Students who often skip school are more likely to drop out, putting themselves at risk of living life in poverty.

"Truancy is the first sign of trouble, the first indicator that a young person is giving up and losing his or her way. When young people start skipping school, they are telling their parents, school officials and the community at large that they are in trouble and need help if they are to keep moving forward in life," the U.S. Department of Education says.Nationally, about 7 million students miss a month or more of school each year, according to the department.In Pennsylvania, the habitual truancy rate, defined as having six or more unexcused absences in a school year, surged statewide from a rate of 6.78 in 2009-2010 in to 8.52 in 2014-2015, according to the state Department of Education.The numbers translate into a diminished quality of life for chronic school-skippers."Among truant ninth-graders, two-thirds are unlikely to graduate with their peers and nearly one-third will be charged with a criminal offense within two years," according to the Education Law Center.Keeping kids in classThe problem is so acute that President Barack Obama announced plans to pair more than 1 million school-skipping students with mentors to keep them in class.The Success Mentors Initiative, part of the My Brother's Keeper program, will launch in 10 cities: Austin, Boston, Columbus, Denver, Miami-Dade, New York City, Philadelphia, Providence, San Antonio and Seattle.It will begin with students in sixth through ninth grades in school districts with low incomes and high absenteeism levels and expand to kindergarten through twelfth grade in five years.Local districts reach outLocally, school officials are doing what they can to keep students in class, including hauling parents into court or notifying the county Children and Youth Services agency if their children miss more than three days of school.The Tamaqua Area School District follows the Schuylkill County truancy policy, Superintendent Carol Makuta said."This policy requires districts in Schuylkill County to make a referral to Schuylkill County Children and Youth after three unlawful days within a set time frame," she said. "The school district is also required to create individual Truancy Elimination Plans to provide to the parents and students focusing on how to reduce or eliminate truancy issues."The district also issues citations to students who violate the county and state truancy policy."This has helped with extreme cases of truancy," Makuta said.The district has been at about a 93 percent attendance rate for the past five years, in line with the state's standard for attendance, she said.Panther Valley School District has been struggling with truancy for several years, said Superintendent Dennis Kergick."All of our school districts recognize the impact of truancy and attendance on every phase of our daily operations. (The state Department of Education) had attempted to address some of these issues in 2006. We still have attendance and truancy problems in 2016," he said."There has been a renewed emphasis on our schools due to assessment requirements, School Performance Profiles, budget constraints and mandates specifically designed to address a myriad of social concerns."Kergick said the district is working hard to keep kids in class."Students need to be in school, and we send notification home to parents regarding excessive absenteeism. In some cases, we do bring families to court and address excessive absence and truancy concerns. Nobody likes to bring families to court, and it can create an adversarial relationship," he said."I think that we all realize that the truancy problem has far sweeping concerns and ramifications for all of us," Kergick said."Truancy has been clearly identified as one of the early warning signs of students. In many cases, truancy may be the beginning of a lifetime of problems for students who routinely skip school."Kergick said that "family and student engagement are important pieces and we all need to do a better job of working with the families."The most effective strategy for reducing truancy is possible when parents, schools, public agencies, the legal system, nonprofit organizations, businesses and all members of the greater community understand the ramifications of truancy and strive together to make school a place in which all students desire to fully participate," he said.In the Jim Thorpe Area School District, truancy officer Lori Lienhard attributes a recent decline in truancy to "establishing open lines of communication between the students, parents and our staff."We notify parents and guardians by phone and send out written notification letters pertaining to truancy along with conducting home visits," she said."We also set up meetings with the student, parent, truancy officer, building principal or assistant principal and guidance counselor to complete a Truancy Elimination Plan for each student who is habitually absent," Lienhard said."This meeting is designed to help everyone understand why the student is being truant and to help set up a plan to reduce their absences."After we complete a plan, a follow-up meeting is scheduled to review our plan to see if the plan is working or if any adjustments need to be made," she said. "If the student continues to be habitually absent, we file citations with the (district judge) for truancy."She said the Carbon County Children and Youth Services agency is also involved to help the families."We try to work with the families and students to reduce their number of unexcused absences. Our goal is to reduce truancy and increase academic success," Lienhard said.But it doesn't stop there. The district wants to go further to reduce school skipping."I have had discussions with guidance counselors who would like to see an academic detention scheduled after school instead of a community service sentence issued by the judge," Lienhard said."This program could be scheduled after school to help assist students who are habitually truant. Students who miss numerous days have a difficult time making up work. A reduction in truancy would hopefully result in academic success," she said.