specific schools that are open currently, so we are supporting young people, and they are being referred. the crn is supporting young people and referring them directly to community-based agencies. i have been witnessing some of the amazing worked -- amazing work that has been done. as the neutral, the relationship they have been having with other city departments. >> so they are aware of tarc, and they are going to start using it as a resource for the young people that they work with? >> we have been talking specifically with the coordinators about how we go ahead and wrap around and work closely with some of the case managers, so that is in the work, and following wednesday, that is coming up, we actually have a city department meeting, and we will be talking more about that as we prepare for the fall. >> my last question, and this is

related to some of the stories you and liz were talking about, what has been successful? what are some of the success stories that we can model the in terms of having them catch up in credits, transitioning back into school? what have been some of the models that are actually working? i'm just curious as to what you have found has worked. >> i will be honest -- when it comes to working with truant students, it is very individualized. no one stood in is the same, and what works for one, so there is a need for people working with trichet students to be creative and have the resources to address the issues, and a lot of things that have worked for us is the parental involvement. that has been a big piece. we worked a lot with the parents to engage them in the process. with this case management services, that has been a big piece. being consistent, that long-term

support. all of those things that we already know to do, those are very key. we're working very close with the schools and developing relationships with those teachers and those administrators. they are a very big piece of the success for our young people, and being able to connect them with the resources they need. not just connecting them with the program, but connecting with people. but again, immediacy. and it may not work for that young person. that young person might come to me, but he may not go to the cbo down the street, so what i have to do as a case manager is in some ways become that resource for that young person until they can get to a place to where they are willing to engage cb engage cbo. you know -- and each with that -- engage with that cbo.

you have to be creative and willing to go outside the box working with this population, but again, the consistency, parental involvement, having strong relationships with the schools, building relationships with those young people, immediacy, staying connected, making sure that that relationship is there -- those are the things that work. some young people are ready for change. some young people want to make some changes. and some may not, or they may not want to at the moment. but our job, our model, is to just be that hand when they are ready. -- our motto. we expect our folks to be that hand and be that person when they are ready. we keep an open door policy for our young people. those have been some of the things that have worked in the past. supervisor dufty: one more question. i just want to theorize that i think for a lot of students that are truant in high school, that they might offer the argument here, "i don't have the problem.

i have a problem with school, and this school is not working for me." in some cases, students that i have talked with that have been -- months went by before it heron was contacted, so how do you gain credibility and not just be perceived as trying to put some money back into a situation that is not working with them? is the district going to cooperate in terms of transferring students to programs that may be more likely to succeed for that individual? >> definitely. we understand that young people -- there are some issues that do come up with the students and teachers, and our job is to advocate on behalf of our students, and we do that working with the young people to identify what the challenges may be. sometimes, those issues are valid, and sometimes they're not. sometimes we have to do work with the young people so that

they are able to understand why certain things are the way that they are or what have you, but there is a larger issue systemically that also needs to be addressed when working with young people, and that may be out of our control right now, but we are working with those young people to try to get them to a place where they can make some progress toward academic success in this partnership -- toward academic success. in this partnership, the school district is involved. >> absolutely, there are systemic issues that result in an people deciding not to go to that school anymore. if the staff on as some things that really make it so it is not tenable for a student to be in a particular school, that is our job to work with that student and work with the system to try to make the changes -- if the staff unearthed some things that make it so it is not tenable for

a student to be in a particular school. we recognize that we have to change the way we operate, and we have to have more opportunities for students to have a voice. we have to have more opportunities to engage students in things they are interested in. we have to all to the discipline system that we have used that as an antiquated system, so we do recognize that we need to change, and i'm hoping that we will, because we are trying to start for the place of relationship. that is key -- putting people before paper and rules and processes, so as long as -- if we go into a with the right will to serve the students, then i think we will find ways to navigate the system to benefit these individuals while we are trying to reach will the system, which is a longer term process.

>> i want to add that we're looking forward to coming back in september to be able to really highlight some of the successes that we have had, just given the fact that we have had such a short amount of time. we come back in september, we will be able to present more concrete data that would demonstrate some of the success. thank you. >> thank you, supervisors. chief probation officer, welcoming this opportunity to weigh in on this tremendous initiative that the city is undertaking. supervisor, you ask others to warm up the room. i am always cold to warm up a room. this room has been pretty warm at times for me. i am absolutely delighted and want to register the juvenile

probation department's unequivocal support for this approach to truancy and and our gratitude to this body to sponsor this inquiry and to lend your support to this initiative because it is our firm belief in the field of abating juvenile delinquency that truancy certainly is the farm system for the major league of delinquency, and unabated truancy is the gateway to delinquency, but i'm also here to essentially declared that our beliefs that the remedy of juvenile detention to truancy is one of the most significant reasons why it is not a positive remedy

to truancy. the approach that is being taken, that is contemplated through the use of tarc, the attention given to truancy at the early stages is the right course to take. there is a tremendous amount of data available that indicate that detention is a consequence to simple truancy, and i do not mean simple in the way of not being complex, because as we all know, this is a very complex issue, but i mean truancy that is unrelated to any existing delinquent behavior, that is not an effective remedy. we within the juvenile probation department are very clear about how we will address truancy as it relates to violations of court orders

>> active participation, and we are looking forward to the prospect of convening for juvenile probationers. i wanted to register our support for this, our commitment to make certain that there is not a slippery slope to the remedy to any of the use that are not complying with the efforts through the tarc, that it is an automatic entry. and wanted to make sure that our cars -- precipitatioprecipis

noted. >> i have one question about eligibility. do we have that capacity at tarc? >> we do. we have staff and are fluent in spanish, mandanrin, and canto nese. and i am fairly fluent in en glish. [laughter] supervisor dufty: are there any members of the public that would like to be heard? walter is moving forward. for those that are not familiar,

walter is going to warm the room with song. >> ♪ so glad you made it you made it to school on time evryday -- everyday i'm glad to say you made it ♪ ♪ you get a big grade that's a you were there every day i am so glad you made it you're playing hide and seek with school always missing don't be a fool i want to see you there in school so be there and i know you're going to make

it ♪ ♪ you're going to make it with an a today every day,e verywhere -- everywhere i will see you in school in september see you when the time in school is new i will see you in september or lose you to missing class again don't lose it ♪ ♪ try to remember the kind of september when you're in school, and you were there and cool try to remember

the kind of school in september and be there every day on time ♪ [applause] supervisor dufty: thank you, walter. i never quibble with song selection, but i am going to show my age and say i expected you to send "welcome back, kotter." >> i just wanted to say that i support tarc, and i look forward to collaborating with the staff and the agency. i wanted to remind everybody that it is not only students with currency issues, but we need to cater to the families. a lot of issues stem from the

families. there are the psychological effects and violence that goes hand-in-hand with the community. i know for english learners, a lot of times they don't understand what they are taught in school. a lot of times, they gravitate toward each other. when one or two have friends, they don't go to school. they may not be on the streets, but they may be somewhere in their friends' homes, and they are alone in the house. what do we do about those children, those people with truancy issues? i wanted to remind the staff and the tarc to be mindful of that.

talking with the immigrants, the latinos, and the asian population. supervisor dufty: any additional speakers? seeing none, we will close public comment. i want to thank all of the speakers for updating us. we look forward to coming into visiting the center this fall, looking forward to a partnership with the school district and the providers to make sure that we are doing our share. with that, we will continue this item to the call of the chair. madam clerk will call the next item. >> it is a file number 100571, safe routes to schools and muni safety. supervisor dufty: this is

something we have taken on before to ensure safe conditions for young people that are going to school. what are wanted to do first was bring up a representative of public health, there with -- they are with dph and the safe routes to school and outreach program. we also have someone here from the transportation authority. we wanted to make sure that this came before the board of supervisors, but it has not been shared with the school district. i wanted to make sure there was good information about this. i'm sorry, with the commissioners. welcome. >> thank you for the opportunity to speak. in the interest of time, we were asked to speak for four or five

minutes. we will run through this very quickly. we are running the safe route to school program in san francisco. the main purpose is actually to promote active walking and biking to and from school. that is the main overarching goal. it will increase pedestrian and bicycle traffic safety. it will decrease traffic and it -- congestion and improve air quality. it will reduce childhood obesity by promoting activity. there is a lot of research that shows it will increase academic performance. it will also provide eyes on the street. we hope to get much more schoolchildren and their families out there walking and biking. why do we need safe route to school? in 1969, half of them were

walking. it is now about 15%. about a quarter of morning traffic are caretakers driving their children to school. as you have read, childhood obesity is a major topic. it has tripled in the past 30 years. it addresses multiple issues at once. it is a national movement. we have programs throughout the country. i am proud to say it is here in san francisco. we had a half-million dollar -- $500,000 grant. the public health department, obviously the school district, the bicycle coalition, the mta,

the department of the environment is a recent partner. we just worked in five elementary schools this year'. we will add 10 more. we will start making invitations, so we will be working with a total of 15 schools next year. these are the schools we have worked in this year. we worked and bryant elementary which is in district 9. george washington carver, the bayview hunters point neighborhood in district 10. we worked in district 11 schools in the amazon area. sunnyside, and sothe sunset district. the first criteria is looking at

the enrollment. if the school has over 50%, we want to make it realistic to ask the children. >> is there a handout? >> id don't have the power point, but i have a fact sheet i can get out. and i can obviously get you copies of the power point afterwards. we work with the model that most safe routes to school programs huge. education, encouragement, enforcement, engineering, and evaluation. our program is focused on safety, teaching pedestrian safety skills in the second grade and biking skills in the fourth grade. there is walk to school day,

back-to-school day, and enforcement is self-explanatory. we tried if it does infrastructure improvements, and evaluations to measure our program's success. through their role at the county transportation agency, we were awarded another $500,000 to continue the program through 2011 and 2013. the thing that i want to stress is that at the same time, the policy is going to change at local schools. this will make it much more realistic to ask families to walk and bike to school. we will do a special outreach to each incoming gray. -- grade.

we will do a lot of outreach to the caregivers, especially at candor orientation. that is also being contributed to poor air quality around the school. and then do some training about school buses to help increase that element of our program. i really want to thank you for the opportunity to speak, and i will give you a copy of the power point. we are excited to bring this program finally to san francisco. supervisor dufty: commissioner kim. commissioner kim: in terms of the schools you will be adding -- >> is the question which ones? we decided that we are going to invite all of the elementary

schools to participate. we're going to send an invite to all of them. they will respond to us, and we will look at the criteria we have. we do want to ensure geographic equity to make sure that at least one if not more is in each supervisory district across the city. we want to make sure that half of their students are living within a mile of the school, and what helps launched a program is to see if they have participated in any evidence that show an interest. but have they participated in walking to school days before? we look at the applications we have received and pick the schools that way. commissioner kim: and just because it is a program that is already being initiated, there are some community groups and other organizations that are working with safe passages for children to walk back and forth,

and they actually partner with the high school students to volunteer to watch elementary school kids back and forth. it would be great to partner with them because they have an existing program and they're trying to do better out reach. there is at least some work that is being done there as well. >> absolutely. supervisor alioto-pier: think you, supervisor dufty. going on what commissioner kim just mentioned, in district 2, a lot of the independent schools have these programs already in place and they're pretty aggressive. they will walk three blocks down to go pick the kids up from school. i'm just curious to know if we have also considered partnering

with some of the parochial and independent schools and neighborhoods? >> we receive this question quite a bit. we're open to working with a number of the private schools in the city. what a challenge is for us, we don't know what the enrollment data is for the private schools, and how far the families live. we're happy to facilitate walking school buses where families dropped them off 3-5 blocks away to decrease the traffic congestion. it is hard pressed to deliver the full set of services when we don't know where the parents are. we're going to be setting up a website where we're going to be putting up our lesson plans for teachers to download themselves and implement if they want to. that should be up and running in a couple of months. >> there are a lot of catholic

schools that have -- there might be a lot of overlap in some of these community centers. if there is anything i can do to help, i will be happy to do that. >> we would appreciate that. supervisor dufty: commissioner mendoza. commissioner mendoza: i am curious about the involvement of sfpd in the safe routes. i have heard that it has been a little challenging. these are the kinds of opportunities where we can be sure that the engagement level is where we wanted to be. can you share that with us? >> i will bring up the officer who is wearing multiple hats today. yes, the police department is going through multiple works.

we originally got this grant in 2006, and the unit we were working with was the youth services unit that has now been restructured. we are trying to make do with the existing structure of the police department. we're trying to reach out to the district captain to work with of the schools that have been selected. some districts work with us and some have other priorities. we are trying very hard to be ready at the start of the school year to alert all the districts that there will be one or two districts that can participate. do have anything to add to that? >> this basically came about

when the resources officers were decentralizing because we entered into an agreement where we had a unit functioning where we could deliver it. we don't have that anymore. there is some movement to reinvigorate the effort, but the involvement from an enforcement standpoint solely rests with each district captain. that is the piece that we need to be able to put together in a more fluid away, especially because we're going to have 15 schools in this coming year. commissioner mendoza: what is being communicated to the district captains for them to support the program? >> each of them received a transition binder that had deliverable within that period it is there. i think we probably just need to revisit it because there have been some