President/CEO and founder, Dr. Ken Seeley of the Colorado Foundation for Families and Children "The U.S. has developed several model programs to combat truancy with different strategies targeting different age students and Jacksonville is one of them," Dr. Seeley said. "Jacksonville schools use home visits to stress the importance of school with the parents of chronically truant students. If the students continue to be truant, their parents can be arrested for failing to ensure their children attend school." Dr. Seeley also said the State's move to deny driving privileges to truant students is proving an effective deterrent to absenteeism. United Way and the State Attorney's Office partnered to bring Dr. Seeley to Jacksonville to share his expertise on parent engagement. In addition to speaking with the principals as well as agency and community partners, United Way asked Dr. Seeley to address their Helping At-Risk Students Achieve Focus Issue Partnership. The Partnership has been studying a variety of issues that impact a student's ability to achieve high school completion in Duval County and will be recommending a funding strategy to United Way's Community Impact Council in the Spring of 2007. "We are fortunate to have Dr. Seeley provide his knowledge and insight that will translate into direct action and measurable results for our community," said Connie Hodges, President of United Way of Northeast Florida." Along with the information, it is the commitment of our community leaders that ensure we are able to provide our children with the best resources available."