Atlanta group working to get kids back into school

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) - Each month, Atlanta News First donates to an organization doing good in our community as part of our Three Degree Guarantee program.

The amount of money we donate depends on the accuracy of our First Alert Weather Team. The donation is then matched by our partners at Coolray. This month, we are highlighting the work of the Truancy Intervention Project (TIP).

“Absenteeism rates have gone up in the state of Georgia,” said TIP Executive Director Tonya Ferguson.

According to the Georgia Department of Education, over one-fifth of Georgia students miss at least 10% of school days per year.

Ferguson and TIP are working to change that. The organization operates mostly within Fulton County Schools and Atlanta Public Schools.

“If, by the third grade, they’re not reading on a third-grade level, they’ll be more likely to end up in prison,” Ferguson said.

TIP’s offices are at ground zero, in the county’s juvenile justice center in Atlanta’s Mechanicsville neighborhood.

By partnering with schools, TIP removes barriers to education through legal, educational and family advocacy, helping kids navigate life and the court system. The goal is to get kids through school with a high school diploma and maybe more.

“You know, not necessarily that every child has to go to college – not every child is a college student – but every child has to have something so they can be self-sufficient,” Ferguson said.

Latoya Riley is one of the more than 13,000 kids, mostly between the ages of 12 and 16, who have come through the program.

“I didn’t have a support, like, a woman’s support system,” Riley said.

As a freshman, Riley was chronically absent and faced little incentive to attend class in her home life.

“I was used to not having any consequences for my actions,” she admitted.

That changed through TIP.

“Sometimes it’s just as simple as just a phone call, just a mentor, because they don’t have that at home,” Riley said.

“She graduated from high school, and all of the TIP staff showed up to her graduation,” Ferguson added.

Riley now attends Georgia State and is majoring in exercise science.

Each story has a different version of success, with one overarching goal.

“Success looks like we’re getting each child and parent engaged in school,” Ferguson said.