Keeping Students in School Hot Topic of County Conference

MORENO VALLEY, CA - State and local officials on Friday will swap opinions about what strategies work best to keep students in school, during the fourth annual Riverside County Chronic Absenteeism Conference in Moreno Valley.

County Superintendent of Schools Kenneth M. Young will be joined by District Attorney Mike Hestrin, California Department of Education Student Support Services Director Gordon Jackson and others to examine approaches that could prove effective in curbing dropouts and increasing graduation rates.

"When school districts focus resources and use research-based strategies, attendance rates increase and chronic absenteeism decreases due to targeting and addressing the need rather than strictly using punitive measures," said Young, who will deliver opening remarks at the conference.

The conference is scheduled from 8:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Moreno Valley Conference & Recreation Center, 14075 Frederick Ave.

Jackson will be the keynote speaker, discussing state programs intended to slash absenteeism, including Coordinated School Health, School & Community Violence Prevention and School Climate/School Engagement.

Moreno Valley Unified School District Governing Board President Jesus Holguin will also be addressing the conference, after which the theater class at Martin Luther King High School in Riverside will perform.

Hestrin will detail what the District Attorney's Office is doing to deter delinquency.

"The importance of ... best practices for keeping our youth in school cannot be stressed enough," Hestrin said. "There most certainly is a link between school attendance and the success of our youth later in life.

"When I took office in January 2015, one of the first things I did was form our Crime Prevention Unit. That unit, and the D.A.'s Office as a whole, work closely with our schools and our community to help keep our youth in the classroom and out of our judicial system."

September is School Attendance Awareness Month. Riverside County is among more than 100 jurisdictions throughout the nation with events scheduled to underscore the link between academic performance and attendance, according to AttendanceWorks.org.

Teachers, administrators, guidance counselors, parents and law enforcement officials are expected to turn out for the event.

More information is available here: http://rcoe.k12oms.org/eventdetail.php?id=115268.

— By City News Service / Image via Shutterstock.