Step 2: Cut School Absenteeism in Half = Fewer Dropouts, a Higher Graduation Rate & Lower Crime

Delegate Levi’s Record of Action

Delegate Levi has been a leader in proposing solutions to truancy and school absenteetsm⁹. Her signature law in her first year in office, linked truancy to driver’s licenses and made the front page of the Washington Post. Over 49,000 students have had to provide school attendance information before receiving their learner’s permit. She followed that law with another that help set up the county’s truancy court.

16 of the county’s 22 high schools had double-digit truancy.

⁹ HB 571(2007) and HB 1038 (2008)

¹⁰ Maryland Report Card, Demographics (2008). Chronic Absence includes students that miss 20 or more school days because of truancy and suspensions as well as illness, transportation problems, disengagement, family-or work-related issues.