EDITORIAL TRUANTS BACK IN SCHOOL : CITY PROGRAM APPEARS EFFECTIVE, AND THE NEED IS CLEAR.LOS Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. already is seeing the success of an anti-truancy program the city started last year. School attendance is up more than 2 percent, and there's been a 10 percent drop in juvenile crimes associated with truants. But there's still room for improvement. So it is good to see the Los Angeles Unified School District The Los Angeles Unified School District (the "LAUSD") is the largest (in terms of number of students) public school system in California and the second-largest in the United States. Only the New York City Department of Education has a larger student population. planning to lend a hand to give assistance. to give assistance; to help. See also: Hand Lend by sending its own workers to juvenile courts juvenile court Special court handling problems of delinquent, neglected, or abused children. Two types of cases are processed by a juvenile court: civil matters, often concerning care of an abandoned or impoverished child, and criminal matters, arising from antisocial downtown and in Van Nuys to bolster the city's efforts. The school representatives will be able to determine if teen-agers who appear in court are habitual Regular or customary; usual. A habitual drunkard, for example, is an individual who regularly becomes intoxicated as opposed to a person who drinks infrequently. truants and, if so, to steer them into counseling programs. That will reinforce the worthwhile program the city started in October, which allows city or school police to issue citations to students who skip school without a valid excuse. The cited youths are required to appear in juvenile traffic court with a parent or guardian, where they are told that they can avoid paying a fine (up to $135) by maintaining perfect attendance for the next 60 days. In the first six months of the city program (a period in which police issued 5,878 citations to minors loitering Loitering (IPA pronunciation: ['lɔɪtəˌrɪŋ] is an intransitive verb meaning to stand idly, to stop numerous times, or to delay and procrastinate. off campus on school days), city and school authorities say the anti-truancy crackdown crack·down n. An act or example of forceful regulation, repression, or restraint: a crackdown on crime. Noun 1. succeeded in getting parents involved in improving the attendance of their children. That's an essential factor in curtailing truancy, and the need for greater parental involvement is apparent. As the number of citations suggests, truancy is a significant problem in the region. Youths who ditch school hurt themselves through loss of educational opportunity and often by getting involved in crime or substance abuse - and worse. While playing hooky with several schoolmates one day in March 1995, a 14-year-old Sylmar boy was shot and killed after another boy found a handgun in a residence where they were gathered. ``We've got to stop the cycle of kids skipping classes, and keep them in school to ensure their personal well-being and increase their ability to secure good jobs as well as go on to college,'' said City Councilwoman Laura Chick, the author of the city's anti-truancy program. We agree. And based on the results so far, L.A.'s crackdown appears to deserve continued support. |
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