Improving school attendance and strengthening family functioning through support, information and intervention.
Making the Grade is a truancy reduction, family-support program for elementary and middle school children who are at risk of chronic absenteeism, truancy, and academic failure.
Making the Grade helps increase school attendance, resolve issues that may have led to the students’ disconnection from the school and increases the families’ awareness and use of community resources.
By providing services to the student and their caregiver in the home, school, and throughout the community, the goal is to improve school attendance and enhance family functioning by identifying the youth and families strengths, needs, and risk-factors contributing to illegal absences; and developing an action plan to provide support, information, and intervention.
Weekly in-home services and session are designed to:
Identify students’ and families’ strengths, needs, and risk factors which contribute to school absences.
- Develop and implement a Truancy Reduction Action Plan to increase the number of school days attended.
- Help to identify natural supports who may be extended family members, friends, teachers, coaches – people in the student’s life who can support them and their family.
Provide parenting skills training including behavior management techniques, assertiveness training, and effective interactions and communications.
Make connections with school personnel and other community resources who provide tutoring, counseling, recreation, and other family support services.
When school attendance is disrupted, it can be tough to get back on track. This was true for Alex Morales. His chronic asthma meant missing school and falling behind in his classes. Today, thanks to the Making the Grade program, Alex is enthusiastic about his studies and has become a leader in his school community.
Making the Grade is about more than keeping kids in school. While the program, which serves Lehigh and Northampton counties, aims to reduce the number of missed school days, it’s also about supporting students, their families, and addressing the underlying issues that lead to truancy at no-cost to participating families.
Through the community-supported program, families of elementary and middle school students are given 3-6 months of in-home services to identify issues and develop a goal-focused action plan. Parent resources include behavior management techniques, assertiveness training, and tips for effective communication. Making the Grade also fosters stronger relationships between families, school personnel, and community resources they may not be aware are available to them. Families can expect to hear from the program within one week of referral.
For the Morales family, the Making the Grade program has given them the tools to succeed and enjoy school once again. While Alex is working on summer math and reading workbooks created by his teachers, his sister, Maya, has been put in touch with the reengagement center in Allentown. Maya was given the resources to complete her education. She will be attending The Literacy Center in Allentown this September where she will be completing her GED, a long-time goal for the family.
Today, the Morales family isn’t just succeeding. They are thriving. And, most importantly, they are thriving together. For Making the Grade, that’s a true success story and a hopeful message for future participants of the program.