ZeroIntelligence.net

Program aims to resolve truancy cases outside of court

Justice of the Peace Alexander Green, whose courtroom is frequently filled with truants…Working with Harris County and Houston Independent School District officials…organized the new Truancy Mediation Program. Put into place last fall, the mediations have solved about 25 cases so far.

Mediators work with parents to handle truancy situations without resorting to the courts. Truancy is a big problem in our schools and new initiatives have come down hard on habitually absent students. Using the court system these offenders become juvenile delinquents with records that will travel with them for the rest of their scholastic careers. Judge Green recognized that many of the kids he was seeing in his courtroom should not have been there and worked to get this mediation system in place to get those kids back on track without the stigma of marks on their “permanent records”.

Mediators meet with the parents and student at the school. It is a far less intimidating setting that a courtroom and the individual attention and counceling has had excellent success.

“[Juan] figured without the required school uniform that he would be sent home anyway for violating dress code, so why bother going at all,” Green said.

A mediator learned that the student’s parents were too embarrassed to tell school officials about their financial problems. Then the mediator referred the case to social services, which found clothes fitting the dress code.

In Tonya’s case, a mediator helped the parents propose a deal to the girl’s older brother. The brother would be responsible for getting his sleepy sister up and out the door to middle school in exchange for more freedom on the weekend and a later curfew.

Kudos to Judge Green and the individuals and groups who’ve helped him get this program in place.