Evidence-Based Truancy Prevention and Reduction Program.

Chronic truancy is a well-known precursor to significant problems in students’ behavior and development. Efficacy research indicates that reducing truancy requires engagement and commitment from all areas of students’ lives: school, community and family. Positive Action includes all of these areas and has developed components to facilitate and promote engagement with family and community members. It invokes in students the desire to succeed and the will to perform to the best of their ability.

Part of this positive engagement with life is school attendance. As students learn more Positive Action concepts, they recognize that attending school is essential—both socially and academically—to help them develop a positive self-concept.

Positive Action: Evidence-Based Truancy Prevention Program

School can be a tough place for some students. Positive Action teaches them methods for treating themselves and others in a positive way. This more positive environment encourages students to keep coming to school and trying to succeed academically. For students who have difficulties at home, school can become a safe haven when Positive Action has been implemented.

Educators can teach with confidence as researchers have found that Positive Action reduces absenteeism and truancy. The analysis from a randomized trial has been featured in two peer-reviewed journal articles.