Transforming Truancy

The purpose of the study was to examine the perceptions of school administrators, teachers, and counselors from schools within the United States school districts regarding the most frequent internal and external factors affecting student truancy and effective intervention strategies to decrease truancy.

Participants included administrators, teachers, and counselors from the United States school districts. An eighteen-statement Likert-scale survey with one open-ended question was administered to one hundred administrators, teachers, and counselors from school districts within the United States. Survey data were analyzed to determine factors that participants frequently perceived to influence student truancy. Survey results were analyzed to examine participants' perceptions of effective strategies for reducing truancy.

The findings identified medical conditions, adolescent sex, and teenage pregnancy as the top three internal factors of concern. For external factors, personal problems, medical conditions, and bullying were the top three factors of concern. Medical conditions were a factor used in both internal and external factors and were in the top three areas of concern in both research questions. Three additional factors were identified as peer pressure, lack of motivation, and staying out late. The three intervention strategies supported by all teachers were before- or after-school tutoring, parental involvement, and a Parent Academy. Participants were in favor of all intervention attempts to reduce truancy within school systems in the United States.