After nearly 100 days as Government's top truancy officer, Leonard (Shinah) Simons says efforts to improve school attendance are beginning to work.

While he admitted that the truancy problem was serious, Mr. Simons yesterday told The Royal Gazette there had been a decrease in reports last month compared to the previous month.

By the end of November there had been 341 individual reports prepared by the Education Department, with 85 primary students, 160 middle school, and 86 senior school students written up. Six private school and four home school reports were included.

In September, October, and November 40, 159, and 142 reports were completed respectively.

Mr. Simons admitted that some schools have inefficient systems, incorrect coding, or out-of-date information, making the attendance officers' jobs more difficult.

But he said CedarBridge Academy's reporting system will soon be copied by other schools to increase the reporting efficiency.

The veteran dog warden and former Police officer tomorrow begins his 100th day in his new post of rounding up AWOL students from public and private schools.

"It's serious out there,'' he said. "That's one of the reasons I left the dog warden's job, to get involved with children.

Truancy officer is `making progress' "Parents tell me they are doing everything for their children and that when they drive up, drop them off, and then turn right, their kids turn left and leave.

"I don't want to sound cliched, but children are our future. We as adults are accountable for what happens to the children of our Country.

"When things go wrong in the future we will only have ourselves to blame.'' Government's six truancy officers are from a variety of backgrounds, but all have had experience dealing with children.

"It's interesting,'' Mr. Simons said of their experiences. "It's not that they are shocked to see what's going on out there, but that they now have a wider view of it.'' Armed with statutory powers under the 1996 Education Act the school attendance officers can force a parent and child before the courts for non-attendance.

Reports are generated on persistent offenders for follow-up.

The officers have found that middle school students are more often late than senior schoolers, while the older students tend to be truants.

Under the Act, parents are obligated to ensure their children are educated, that is enrolled in school, and attend school between the regular hours.

Anyone who obstructs a truancy officer or refuses to provide information about a case can be prosecuted as well.

The officers investigate cases where children are seen outside of school property during school hours, are constantly late, or are often absent from school.

Asked if officers can grab a student and physically force them back to school, Mr. Simons said: "We don't have a hands-on policy like that where we can get physical.

"We can question anyone with regard to children's attendance. We identify the student, contact the parent, advise them of the problem and do follow-ups.'' "We're here to educate parents about their responsibilities, intervene early to prevent problems, encourage them to attend school, and enforce the Act when necessary,'' he added.

"We want to help them recommit to regular school attendance and academic achievement. Only when children are involved in illicit activity do we contact Police.'' Most of the incidents reported thus far concerned students' tardiness, with only a small number of children persistently not showing up for class, Mr.

Simons said.

And he gave the new truancy scheme his complete support, saying: "I'm pleased with the way things are going. I'll build on it in the future and as time changes we may have to change with it to get the desired result which is every child in school.''