Gulfton Truancy Reduction Demonstration Project, Houston, TX

parental accountability for truancy by providing immediate and meaningful consequences.
As part of their participation in OJJDP’s Truancy Reduction Project, the Gulfton site
sought to provide services to 250 ninth grade students attending the target area high school, Lee
High School. Houston police officers conducted home visits to issue warning notices regarding
excessive unexcused absences, assess causes of truancy, counsel on the legal responsibility to
attend school, and issue citations for failure to attend school. In addition, the Project provides
direct services ranging from facilitating Spanish parenting classes via the Houston Area Council
on Alcohol & Drug Abuse, to providing court-based case management through the Mayor’s
Anti-Gang Office Juvenile Accountability Court Program.
Students from Milby High School located in the East Region of the Houston Independent
School District were included in the evaluation component of the demonstration project. Milby
High School was included as a comparison site with no special truancy intervention programs.
The community consists primarily of working class urban city neighborhoods, in which the
major employers are the industries along the Houston Ship Channel. This location was selected
because the attendance rates were comparable and the neighborhood, while being larger
geographically, serves approximately the same number of students and has a similar attendance
rate. See Table 1 for more information. However, several differences exist and are likely to
influence the results. Consequently, we chose to include a comparison group from Lee High
School as well.
Evaluation of the Gulfton Truancy Reduction Demonstration Project 4