{"id":120769,"date":"2026-02-03T00:20:10","date_gmt":"2026-02-03T00:20:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/120769\/"},"modified":"2026-02-03T00:20:10","modified_gmt":"2026-02-03T00:20:10","slug":"voice-of-da-voiceless-founder-urges-kids-to-stay-in-school","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/120769\/","title":{"rendered":"Voice of Da Voiceless founder urges kids to stay in school"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Students who are chronically absent, missing 10% of school days in a year, are at greater risk of falling behind or even dropping out.<\/p>\n<p>According to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.osc.ny.gov\/press\/releases\/2024\/10\/dinapoli-nearly-1-3-students-were-chronically-absent-school\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">available data from New York state<\/a>, about one and three students are missing too much time in the classroom.<\/p>\n<p>What You Need To Know<\/p>\n<p>Students who are chronically absent, missing 10% of school days in a year, are at greater risk of falling behind or even dropping out<br \/>\n<br \/>According to available data from New York state, about one and three students are missing too much time in the classroom<br \/>\n<br \/>One man is passing on the lessons he learn from missing years of school after a disciplinary issue changed the course of his academic experience<\/p>\n<p>It can be hard to see how everyday actions, especially when you\u2019re young, will impact your life.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s why one man is passing on the lessons he learn from missing years of school after a disciplinary issue changed the course of his academic experience.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI was in juvie and I went to Proctor and they put me in special education. I actually was able to get my grades up immediately, to be able to go back in the population. As soon as I went back in population, I got in trouble, and I was expelled out of school,&#8221; said Robert &#8220;Luca&#8221; Lucas, the founder of Voice of Da Voiceless\u00a0\u2014 a nonprofit advocating for support for incarcerated individuals, their loved ones and the youth.<\/p>\n<p>From being expelled to teaching, today we find Luca helping students.<\/p>\n<p>After years behind bars, he founded Voice of Da Voiceless. One of his missions is to encourage kids to stay in school.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMe not going to school made me have to deal with a lot of blocked roads and lack of interpretation where I was angry about something, where somebody was actually in the right, trying to get me to understand something, and my brain wasn&#8217;t able to let me understand it,&#8221; Luca said.<\/p>\n<p>His \u201cCarefully Organizing Redirecting Youth,\u201d or CORY Program, meets weekly.<\/p>\n<p>The reward-based program gives kids a chance to learn new life skills, build self-esteem, make friends, and be inspired to make the right choices every day.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis program is teaching me self-respect and motivation to stay in school and keep my head up and have more confidence in myself,&#8221; said student Xavier Heyward.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think it&#8217;s like it&#8217;s going to help people stay out of the streets and not do inappropriate things,&#8221; said student Kemaira Brown.<\/p>\n<p>Students who are chronically absent are up to four times more likely to drop out of high school, according to the U.S. Department of Education.<\/p>\n<p>The effort goes a long way in helping students reach their dreams.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to be a sports analyst because I\u2019m really into sports,&#8221; said student Cole Robinson.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI want to be a lawyer,&#8221; said student Florentino Gonzalez.<\/p>\n<p>The state Education Department also emphasizes that high attendance rates are dependent on both sanctions and incentives.<\/p>\n<p>They encourage teachers to use \u201crewards\u201d including homework passes, extra time on computers and in the gym or coupons for treats to spur students on.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Students who are chronically absent, missing 10% of school days in a year, are at greater risk of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":120770,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[203,257,67,26069,9,11,10,49,51,50,12,6317,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-120769","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-app-education","9":"tag-central-ny","10":"tag-education","11":"tag-melissa-krull","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-new-york-state","16":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","17":"tag-new-york-state-news","18":"tag-news","19":"tag-swarm","20":"tag-vod"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120769","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=120769"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/120769\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120770"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=120769"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=120769"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=120769"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}