Increasingly, mediation is being used as a tool to work with truant students and their families. The purpose of Truancy Mediation Programs is to reduce attendance problems of identified students by using the assistance of a skilled, neutral mediator to identify problems and assist the student, family, and school in arriving at a solution. Typically mediators meet one or two times with a school representative and with the family and student to determine the reasons why the child is not attending school and attempt to resolve attendance issues in a non-confrontational manner.

The National Center for State Courts has been compiling a list of information on the growing number of states (18 and counting) that are offering Truancy Mediation service. You can view the Truancy Mediation Materials online.

A well developed example is the statewide program the Ohio Commission on Dispute Resolution and Conflict Management administers. The Truancy Prevention Through Mediation Program is a statewide effort run in cooperation with The Ohio Supreme Courts Office of Dispute Resolution, school districts and local courts, which is designed to address attendance concerns in public schools. The program has been used in grades K – 12, but the primary focus is on grades K – 8. An evaluation report on the project is available here.

A set of Standards of Practice for Truancy Mediation has been developed for Ohio truancy mediators and it is available on the web.

Video about Truancy Mediation Program