Eagerly awaiting final details about the revival of Truancy Diversion here in Wood County!

We hope to have final word Monday or Tuesday of the go-ahead to get a truancy diversion worker at Van Devender Middle School starting April 1.
Truancy Diversion services, which has a basic premise that putting a social service worker into a school to assist with attendance problems, and other wider social and family issues disrupting student success, has been a successful program of the Parkersburg site from 1999- 2007. Originally funded using "TANF" (temporary assistance to needy families) funds, it later was funded by Wood County schools Title I funds. It was a program with very measurable accountability for its effectiveness- with students improving attendance, grade passing, and even behavior in school. It had a noticeable impact on petitions filed for truancy in the county, and had many appreciative parents and school personnel for the added assistance provided to help students stay in school and know that someone was advocating and caring and looking out for their interest educationally and socially.
The history of the program would make for a great study in terms of its evolution as a program, and its longitudinal outcomes.
In our area, I first wrote the grant for a several county area, independently of the wider effort that became a nearly statewide program through the Alliance for Children. That was an era when the state was putting out "RFP"'s (requests for proposals) to respond to certain identified needs. We got a grant for what I think was 6 counties at the time, just our immediate area, and we began the program modeling it after the program that had started a few years earlier in the eastern part of the state. Deb Murphy was one of the first workers hired out of this office. She persevered and evolved with the program, to spearhead our local efforts. Steve Lewis in Ritchie County and Rick was the Calhoun County worker. The next year, we merged our proposal and grant with the wider Alliance effort, and had 24 truancy diversion workers in 8 counties for the next several years! This was a thriving and bustling part of our services and expansion of our office- we learned an incredible amount about gearing up a program, working with educational systems, structuring a program, forms, documention, management information systems, accountability with government officials, adjusting to varying counties, and much more!! When the TANF funds ended very specifically at the end of a fiscal year; we suddenly were without a major program and service to hundreds of students, and 8 school systems! Wood County, to its credit, revived the local program using Title I funds, with the advocacy and vision of Dr. Frank Bono, Wood County title I director. So for several more years, we maintained the program, as the only remnant in the state. But even here it dwindled down to one worker left toward the end. Many people still have hopes it can be revived at a wider level; the model is still excellent and relevant, and the potential impact is still strong.
Stay tuned for more information; and perhaps, more reflections on some of the early work of the project!!!!!