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Travelers Insurance Company Helps To Decrease Truancy

Marissa Fragomeni, The Village Hartford

7:10 p.m. EDT, July 27, 2014

In Hartford Public schools, chronic absenteeism leading to truancy is derailing students from achieving academic success, and often signals much deeper issues affecting the students and their family. Truancy - four unexcused absences in a month or 10 in any school year - has been linked to students' dropping out of school, alcohol and drug abuse, teenage pregnancy, and delinquency. Truancy rates are highest in the inner city schools where poverty rates are higher. Fortunately, a program is having success in changing this destructive pattern.

The Truancy Court Prevention Project (TCPP) is helping middle school students and first and second, graders at Alfred E. Burr and Martin Luther King, Jr. elementary schools to improve attendance, academic performance, and their social connection to the school.

A collaborative effort of The Village, the Center for Children's Advocacy, the Capital Region Education Council, a federal magistrate and Superior Court Judges, the program provides students enrichment and recreational activities, peer education, community service, and leadership development. The program also offers students who are truant and their families a variety of resources and case management to address their individual needs, whether they are social, academic, behavioral or all three.

And it's working. As of May, 90 percent of participants were attending school more than 90 percent of the time.

The Travelers Insurance Company has been a key supporter of the program for the past several years, and continues its support this year with a $100,000 grant.

"The students we see are dealing with so many challenges, it's no wonder they miss so many days of school," said Hector Glynn, vice president for programs at The Village. "But that's exactly why they need to be in school, so they can overcome all that conspires to keep them in poverty and limit their potential. With this support from Travelers Insurance Company, the Truancy Court Prevention Project can continue to grow and help children continue on a path to success."

For more than 200 years, The Village for Families & Children has been working to build a community of strong, healthy families who protect and nurture children. We fulfill this mission by providing a full range of children's behavioral health treatment, foster care and adoption, and community support services for children and their families in the Greater Hartford region. For more information, visithttp://www.thevillage.org or call 860-236-4511.

Copyright © 2014, The Hartford Courant

http://www.courant.com/community/hartford/hcrs-91450-hartford-20140722,0,3320473.story