway or back alley or along some creek bank somewhere.   The homeless veteran covers that and also the housed that cannot make a home out of their accomidations.