From supplying alarm clocks to making 7 a.m. wake-up calls to providing rides to school, Stephanie Record makes sure students are in their classroom seats when the bell rings.

Record is the social worker for Centennial and Central high schools in the Champaign school district through the district’s newly acquired grant from the Truants’ Alternative and Optional Education Program (TAOEP). The three-year grant, totaling $236,445, funds Champaign’s attendance improvement initiative. The initiative provides outreach to students and their parents to determine the causes of truancy.

Truants are students who miss any day or part of a day of school without an excused absence. The statewide definition of a chronic truant is a student who misses 10 percent of school days in an academic year.

“We focus on prevention and intervention,” Record said. “We try to catch a truant student early and keep them engaged in school and find out why they do not want to come.”

Record said the TAOEP grant allows social workers to be more individualized in their outreach to truant students.

Because of No Child Left Behind, a federal mandate, school districts across the nation are taking a closer look at attendance as another way to boost student achievement and meet adequate yearly progress standards.

“Everyone has been concerned about truancy,” said Naomi Greene, spokeswoman for the Illinois State Board of Education. “No Child Left Behind makes it an even more pressing issue to find intervention programs that work and help kids get the education they need for their future.”

Local educators agree that combating truancy is an important part of achieving academic success for students and better overall school performance. However, they are quick to note that truancy has always been an important issue in the Champaign and Urbana school districts.

According to the Illinois school district report cards, 2.8 percent of Urbana’s students were chronically truant during the 2003 school year. In the Champaign school district, 1.5 percent of students were chronically truant while Illinois’ state average was 1.9 percent.

“We are always concerned when children don’t come to school,” said Preston Williams, deputy superintendent for the Urbana school district. “I don’t think No Child Left Behind put any additional emphasis on (truancy). As far as we’re concerned, we’re always looking into the matter and have developed innovative programs.”

High percentages of low-income students and students who move in and out of the district are two reasons why Urbana has maintained a proactive approach to reducing truancy, Williams said.

“It is an ongoing issue,” said John Muirhead, facilitator of the Urbana school district’s TAOEP grant. “Every year there is a new child, new circumstances, new worries.”

There are about 1,000 students who are coming in and out of the district each year, Muirhead said.

TAOEP grants are issued by the state and utilized by school districts, regional offices of education and community colleges to improve attendance and help educators work with its related issues. There are between 70 and 80 TAOEP-funded programs in the state, Muirhead said. The grants are competitive and need-based.

Muirhead said attendance is very important for achievement because state funding is based on a school’s average daily attendance.

“With every percentage point we go up (in attendance), the more it helps the children and it helps the school in terms of funding,” he said.

Urbana’s TAOEP provides each of the district’s eight schools with a community outreach worker, Muirhead said. Outreach workers carefully follow up on children who are missing school and work with staff to address the needs of truant and at-risk students. They emphasize the three A’s: attendance, academics and attitude, Muirhead said.

Through TAOEP, Urbana also provides an alternative educational program known as the Storefront School for 16- to 21-year-olds who do not regularly attend school. These individuals may receive credits toward completing their GED, he said.

Muirhead said the recent focus of Urbana’s TAOEP is to encourage students to receive tutoring and after-school help.

“Learning goes on day after day and their ability is being evaluated…,” he said. “Children have to be present to learn and take the tests as well to be successful in meeting standards.”

Prior to this year’s grant, Record said there was a huge need in the Champaign school district for a more involved attendance program. The Champaign school district previously had one attendance specialist for the whole district.

Now, in addition to Record’s position, Champaign has three outreach workers at the middle school level who will also work with students from the feeder elementary schools, she said. The grant also allows for a credit recovery process that includes Internet work if a student has fallen behind.

“In the past, there were a lot of students missing school and not a lot of services available,” Record said. “Our main goal is that there are not students falling through the cracks.”