September is School Attendance Awareness Month. During the 20-23 20-24 school year, 20 percent of students were chronically truant in the state of Illinois according to data from the Illinois State Board of Education. Chronic truancy is defined as missing 5 percent of the school year or 9 days without a valid excuse.
The Regional Office of Education #21 that serves Franklin, Johnson, Massac, and Williamson counties created the Partners Against Chronic Truancy or PACT program to reduce the number of truancies in their schools.
The program works to be positive helping students and parents overcome the root causes behind truancy. There are 4 members on the team who work with the schools in their region. I talked with Jeffrey Bink who is the truancy coordinator working with schools in Johnson and Massac Counties and John Cox who is a truancy interventionist for Marion, Herrin, and Crab Orchard schools.
ROE #21 WEBSITE: https://www.roe21.org/services/truancy-intervention/
