STARS
STRIVING TOWARDS ATTENDANCE REALIZING SUCCESS
Who We Are
The STARS initiative is a collaborative, comprehensive, and preventive effort to improve the growth of students educationally, emotionally and socially. STARS has been active in the Adams County area since 2009. The program collaborated with a variety of stakeholders in the community to implement and deliver a comprehensive program that addresses truancy and excessive absences within the public school system. This program is designed to move away from a traditional punitive approach in dealing with excessive absences to a problem-solving program. Through a thorough examination of community resources, risk and protective factors, and current research, a number of goals, objectives and outcomes were determined to improve the attendance, graduation rates and deter further juvenile delinquency of our local youth. The STARS program works with students with truancy and chronic absenteeism as well the families of these students. The program is designed to meet with students and families to address attendance concerns as well as reasons behind the absences. The program utilizes a staffing team consisting of the County Attorney’s office, school personnel and local mental health providers to help engage problem solving.
STARS is available to students K-12 in all of Adams, Webster, Clay, Nuckolls, Kearney, Franklin and Phelps counties in Nebraska.
About STARS
A proactive approach to reduce chronic absences and truancy
Since 2009, STARS has been actively working with local school districts to combat student attendance concerns. STARS works one on one with local County Attorney's to keep students and families out of the court system. Our goal is to find the barriers that make attending school difficult and work with the students and families to address these barriers. STARS utilizes many community resources to assist in meeting the needs of our students and families.
STARS is funded in part by the Nebraska Crime Commission/County Aid dollars, United Way of South Central Nebraska, Adams County Board of Supervisors and in kind dollars from Hastings Public Schools. STARS is physically located at Hastings Senior High School but serves as an umbrella agency under CASA of South Central Nebraska, 835 S. Burlington #106 Hastings, NE 68901. STARS is also serving Kearney, Phelps and Franklin Counties for information regarding these counties contact Heather Hunt at 402-469-4937 or starshhunt@gmail.com. STARS is funded in this area by Nebraska Crime Commission, The United Way-Kearney Area, Phelps and Franklin Counties.
Contact Us
For more information on the program or a referral, contact us today.
Address:
1100 West 14th, Street
Hastings, NE 68901
Email:
Phone:
402-984-6382