Philly Officials: 32,000 Students Truant Daily

PHILADELPHIA (AP) - November 16, 2006 -- Philaadelphia city school officials will increase spending by $3 million to try to cut down on truancy.

Officials estimate that 32,000 - that's nearly one in five - of the district's 180,000 public school children are illegally absent on any given day.

The city hopes to add 400 more parent truancy officers to the 100 they already have. The officers visit homes and contact families by phone to get children to return to school.

Paul Vallas is the city schools chief executive. He says there has been an 11 percent drop in truancy at schools that have such programs.

Mayor John Street calls truancy the first step toward delinquency. He says the school system's 73 (m) million dollar budget deficit should not prevent efforts to combat truancy.

(Copyright 2006 by the Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

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