Truancy is a major issue for the Los Angeles Unified School District. On Feb. 18, the District held its second "Student Recovery Day."

Spread out over 16 targeted high schools, 527 volunteer school personnel visited 1,567 students in their homes in an effort to get them to come back to school.

The District considered its one day push to have been successful because 432 students either came back to LAUSD schools or were enrolled in some other school.

As Tawnya Perry, Coordinator of Dropout Prevention, pointed out, however, "There are other efforts and other programs that specifically target bringing students back on a daily basis."

One of those efforts is by the police. On campus, it's the responsibility of the Los Angeles School Police Department. Off campus, it's under the purview of the Los Angeles Police Department because truancy is a municipal misdemeanor.

Recently, criticism was leveled at the police by students from Cleveland High School in Reseda and from community members involving the ticketing and handcuffing of truants, racial profiling and the role of the police on campus.

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