Yesterday, Mayor Bloomberg announced the formation of a new Mayoral Interagency Task Force to combat truancy and chronic absenteeism at city schools. "Truancy is often a child's first step in the wrong direction. Chronic absenteeism leads to higher rates of school failure, delinquency, and dropping out. From there, it is often hard to recover...The sooner we can identify the cause of truancy and absenteeism, the sooner we can get that child back on track," the Mayor said in a press release.
According to the Mayor's office, nearly 20 percent of City elementary school students missed one month of school or more last year, and research shows that 3 out of 4 students who are chronically absent in the sixth grade never graduate from high school. This comes on the heels of the news that Mayor Bloomberg's big budget cuts will severely effect an Administration for Children's Services program focused on preventing abuse and helping families in trouble. The preventive services program got a push after the death of Nixzmary Brown, the 7 year old who was repeatedly brutally beaten by her stepfather and had been absent from school 46 days.
