The Truant Child: A Diagnostic Study of Truancy Using Five Case Illustrations From the Casework Unit III of the Bureau of Attendance, Board of Education, New York City, 1958-1963
Abstract
There is world wide concern for the development of the minds of children. All children must develop their skills, talents and convictions to a high degree if they are to be contributing members of our society.Today professional educators, health and welfare workers are charged more and more with the responsibility of providing maximum service and opportunities for our increasing child population. One of the problems in a city, the size of New York, is the growing number of children whose future will be limited because of personal, parental or community failure.School social work and educational goals are rooted in similar philosophies and both share a mutual aim which is the full development of the child, largely through the medium of the school experience.The habitually absent child presents problems in his physical, social or emotional development. Within the educational system there are several Bureaus dealing with various aspects of pupil personnel services. Among these are the Bureau of Child Guidance, providing voluntary psychiatric clinical service, the Bureau of Educational and Vocational Guidance, giving counseling to the pupil in his school career and the Bureau of Attendance serving the absentee child within an authoritative framework.In the Bureau of Attendance there was a need for expanding social services for those children who came to the attention of the Bureau, through the symptoms of excessive absence from school. Many of these cases are the hard core, multi-problem families who resisted help or were unable to use existing voluntary service. Therefore in 1951, Casework unit was established, in cooperation with Fordham University School of Social Service, in which the Bureau was enabled to become a field placement for Fordham students and later was expanded into a work study program for professional training of Attendance Teachers. This program provided the Bureau of Attendance with a group of trained social workers.The major purpose in the establishment of these Casework Units was to bring focus methods for enriching attendance service for the absentee child with deep-seated problems through intensive, individualized help. The value of cases on the district office level and the nature of the children1s problems, made this additional resource within the Bureau structure, a vital service. The attendance teachers diagnose, offer treatment of absentees, from a wide range of age groups, cultural origins and degrees of psycho-social problems. Regular psychiatric consultation is available through the Bureau of Child Guidance.
Subject Area
Education
Recommended Citation
Kane, Leah Hetler, "The Truant Child: A Diagnostic Study of Truancy Using Five Case Illustrations From the Casework Unit III of the Bureau of Attendance, Board of Education, New York City, 1958-1963" (1965). ETD Collection for Fordham University. AAI30308733.
https://research.library.fordham.edu/dissertations/AAI30308733
