Parents pay price for kids’ truancy
In some states, fines, jail possible
The 5-year-old missed school for a doctor’s appointment. The next day he had a fever. Once, his mother had car trouble, and the boy missed a day. Another time, his family fell sick with COVID-19. And then there was the day he missed school when his mother took him to his brother’s medical appointment, knowing she would not make it to school pickup on time.
The kindergartner racked up 14 absences in five or so months — half of them without explanation — according to his Missouri school district, which steered the case to prosecutors. His mother, Tamarae LaRue, was convicted of violating the state’s compulsory attendance law, a verdict the state Supreme Court upheld several months ago.
The episode ultimately sent LaRue to jail for 15 days; her case shows some of the more punitive stakes as chronic student absenteeism remains at near-record highs and many areas around the country seek to combat the problem.
“We see a lot of states that have policies where parents can be sanctioned for truancy,” said Nina Salomon, deputy division director of corrections and reentry with the Council of State Governments Justice Center. “They can end up in jail. They can have a significant number of fines or fees associated with a truancy petition. There are a lot of different approaches across the country.”
More than 14.7 million students across the country were considered “chronically absent” in 2021-2022, about 80 percent higher than before the pandemic, according to researchers. Chronic absenteeism typically means missing at least 18 days of a school year, or 10 percent, excused or unexcused.
School officials often work with families to resolve problems that hamper attendance. But students with multiple unexcused absences may also be found “truant,” which can lead to more-severe consequences.
“There is a crazy number of kids that still end up at the juvenile justice system because of truancy,” said Robert Balfanz, a professor at Johns Hopkins University School of Education who studies the issue.
Even so, truancy is complex. State laws are widely different. Three missed school days with no excuse can make a student truant in Pennsylvania, but it can take 15 days within a semester in Maryland. Adding to that, school districts and prosecutors don’t always enforce truancy laws. National data is limited, given the hodgepodge of state definitions.
Still, it’s been clear for years that missing school matters.
Children fall behind in their classes. They are at greater risk of failing a grade and dropping out of school. They often grow disconnected from teachers and friends. They miss out on school services, including free meals and mental health support.
Some local officials appear to be working harder to head that off.
In Mobile County, Ala., the district attorney’s office sent nearly 53,000 letters to families last school year warning about excessive unexcused absences. Almost 500 cases went to court, mostly involving parents.
But this school year, a new team of social workers, part of a Helping Families Initiative, has worked with 2,370 families, intervening before students became severely truant, said District Attorney Keith Blackwood. Just 10 cases have been steered to court, he said.
In Maryland’s Montgomery County, several hundred middle school students a year participate in a truancy prevention program that officials say is slated to expand. John McCarthy, the state’s attorney who helped create the program, said it is “needed now more than ever.”