Commentary; Posted: 10/15/03

Programs on truancy have value for schools

Don Heinzman

When students skip school, they could be opening the door to becoming a juvenile delinquent and to a life of crime. Even more important, the student could end up not getting a basic education and a high school diploma.

The state laws on school attendance are clear. Enforcing them through a team effort at the local county and school levels is working.

Parents are legally responsible for their childís attendance in school until age 12, and if the child is legally truant, the parents can be taken to court for educational neglect.

The law also requires students to be in school until they are 18 years of age.

Most counties are attacking the truancy problem with a team approach including the schools, parents, county court services and the courts.

One such program involves Cambridge-Isanti High School in Isanti County where truancy referrals to that countyís court services have dropped, from 69 in 2001 to 18 in 2003. J. Hancuch, Isanti County court services director, says as a result, there are fewer dropouts, more students are graduating and thereís less student contact with police.

This program starts with accurate record keeping on attendance. When a student misses all or part of seven days of school, they are legally truant and subject to a referral to the juvenile court system.

The next key step is early intervention. Christian Anderson, an outreach counselor at Cambridge-Isanti High School, meets with students after they have three or four unexcused absences. He works out a plan with them to address the attendance issues.

If they continue to skip, Anderson meets with them again to find out why they are missing school. At this stage he brings in the parents, who for the most part are grateful for help.

Anderson figures he talked with 220 students about their school attendance during the last school year. After confronting them, all but 40 stopped skipping classes, and of those 18 were referred to the county court services for truancy.

Schools and parents need to intervene as soon as possible and the earlier the better. County court systems need to take up these truant cases quickly.

Hennepin County Attorney Amy Klobuchar says kids legally truant need to get in front of a judge as soon as possible. ìThis is a powerful incentive to get them back in school,î she says.

Like anything that happens in schools, any successful remedy starts with the superintendent and the school board who admit there is a problem, pass a policy to correct it and insist that the administration carry out its wishes.

All too often in schools, students who habitually miss class are given the benefit of a doubt for all kinds of reasons.

The Cambridge-Isanti High School program demonstrates that dealing early and often with these students and referring them to the courts when necessary are necessary to get students back in class and earn that all important high school diploma.

Schools who fail to follow up on students who are skipping classes are doing themselves and the students a disfavor by failing to deliver an education, no matter how difficult the circumstances.

Truancy is not just a school problem, it is a community problem. Klobuchar says, ìIf we want our kids to learn and the community to be safe, then we need to make sure our kids are in school.î

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