By LESLIE COLLINS
Northeast News
September 19, 2012 

Northeast High School will soon become the home of Success Court, a court aimed at combatting truancy.

Success Court will target Kansas City Public Schools’ seventh and eighth graders with an average daily attendance of 60 to 80 percent.

“You can really make a big impact if you focus on middle school,” said Stacey Daniels-Young, director of Jackson County COMBAT (Community Backed Anti-Drug Tax).

Daniels-Young added that students often begin showing signs of truancy and non-compliance in middle school.

One component of Success Court includes providing a Jackson County Family Court social worker to work with families of truant students. Jackson County COMBAT is providing a $10,000 matching grant to help make that possible.

KCPS administration has modeled the Success Court after the court in Nowlin Middle School in Independence.

Nowlin experienced low attendance and struggled with a high truancy rate, said Luis Cordoba, KCPS executive director of Student Intervention Programs.

Once Nowlin established Success Court, the attendance rate increased while truancy decreased, he said.

“We looked at that and said, ‘Can we mimic that program here in Kansas City?'” Cordoba said.

Success Court will officially kick off at NEHS beginning Sept. 19 and students chosen for the program will meet in the NEHS courtroom every Wednesday morning before school.

Judge Kenneth Barrett III of Division 26 of the Jackson County Family Court has volunteered to serve as judge for the KCPS Success Court.

“Success Court is not meant to be punitive; it’s meant to be supportive and engaging,” said Brigette Nicholson, case manager for the KCPS Success Court.

Students and families must voluntarily agree to participate in Success Court and hearings are informal, said Jackson County Family Court Director of Field Services Theresa Byrd.

During the hearings, students will be called up individually and Barrett will listen to reports from teachers regarding a student’s behavior, attendance, grades and other issues that may impede a student’s success, Byrd said. Parents are also asked to attend and stand with their student.

The Success Court judge will then set goals for each student.

“There are no real sanctions that are imposed because it is an informal hearing,” Byrd said.

To encourage students and parents to comply with the program, there will be positive incentives, she said.

“Punishment doesn’t change behavior, as we all know,” Nicholson said. “It’s when incentives are involved to help and support people that they have the best situation possible and become the best individuals as possible.”

For students struggling with grades, KCPS will connect those students to after-school tutoring and connect families to mentoring programs, Nicholson said.

Nicholson will also connect families and students to needed resources, like mental health services, drug and alcohol counseling, recreational activities, and address other issues that are affecting the families.

Involving the families and connecting them to resources is what makes the court a success, Daniels-Young said. Success Court focuses on helping the whole family, not just the student, she said. It’s not as simple as a student not liking his or her teachers, she said. A student could be struggling in school because he or she must babysit his or her siblings while a parent goes to work.

KCPS is assessing attendance district-wide and once all district resources have been exhausted and a student is still struggling with attendance, the most chronic truant students will be sent to truancy court at the Jackson County Municipal Court. Truancy court will be for all grades, Nicholson said. Truancy court will be targeted at parents, and during the first court appearance a warning will be issued. If the student fails to change his or her
behavior, the parents must report to court a second time in which a diversion program assignment or fine will be given.

Success Court can have a residual impact on an entire school, Byrd said. In each school, there are truant leaders and students who follow their lead, she said. Once those truant leaders begin attending school more, so will their friends, she said.

Another benefit of Success Court is the increase of parental involvement, she said.

“As a result of it (Success Court), we are able to develop parental bonding with the school,” Byrd said. “Many parents who were unengaged for an extended period of time, as a result of this program, then become intricately involved in the school and their child’s education, which certainly underpins the success of the program.”