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TMCNet: Staying on top of truancy [The Eagle, Bryan, Texas]

[January 20, 2010]

Staying on top of truancy [The Eagle, Bryan, Texas]

(Eagle (Bryan, TX) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jan. 20--On Tuesday, Justice of the Peace Tommy Munoz announced he'll be turning to technology -- GPS tracking devices -- to help monitor students who have been sent to truancy court.

Attendance Improvement Management, the Dallas company that developed the program, combines the GPS tracking with nightly "coaching sessions" -- calls made by AIM employees to the child's home three to five times a week after curfew.

Munoz said he's implementing the program on a trial basis -- placing seven monitors with selected students over the next 120 days.

Each student, he said, may only wear the monitor for 30 to 40 days before trying it on a new student.

In the past, Munoz has used other unconventional methods to encourage students to attend classes regularly, including sending parents to school with their children and requiring students to attend mandatory tutorial hours.

Unlike ankle monitors worn by adult offenders, the GPS device used in this program is about the size of a cell phone and can be carried in the same manner.

Students, company spokesman Brian Dooley said, are required to check in with the device five times daily.

"The ankle monitors really are seen as punitive," he said. "If the child's looking in the mirror and thinks, 'Gosh, I'm a criminal. I look like a criminal,' it doesn't take long before they'll really start acting like one. What we do with the coaching is the biggest component -- we're able to reframe how the children act and think by having them talk to the same coach three to five times a week." If Munoz finds that students on the monitors are abusing them by leaving them at home or otherwise not following his orders, repercussions will follow.

"I'll hold them in contempt and they'll face juvenile detention," he said. "This isn't a joke, it's a precursor to ankle monitors or jail time. The school has rules and adults have laws, if they can't obey, there are consequences." Ruth Waller, an assistant principal at Bryan High School who oversees all truancy and attendance issues for the school, has nearly two decades of experience with truancy courts.

"I'm really hopeful," she said. "I think just the threat of this happening will be enough to turn some of the kids around. They need to know there's no escape.

Even if you drop out, [Munoz] is going to find you because he'll put a warrant out for your arrest. The word's getting out there that he's very serious, so you might as well do what you're supposed to do." The trial program will cost about $13,000, Munoz said, but won't be an expense to taxpayers.

The funds come from the Justice of the Peace Technology Fund, and all money in that account comes from fines and fees paid by other offenders.

If the program is successful and implemented full time, Munoz said, the Brazos Valley Council of Governments is looking into applying for grant money to help fund it.

AIM officials said its programs have resulted in a 98 percent attendance rate for students who are tracked with the GPS during the six-week program. In the month after being monitored, attendance for the chronically truant students remained at 97 percent.

"If I just get one student out of 10 to graduate, then the program is a success," Munoz said.

Justice of the Peace George Boyett said he and Munoz looked into the program about 18 months ago. Boyett said he's decided to wait and see how the Bryan program works before considering it for College Station.

"I've just not heard enough positive responses across the board," he said. "Plus, College Station is fortunate in that they do not have a high number of multiple offenders, and at this time, the school hasn't asked for it to be implemented." Boyett said that while there may be 50 to 60 cases of truancy on the docket in Bryan, he typically has five or six, which allows him more one-on-one time with the juvenile offenders.

"It's just a different situation over there," he said. "If this is one more tool he can put in his toolbox to make it work, then great." To see more of The Eagle or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.theeagle.com/.

Copyright (c) 2010, The Eagle, Bryan, Texas Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

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