For Immediate Release: Friday, February 26, 2016
Montgomery County Councilmember Sidney Katz and State’s Attorney John McCarthy will be the featured guests at 2:30 p.m. TODAY, Friday, Feb. 26, on En Sintonía con el Concejo del Condado de Montgomery (Tuned In with the Montgomery County Council), a weekly show on Radio America (WACA 1540 AM). The focus of the show will be on the County’s efforts to reduce habitual truancy in schools and the proposal to establish a mental health court that would lead to certain offenders getting treatment rather than being sent to jail.
The County is seeking to expand its pilot truancy prevention program that is in place at certain schools. Councilmember Katz, who is the Council’s lead member for behavioral health in the justice system, was recently part a joint meeting of the Council’s Public Safety and Education committees regarding the causes leading to truancy and programs to prevent it. At the worksession, it was discussed that truancy is particularly a problem among Latino students.
State’s Attorney McCarthy’s office has been actively involved in both the truancy prevention programs and the efforts to establish a mental health court in the County. The court would address persons who are arrested for crimes, but whose predominant problems relate to mental health. A mental health court would provide an alternative not currently available in the County to address their individual needs that likely would not be helped by traditional jail sentences.
Another topic of the show will be children coming to the United States from countries that have unsafe and violent conditions. Some of those children are being sent to Montgomery County, which then seeks to provide needed services for them.
The Montgomery County Council and Radio America have entered into a partnership that provides the Latino community with key information on issues and programs. The partnership also provides a forum for residents to express views and ask questions of Councilmembers. The partnership includes the weekly one hour show each Friday on the Washington Region's most popular Spanish language station.
Each week, the show features guests talking about important issues before the Council and occasionally the show provides information about programs offered by the County to help residents and businesses.
In addition to the radio broadcast, the show can be heard via the Internet at: http://radioamerica.net/en-vivo/. Video links with a summary of the show are available each week at the County Council's newly-redesigned, mobile friendly web site at: www.montgomerycountymd.gov/council.
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