Truancy and crime -- Wash Post article
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Anonymous
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https://www.washingtonpost.com/investigations/interactive/2025/dc-schools-truancy-youth-crime
Finally, a really thorough look at how bad truancy has gotten and how it relates to crime. (And school quality, and future prospects for all these kids). |
Anonymous
Thanks for sharing - such an important and complex topic. It relates to so many of the threads on this forum. As a parent whose kids have been in Title one ES and MS for 10 years, I have seen over and over again the impact of truancy and the pattern of switching schools has such an impact on outcomes. When kids are younger it is not at all the fault of the kids, and often switching schools is the result of housing needs, which is why it is such a hard problem to solve. It also relates a lot to the conversation of defining a 'good' school. A school can have amazing teachers and good programs/offerings, but if the kids are not in school, it makes the job that much harder. My kids are learning a ton a their schools, but they go every day, do the homework, and complete all the projects. Another child who goes to the same school with the same programs/teachers will not have the same outcome if they miss half of the days etc. |
Anonymous
| Can you share a gift link of the WP article please? |
Anonymous
I don't subscribe anymore, but you can get it from the DC Public Library - https://www.dclibrary.org/research-and-learn/washington-post-digital |
Anonymous
| Thank you! |
Anonymous
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https://wapo.st/4432CV3
Gift link |
Anonymous
| Thank you!! |
Anonymous
OMG!!!! I had no idea. Thank you! |
Anonymous
| There's also an audio/video companion piece to the article, with middle schoolers talking in their own words about safety, their neighborhoods, their communities. I found it pretty powerful. |
Anonymous
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Wow who could possibly imagine a scenario where efforts to help students start slipping at almost the exact time Bowser took over?
I believe there are lots of people in the DCPS system who care about students across all eight wards. I just absolutely don't believe they have any power. |
Anonymous
| Not one significant mention of parents in that truancy article. Sad. |
Anonymous
| Does it mention any connection to how long the schools were closed for Covid? Small sample set but in our title one it felt like the kids most at risk in this article were the last to return |
Anonymous
How would you hold parents responsible? I'm seriously curious and open to ideas. Parents should be responsible, but I'm not sure how best to do it. Get child welfare involved? As the article says, that was the plan. The Child and Family Services Agency was supposed to investigate, which seems appropriate. But that "child welfare staff [said] parents were skeptical about cooperating with an agency that had the power to pry their children from them ... It’s like the police showing up.” So maybe it would be better to start with school staff? Would threatening to throw parents in jail work? In a few cases, yes, but again parents would do their best not to help, and mostly kids would be worse off if their parents actually went to jail. What are the "tough" options that would actually help? |
Anonymous
You're right, there were nine significant mentions of parents, not one. Also, did you miss all the parts about educational neglect? That's all about parents. |
Anonymous
Your faux political divisiveness helps nothing. |