Maybe the family just couldn’t afford an alarm clock.

There are a lot of reasons for truancy, Lucinda Hundley explained to the Greater Littleton Youth Initiative April 13, and most of them are not, “I just don’t feel like going to school today.”

With that in mind, Littleton Public Schools in 2005 reached out to community partners like law enforcement, GLYI, the Binning Family Foundation, the city of Littleton and the Littleton Immigrant Resource Center, among others, to create a unique solution.

Members from each agency make up the School Attendance Review Board, a voluntary and confidential authority that works with families to help them get their kids to school every day. The board works out a contract with the family, which is enforced by truancy intervention specialists who have been known to bang on an absent kid’s bedroom window first thing in the morning to get him out of bed, then give him a ride to school.

“A lot of these families have had lots of experience with authority figures, and rarely has it been positive,” said Hundley, a recently retired Littleton Public Schools assistant superintendent.

Sean O’Shea, Binning’s director, said SARB tries to “flip the script” by offering a genuinely caring and friendly experience.

SARB is not an alternative to truancy court; it’s a last-gasp intermediary. Kids who can’t fulfill the contract will find themselves in front of a judge, who can order them to do so.

Supported mostly by grants, SARB often pays for small things that make getting to school easier, such as an alarm clock, perhaps, or fixing a flat tire on a bike.

“Incentives the families that are really living on the edge can’t afford,” said Hundley.

SARB served nearly 200 kids last year. Seventy-three percent showed an improvement in grades, 68 percent got in trouble less and 71 percent skipped fewer classes.