Story of Matt a 6th Grader
I began working with Matt almost immediately when I started my position as the truancy diversion worker in April 2010. The reason I started working with him so quickly was due to my conversation with the previous truancy worker who had left me a list and detailed notes on certain students that she had been working with throughout the year and he was on this list. She had noted that Matt tended to miss a lot of school and that when he did come he came in late therefore she had been picking him up on her way to work and bringing him to the school with her. When I first started in this position I was unable to immediately start where the previous worker had left off due to having many aspects of the position to learn prior to working directly with the students. Once I did start working with the students one on one I took a look at Matt’ attendance for the time that he was not receiving a ride by the truancy diversion worker and he did manage to come to school and not be tardy for several days. This showed me that he was capable. When he would come in late I would be working in the office providing notes for tardy students and I was able to talk with him about why he was late and remind him that he needed to be here on time and that he had done it on his own previously so I knew he was able to do so.
As my work continued I began to notice that Matt was starting to miss days here and there again so I made a phone call to his mom. I scheduled a home visit and when I went there for this visit I learned that she was having a hard time waking Matt up in the morning and that sometimes he would miss the bus. She explained that she had no way of getting him to school other than the use of the city bus which she couldn’t always afford. Therefore when Matt missed the school bus and couldn’t afford the city bus he would stay home. I offered to mom that on these days she could call me on my cell phone and I would be able to pick Matt up for school. She agreed to do this. She also said that within the next month she was going to purchase a bus pass for her and Matt to share so that when he did miss the school bus he could still take the city bus and make it to school on time. I found out through them that there is a city bus stop right in front of the school. She said that this will also help when he has doctor’s appointments. These appointments were another reason for Matt missing school. They would be able to go to the appointment and home but then not be able to get him to school afterwards. I agreed that a bus pass would be much more affordable for the family and that it sounded like they could each use one of their own that way they would have more of an opportunity to be out in the community and can do shopping and run errands whenever they needed to. His mother agreed to this.
After this home visit and after several conversations with Matt at the school I ended up never needing to pick Matt up for school. He liked getting to school on his own and once he saw that he could and once he got his bus pass he proved to himself that he could do this because he came to school on time for the remainder of the year. He did miss a few classes due to doctor’s appointments but not entire instructional days. At the end of the year awards assembly Matt was awarded the Most Improved Student award for his class. I recently met with Matt and his mom this summer and we talked about this award and I asked them if they felt that the truancy program helping him had any effect on his getting this award. They both agreed that from the assistance of this program Matt was able to come to school on time whether it was riding with the TD worker or taking the city bus, he was encouraged to be here and be here on time as well as encouraged to do all of his school work and to turn it in on time. His mom agreed that once he started missing less school he started doing more of his school work.
I encouraged Matt to keep up the good work going into the next school year and I reminded mom that if she ever needed extra assistance with getting him to come to school to feel free to call me and I would be there to help.
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