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<p>We must move beyond the numbers and get to the reasons for truancy, says the IUPUI associate professor.</p>

Gentle-Genitty to lead international truancy and dropout prevention association

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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

INDIANAPOLIS — Carolyn Gentle-Genitty, director of the Bachelor of Social Work program at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, has been named president of the International Association for Truancy and Dropout Prevention.

The association, whose history dates back to 1911, disseminates information on emerging practices and research designed to support learning and increase high school graduation rates. It has members from across the United States and the world. The goal of the association is to improve the efforts of practitioners to reduce the number of students who elect to drop out of school by sharing common experiences and intervention strategies.

Truancy and school dropout rates have been at the center of Gentle-Genitty’s research for nearly a decade. Gentle-Genitty, who is an associate professor of social work and an online education faculty fellow at IUPUI, found in a study she undertook in 2008 that middle school administrators were not tracking why their students were absent and withdrawing from school.

“We must move beyond the numbers and get to the reasons,” Gentle-Genitty said. “It is only then that we can realistically say we are developing mechanisms, programs and initiatives that truly address students’ concerns and get students back into schools and keep them there. We can no longer assume that the reason some students are not there is because they do not want to learn.”

Gentle-Genitty has continued her research, most recently convincing 4,000 students to complete a survey. Initial results indicate schools are not paying much attention to school climate. If they don’t, it will result in higher truancy and dropout rates. That translates not only to children getting less education, but also to an increase in crime because they are not being supervised during the day, according to Gentle-Genitty.

She is also part of the Talent Alliance, a group made up of IUPUI faculty and community leaders who are working to find ways to keep kids in school. Gentle-Genitty is the chair of the alliance’s subcommittee that is focused on students who have left school. 

She will serve as president of the association for the next year, concluding with the group’s annual conference to be held in Indianapolis.