Off School, In Court

1 Compulsory Education and Failure to Go to School.- Origins of Compulsory Education in Britain.- Compulsory Education Today.- Absence from School.- Reluctance to Attend School.- Truancy.- School Refusal.- School Withdrawal.- Excessive Absence from School.- The Management of Truancy.- References.- 2 Juvenile Courts and Truancy.- Delinquency and Truancy.- School Attendance, Visits by Education Welfare Officers, and Care Proceedings.- Other Studies.- Role of the Courts in Truancy.- References.- 3 Truancy and the Juvenile Courts in Leeds.- Legal Sanctions.- From First Absence to Court Proceedings.- Adjournment Procedure.- A Case Is Proved.- Evidence of Attendance.- Nonappearance in Court.- A Random Trial in Operation.- 4 Supervision or Adjournment?.- A Retrospective Comparison.- A Randomly Controlled Trial.- Implications.- Criticism.- References.- 5 Frequency of Adjournment.- Two Varieties of Adjournment and a Letters Procedure.- Continuing Adjournment and No Order Made.- Comments.- References.- 6 Interviews.- Social Reports.- A Systematic Enquiry.- Effects of Interviews.- References.- 7 Are Interim-Care Orders a Necessary Part of the Adjournment System?.- Evaluation of Interim-Care Orders.- Comments.- Predictors of Success.- References.- 8 Features of Severe School Attendance Problems.- The Procedure.- Reliability.- Principal Component Analysis.- Findings.- Features of School Attendance Categories.- EWO Questionnaire.- Comments.- References.- 9 The Use of the Randomized Experiment to Evaluate Alternative Court Disposals.- Ethics of Social Experimentation.- Random Allocation of Judicial Measures.- Consent.- Privacy and Confidentiality.- Public Scrutiny.- Report of the Federal Judicial Center Advisory Committee on Experimentation in the Law.- References.- Legal Case References.- 10 The Leeds Truancy Project: A Magistrate’s View.- How the Investigation Arose and Developed.- Attitudes to Research in the Courts.- Does the Experimental Approach Generate Changes in Law and Social Policy?.- References.- 11 Conclusions.- Summary.- Comments.- References.- Appendix A.- Appendix B.- Author Index.