SUMMARY

On average, 15,600 students are truant from Wisconsin public schools on any given day. The number who meet the statutory definition of habitual truant increased from 6.9 percent of the public school enrollment in the 1997-98 school year to 8.7 percent in 1998-99, or from 59,304 to 74,569 students. We found that effective approaches to truancy are prompt and personal. A number of communities have enacted new ordinances against truancy, and some have established truancy abatement centers to both address truancy and reduce daytime juvenile crime that can be associated with it.