The Maryland legislature is considering a bill that would expand a pilot truancy program on the Eastern Shore to Prince George?s and Harford counties.
Harford County State?s Attorney Joseph Cassilly said reducing truancy is a vital part to reducing juvenile crime, and juvenile crime is a factor in gang activity.
“It seemed to me that if we were going to deal with gangs, we?d have to address the truancy issue,” Cassilly said. “Aside from the pilot program on the Eastern Shore, the truancy law in this state is a disaster.”
Cassilly volunteered Harford as the “midsize” jurisdiction to test Wicomico County?s truancy court program, while Prince George?s County would be the large jurisdiction.
Ideally, Cassilly said, he?d like the county?s truancy court to work like its juvenile drug court, by offering intervention and monitoring first, then prosecution of truants and parents if necessary.
Part of the bill would have required truants to wear electronic monitoring devices, but that portion has been withdrawn.
“That was never the focus of the bill, or even a central part of it,” Prince George?s Del. Doyle Niemann said Monday of the electronic-monitoring language.
Instead, Niemann now has co-sponsored legislation that would expand the pilot truancy program.
Niemann said the new bill “allows the school system to file a complaint directly with the court.”
According to the new bill, the court may order a child to attend school, counseling (including family counseling), substance-abuse evaluation and treatment or mental health evaluation and treatment; perform community service; or keep a curfew with the hours set by the court.
