Kids Are Playing Hooky — Is That Driving Up Youth Crime?

·37 min·3 clips

Schools with below-average after-school programs had kids twice as likely to miss school, yet the district cut the budget by a million dollars.

CityCast DC hosts Washington Post reporters Lauren Lumpkin and Robert Samuels to discuss their investigation revealing how DC Public Schools' failure to address truancy—with middle school truancy increasing fivefold over a decade—connects to rising youth crime. The episode examines systemic failures in child welfare reporting, cuts to after-school programs, and political responses including youth curfews.

As heard by us

A rerun that explains why DC keeps tying teen disorder to truancy.

City Cast DC uses a fresh Navy Yard flare-up to reopen a broader Washington habit: linking youth disorder to truancy and treating that link as if it settles the issue.

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Why you'd press play

Why DC keeps tying teen disorder to truancy instead of treating it as a clean crime story.

Read the full recommendation in PlayNext →

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