Youth Court Alliance   Check and Connect

Get involved today.

YOU can help students graduate from high school! There are many different ways you can support students’ connection to their schools.

JOIN OUR TRUANCY TASK FORCE!! This group of people meets every other month to provide a continuous gauge of the need and relevance for truancy prevention and intervention services, allowing for an open dialogue between the various stakeholders, and highlighting where certain government agencies or systems of communication may need improvement. The Truancy Task Force meets on the fourth Thursday of January, March, May, July and September; and the third Thursday of November. Meetings are held in the York County Judicial Center, on the fourth floor, from noon until 1:30pm, in Hearing Rooms 1 & 2. Do not bring a cell phone as they are not allowed into the building. This meeting is open to the public.

Tutor

Use your time, knowledge and compassion to give a student the confidence to get back on grade level and succeed in school. There are tutoring opportunities for all grade levels in all school districts. Please contact Leigh Dalton 717.771.3802 if you are interested.

Volunteer in a Program.

Volunteers allow us to continue to offer programs at no cost to our participants! Find out more about Check and Connect and the Youth Court Alliance.

Spread the Word.

If you have a spot where you think we should provide flyers or posters, or if you know of a group that should be on our email list,let us know! contact Leigh Dalton, daltonl@unitedway-york.org or 771-3802

Donate.

If you want to help, but are short on time, financial contributions are greatly appreciated

Our goal is to provide high-quality, research-based truancy prevention at no cost to participants. Your tax deductible donation can help us to achieve that goal!

Make a difference in the lives of the youth in our community today! Use the donate button on this page, or: donate online at the United Way of York, www.unitedway-york.org. Or you can mail a check directly to us! (payable to York County Truancy Prevention Initiative)

The goal of the Youth Court Alliance is to re-engage truant students in school and divert these students and their families from entering the Magisterial District Court for truancy hearings. The York County Truancy Prevention Initiative ultimately aims to open a Youth Court in each ninth grade in York County. This initial Youth Court Alliance will start at William Penn Senior High School in the School District of the City of York, where upperclassman will go through months of training to serve as lawyers, judges, bailiff, and most importantly as jurors who will provide dispositions aimed at reconnecting the truant ninth grade youth to their school. Dispositions include jury duty and social action projects. INTERESTED IN LEARNING MORE or HELPING OUT? Contact Leigh Dalton daltonl@unitedway-york.org or 771-3802 

Youth Court Alliance Parent Brochure 

Check and Connect, provided in York County by PA Counseling Services, Inc, is a data-driven intervention program for students who are truant, and may be at risk of dropping out of school. Each child in Check and Connect is partnered with a mentor who will follow each student for a minimum of two years to make sure the child is going to school, completing an entire school day and make sure their homework is complete. The mentor will also try to re-engage the students back into school. The mentor will observe the student to see why they are having trouble in school and try to resolve that particular problem. Problems can range from a lack of friends to having trouble reading. Check and Connect is one of the only programs to show a positive effective on dropouts and was one of 28 dropout programs reviewed by the U.S. Department of Education’s What Works Clearinghouse. Check and Connect is currently piloting programs in the 7th-9th grades in the School District of the City of York, and in the 8th-10th grades of Northeastern and South Western school districts. The York County Truancy Prevention Initiative is seeking funding to expand this program.

If you would like to learn more, or be a tutor to help students in this program, please contact Leah Hannah, Pennsylvania Counseling Services, Inc. 717-272-5464 x1134 or lhannah@pacounseling.com