Truancy, particularly among students in seventh through twelfth grade, has been a persistent problem for the Rochester school district. And the district has begun ramping up its efforts to get students to go to school.

The district and the city have launched a $1 million effort that will involve educators, police officers, social workers, health-care providers, and other service agencies. The district has established a new Truancy Center at its Family Learning Center on Hart Street in northeast Rochester, and the city has dedicated two police officers to pick up truants - one for the east side of the city and one for the west. The new program will be accompanied by a media campaign promoting the importance of attendance.

Average attendance figures for the 2006-2007 school year aren't available yet, but for the 2005-2006 school year, attendance was only 89 percent, kindergarten through 12th grade. And for grades 7 through 12, it was only 85 percent.

Previously, when police saw students on the streets during school hours, they simply took them back to school.

"I was getting calls from concerned citizens saying they could watch students leaving school shortly after being dropped off," says School Board member Van White. "I went down there to East High and witnessed it myself. They would come and leave whenever they wanted. They weren't taking the district's policy seriously."

"These kids know that there aren't enough hall sentries and resource officers to catch them coming and going," says White.

"The problem with truancy," says Kim Dyce-Faucette, the school district's chief of staff, "is that it is really a symptom of multiple things going on with that child."

In the new program, police officers will take truant students to the Truancy Center. Parents will be contacted and asked whether they want to pick up their children or have them returned to school. "But it won't stop there," says Dyce-Faucette. "The main objective here is to identify why the child is not in school and get him or her the help that's needed."

Teachers, an attendance project manager, and a social worker will assess the students' problems, says Dyce-Faucette. And there'll be greater emphasis on increasing parental involvement.

Students cut class because of lack of interest in school, problems at home, or lack of parent involvement, says Dyce-Faucette. But substance abuse, homelessness, fear of bullying, and lack of clothing can also be a cause.

"If the student is behind academically, we can provide that support," says Dyce-Faucette. But if there are underlying emotional problems, she says, "we will look to one of our community partners like The Center for Youth Services to help with counseling."

The new program, Dyce-Faucette says, will also be coordinated with The Hillside Family of Agencies, the organization that manages the city's youth curfew program.

"The goal is to have the curfew and truancy programs working together, eventually under the same roof," she says. "For now, we will be sharing information." The names of students picked up for truancy will be shared with Hillside, to determine whether they are also violating the curfew.

But board member Van White says he is skeptical that real progress is being made toward reducing truancy. And he says he hasn't heard a good reason why the curfew and truancy programs aren't already being managed together in the same location.

"It doesn't make sense to me," he says. "It just seems like we are creating two programs, and the way they are set up has made it hard for the right hand to know what the left hand is doing. And I don't know if we are any further along than we were a year ago when I first raised this concern."

But that may be premature, says Charles Reaves, the city's commissioner of parks, recreation, and human services.

With the curfew, "we are just now getting to the point where that program is really up and running," says Reaves. "There will be communication between the two programs, but I think the most important thing we can do is create a truancy program with consistency. We still need to see if there is a relationship between kids who are truant and kids who violate the curfew. That's why we are doing this in phases."