Orihuela’s Councillor for Public Safety, Ramón López Cabrera, held a press conference in the city town hall where he introduced the three officers that make up the School Absenteeism Unit.

The councillor said that “The establishment of the School Absenteeism Unit was a promise that I made when I first took charge of the Department of Public Safety and Education, putting the unit into action in order to ensure that there are no empty desks in the classrooms due to absenteeism.”

He told the press that during the first one hundred days of it’s operation, a total of 711 actions have been carried out, including foot patrols, surveillance and control of minors, interviews with teachers and parents, compilation of absenteeism records, administrative work, identification, control of entry and exit of schools, etc.

Daniel Méndez, the senior agent of the Unit said that “Being involved in this Unit includes a great deal of social work around children and their families with the aim of redirecting these young people” adding that “to date we are very happy for the results that we have achieved, resolving many of the cases with which we have worked ”.

Ramón López said that he wanted to highlight the degree of involvement of these agents with families and schools in order to avoid truancy and absenteeism taking place. He said that the progress they have made to date has been excellent.