Making Attendance a Priority (MAP) is a collaborative, grant-funded program designed by the San Bernardino County Public Defender’s Office to reduce truancy in the City of San Bernardino.
MAP assigns a social services practitioner to visit families of truant students in their homes on a weekly basis to address issues leading to the child’s truancy. From 2008-13, MAP served more than 1,800 children. In a recent sampling of 43 students, 32 of them attended 70 percent more classes than before they were identified by the school district for the program.
MAP has also increased revenue to the San Bernardino City Unified School District at an average of $21,000 per year because of the increase in attendance.
In November, the California State Association of Counties chose Making Attendance a Priority for a 2013 CSAC Challenge Award, one of the most prestigious awards in the state.
The MAP program is just one example of how the County is using collective impact to solve complex problems as part of the Countywide Vision’s Cradle to Career goal.
Here is a video CSAC recently produced about the program: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOL-Y1-KM8M&feature=youtu.be