SCHOOLS are to have a say in how £174m of government money should be spent in tackling truancy and bad behaviour.

The money is to be split between local education authorities across the country.

The cash will be allocated as social inclusion pupil support standards fund grants to combat truancy and also for secondary school learning support units, so disruptive pupils can be removed from the classroom.

North Yorkshire LEA is to receive £1,067,006, and Mr Dave Griffin, senior education social worker for North Yorkshire, said that, although the county had a low truancy rate, there was a variety of ways the money could be used.

"Truancy levels in North Yorkshire are very low, but we are not complacent, we have to reduce our levels of truancy by a third by 2002 like all other authorities,'' he said.

Attendance rates for North Yorkshire last year were 92.9pc, compared with 91.1pc nationally and the unauthorised absence rate for the county was 0.5pc, compared with a national rate of 1.1pc.

Mr Griffin explained that the money could be used by education social workers and schools to reduce unauthorised absences, by increasing the number of truancy sweeps in the county.

These involve education social workers working with the police to target specific areas during school-time by stopping any child, whether alone or with an adult, to find out why they are not at school.

He also explained that there were various reasons for pupils skipping classes, and some schools could benefit from computerised registration systems, which identified patterns of absence.

Other ways the money could be used include employing staff to contact parents on the first day of absence to find out where a pupils is, or staff to provide mentoring for pupils with behavioural or attendance difficulties.

Education social workers go into schools to deal with truancy, and the extra cash will help pay for them to spend more time in schools where needed, or perhaps for some schools to have a social worker on-site.

Mr Griffin said: "It will need to be tailored to the particular needs of each school. The money will allow us to continue with those policies in use now and to work closely with schools to identify ways that they can develop new truancy strategies.''

The government has allocated £383,578 of the funds to Darlington Borough Council.

Gail Bowen, assistant director for education at Darlington, said: "The money which has been allocated to schools in Darlington to tackle truancy is obviously extremely good news as it allows us to continue the good work which schools are already doing."

Other LEAs in the region to benefit include Stockton and Tees which will receive £857,200, Durham will have £2,065,147 and Redcar and Cleveland will get £790,600