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Anti-Truancy Program At Camden HS Pays Students For Not Skipping Class

CAMDEN, NJ (CBS) - Some high school students in Camden will be paid at the end of September for attending school and not skipping out.

It's called ICE-T, which stands for "I Can End Truancy," and it's being funded by a state grant. If students attend most of the classes, they will receive $100 on September 30th. Susan Goyins is vice principal at Camden High School and says most of the students in the program have personal circumstances that prevent them from going to school on a regular basis.

"Some of them have commitments to younger brothers and sisters, some of them have commitments to older parents, and some of them are actually raising themselves so we have to look and see why the truancy exists and then try to couple them with resources to overcome them."

The program started Tuesday. It runs Tuesday through Thursday, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. for three weeks.

Camden Mayor Dana Redd says part of the program teaches them how to deal with adversity as a part of life and not something to lash out at, "Anger management from the sense of behavior, how we control our emotions, how we release anger in productive and constructive ways, whether it's taking a walk about the park, whether it's swimming in a pool, but finding ways to release that anger that is productive and not destructive to the individual."

Reported by Kim Glovas, KYW Newsradio 1060

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