Taking Truancy from Punitive to Positive: Developing a Social Support Mobile Application for Wyandotte County Schools

Through a collaboration between the District Attorney’s Office, The UMKC School of Social Work, The School of Computing and Engineering, and The UMKC Urban Education Research Center an mobile application will be developed and deployed for K-12 students in Wyandotte County. ADA Bishop expressed a need for a different approach to monitoring truancy in Wyandotte County this fall due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. With the assistance of Dr. Lee in the School of Computing and Engineering we have developed the specs for an mobile application that will provide social support to K-12 students in Wyandotte County. The application will assist with resources, needs, and concerns that parents and students have during the upcoming school year. Highlights of the application include: a interactive map that allows students to find free WiFi hotspots transportation to reach those locations, a connection with Kansas Department of Children and Families that will allow concerns of educational neglect, abuse, and other neglect to be privately reported, and a connection to resources and resources centers that can provide needs to students (food, clothing, technology) that they would typically receive if in school full time.