An office for a new project called The Project for the Improvement of School Attendance (PISA) will be opened at 1153 North Kingshighway late in October. Five store-front centers will be opened throughout the city.
The project is part of a city-wide effort by school officials, juvenile authorities and the police department to locate truant youngsters and provide counseling for them.
Truant youngsters will be brought to the Center, on Kingshighway instead of returning them to school or detaining them in a police station as has been the practice in the past. There a police officer, school social worker, and juvenile officer will cooperate in getting to the causes of the student’s truant behavior, notifying parents and the school. Generally truant students will be kept at the center all day and return to school the next day.
The project is funded by the Missouri Law Enforcement Assistance Council. The pro- ject objectives are to apprehend chronic truants, identify problems leading to truancy, provide needed services through counseling, education, recreation, health and welfare and reduce truancy and crimes by juveniles. Miss Rita Rough is the school social worker assigned to the center serving the west end.
Originally published in The Paper, December 1972.
Read this article in the original newspaper issue.
Original source: SD_Times1972_12.pdf, printed page(s) 4.
