The number of city students caught playing hooky dropped 6 percent last year following a massive anti-truancy crackdown, police said.
NYPD figures show that 6,387 fewer truants were picked up during the 2000 school year, dropping to 94,025 from 100,412 in 1999.
Police attribute the reduction to an increased emphasis on nabbing and discouraging truants.
NYPD school-safety chief Ray Diaz said 134 school-safety agents recently joined precinct cops on truancy patrols.
“There’s a more aggressive truancy crackdown. More kids are going to school. When that happens, we’re all better off,” Diaz said.
Authorities also said the TRACK (Truancy Reduction Alliance to Contact Kids) program started by Brooklyn District Attorney Charles Hynes has had an impact.
The Brooklyn DA runs seven TRACK centers throughout the borough. Truants are brought to the centers, and their parents are then called to pick them up and get them to school.
The truants and their parents also talk to social workers to resolve attendance and family problems.
Under past Board of Education programs, truants picked up were sent directly to school without parental involvement.
Mayor Giuliani was so impressed with the TRACK program that he set aside funds to open an additional 27 throughout the city. Many should be up and running later this year.
Schools Chancellor Harold Levy said he is a big fan of the anti-truancy campaign.
“Students who are not in school cannot learn,” he said.
A Board of Ed analysis found that chronic truants score 14 percent lower than other students on math and reading tests.
Levy said he’s also holding school officials more accountable for poor attendance.
“I have attempted to create a sense of urgency to improve attendance by ranking schools and districts according to the number of long-term absences,” he said.
He said there’s also more attention paid to students in foster care and those who’ve been incarcerated, to help keep them in school and off the streets.