"This book means more to me than any scholarly publication I've ever done because it will have a direct impact on young people going through our court system," says Miller. "A lot of judges will be making decisions based on this book that could turn around the lives of thousands of young people."
The Bench Book for Family Court Judges is a condensed version of a 200-page evaluation report produced by Miller while an associate professor of education and human development at Brown University based on two years of observing Rhode Island's Stop Truancy Outreach program. It provides practical information for judges designed to reduce truancy through behavioral contracts, creative sentencing, motivational suggestions, best practices and examples of successful truancy reduction programs.
The book, which also shows judges how their own biases might affect sentencing, was funded by a $1.1 million grant from the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Justice to the National Truancy Prevention Association. The purpose of the funding was to implement truancy prevention programs and develop a bench book on truancy-related issues to help jurisdictions in handling truancy problems. Miller is a member of the NTPA.
"It focuses on how to help students, not punish them," says Miller, who led Brown's Center for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and was its first coordinator and chair of ethnic studies. "Judges don't have a lot of time to read, so it's written very succinctly and is more of a guide book."
Truancy as a predictor of dropout rates
Miller's work on truancy is an outgrowth of earlier research that she says was focused on why some young people succeed and others don't. She worked from the premise that all young people are alienated regardless of their social class or racial background and that depending on certain social factors, the alienation is either temporary or stable. Those with stable alienation feel as though no matter what happens or what they do they will never get ahead.
Not surprisingly, truant students with stable alienation often don't think it matters whether they show up for school or not, which often results in their becoming part of America's 30 percent dropout rate. A recent national survey showed that 11 percent of 8th graders, 16 percent of 10th graders and 35 percent of 12th graders reported skipping one or more days of school during a 30-day period. Each student that drops out of high school costs the nation approximately $260,000 over his or her lifetime. At the current rate, more than 12 million students will drop out by 2018, costing the country $3 trillion, writes Miller.
"If truancy is not addressed during early childhood to elementary-aged years, during the early adolescent years it can have significant negative effects on the positive development of a young person and adversely impact schools, communities, and society in general," writes Miller in the bench book, adding that daytime crime, juvenile crime, and delinquency rates decline when truancy is addressed.
In an effort to draw more attention to the issue, Miller and other members of the National Truancy Prevention Association worked with U.S. Senators Patrick Leahy and Bernie Sanders to pass a resolution in the U.S. Senate in 2008 that made August National Truancy Prevention Month.
Pushing for school-based truancy courts
School-based truancy courts, which use magistrates instead of judges, are often more effective at reducing truancy than family courts. Miller found that when courtrooms (sometimes a classroom) are located in the school, it's easier to create a comprehensive plan with wraparound services because all of the key players (school counselors, teachers, resource officers, etc.) are present and will work together to ensure student success. While Miller advocates for this model, she also encourages family courts to involve as many key players as possible so that the same comprehensive approach is employed.
"School-based truancy programs are important interventions for reducing absenteeism and increasing positive school and social behavior," says Miller, who also found that students who experienced some form of loss (death, divorce, breakup, etc.) were far more truant than those who hadn't. "It's important for kids to be in school even if they might not be engaged in the way we'd like because it provides an important social context for them. When they aren't in school they lose out on critical aspects of socialization."