LADA CJI Trainer Valerie Scott Cole, Deputy-in-Charge, Abolish Chronic Truancy (A.C.T.) Program

Valerie Scott Cole
Deputy-in-Charge, Abolish Chronic Truancy (A.C.T.)

Valerie Scott Cole has been a Los Angeles County deputy district attorney for 17 years and has led the A.C.T. Program since 2006. Prior to taking the helm at A.C.T., Cole prosecuted murders in the Hardcore Gang Division for nine years and then ran a calendar court in the busy Long Beach Branch.

As the office’s point person on truancy prevention, Cole speaks to large groups about the issue several times a month. She has also given presentations to prosecutors on homicide law issues and ethics. In addition, she has lectured to at-risk youth and their parents about gang violence and the impact of California laws addressing juvenile and gun crimes, such as Proposition 21, the Street Terrorism Enforcement and Prevention (S.T.E.P.) Act and 10-20-Life.

She has been a facilitator in the District Attorney’s Project L.E.A.D. crime prevention program for more than 10 years, has volunteered for the Constitutional Rights Foundation and is a member of multiple School Attendance Review Boards (S.A.R.B.’s).

A graduate of Bennington College in Vermont, Cole completed her first year of legal studies at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law in New York City. She later received her J.D. from at Southwestern University School of Law in Los Angeles as a night school student, while working full time and serving as a law review editor.

Valerie Scott Cole Deputy-in-Charge, Abolish Chronic Truancy (A.C.T.)

Valerie Scott Cole
Deputy-in-Charge, Abolish Chronic Truancy (A.C.T.)