County to move forward with discussion on Truancy Court
Gordon County Chief Magistrate Judge Pat Rasbury addressed the Board of Commissioners last week concerning implementing a Truancy Court in Gordon County.
“There’s a lot to learn about a new job, and I wanted to present to you what we are trying to spearhead for Gordon County,” said Rasbury. “Truancy is a terrible problem in every county, but it is something we haven’t dealt with very much in this particular county. When you think of truancy, you think of kids, and most of the time, that’s what you are dealing with. We want to take care of our kids, but the problem is, we have a lot of parents who, for whatever reason, won’t get their kids to school. And kids who are first and second graders, and honestly any age, they can’t get themselves to school. The Truancy Team asked me to sit in on a couple of their sessions. What they do is, they go so far, call the parents in, then the parents quit coming to the meetings. Why do we need a Truancy Team if we can’t get our kids to school and there’s no accountability for the parents?”
The Truancy Treatment Team was established in Gordon County in 2003 as a resource to address the large number of children absent from school, by offering referrals and resources to support families to keep children in school.
Rasbury mentioned having an ordinance drawn up concerning truancy in the schools. “This has been brought up in the past, but for whatever reason, it couldn’t get off the ground,” said Rasbury.
Rasbury told the Commissioners that in addition to getting them on Board, he’d like to get the Calhoun City Council and both local school systems on board to let the Gordon County Magistrate Court handle truancy issues. “There’s certain steps we have to go through,” said Rasbury.
“We’ve got kids out there that are not going to learn, and it’s not their fault,” said Rasbury.
“It won’t create any more burden on us other than a little paperwork; as far as court wise, it will not be a burden,” said Rasbury. “On Friday’s we are pretty slow, so one Friday or even two Fridays a month, we could hold Truancy Court.”
Rasbury presented ordinance plans and a Truancy Team Contract to the Commissioners for their review.
Typical punishments for parents who continue to let their child miss school could be fines, community service and probation.
According to Rasbury, fines would go to a children’s fund for students in need. “If a kid needs food, or clothes, or glasses, the fines would go into a fund for these types of needs,” said Rasbury. The county is not going to make money, the court is not going to make money, the state is not going to make money. This is to better Gordon County and to be here for the kids. If we can get everyone on board and let the Magistrate Court handle it, the total obligation making sure this works is the Truancy Team, Juvenile Court and Magistrate Court.”
“We think the kids deserve it,” continued Rasbury. “Kids can’t help a lot of the situations they are in, but if there’s something we can do about it, I certainly want to be a part of it.”
Surrounding counties such as Whitfield, Pickens and Bartow all have a Truancy Court in place.
If implemented, Truancy Court would not go into effect until, at earliest, the 2017-2018 school year.
The consensus of the Board of Commissioners was to move forward with talks on the issue.