Truancy and tardiness: Does going after parents work?
Most people who work with truants say the parents are part of the problem. But is criminal action against the parents the right solution?
Yes, according to districts that are getting more aggressive in criminally prosecuting parents whose children rack up unexcused absences or show up late repeatedly.
Nationwide, more systems are resorting to punitive measures to command the attention of parents and make a point.
Earlier this year, parents in Loudoun County, Va., were stunned to find sheriff’s deputies at their front doors with court summons. The parents faced Class 3 misdemeanors because their children had been late too many times.
In a story on the summons, the Washington Post focused on one peeved couple whose three children had glowing report cards, but the parents were still summoned to court because of how often the kids were tardy. An attorney, the father argued that the summons represented an out-of-control nanny state. The Post story drew 868 comments.
Many posters contended it was wrong to criminalize lateness. So taking kids to school late repeatedly is a bad idea and impacts everyone — conceded. However, is it criminal behavior? Do you all really understand the significance of criminalizing everything in this country? We’ve all gotten so used to the massive overreach of government we don’t even stop to consider that there are better ways to manage our society. How about we handle it in the local school instead of in the courts?
But others argued that the parents ought to own up to their mistakes: The school didn’t take this action because a child was tardy once or twice. It obviously was becoming a routine and disruptive to other students and the school staff. Part of the education of the kids is learning that it’s important to follow rules. If the rules aren’t reasonable then you work to change them through the normal processes. I don’t think the acceptable process is teaching children to blatantly break rules if you don’t like them. I bet that doesn’t work at home! This is pretty simple. Go to court and explain that you are now following the rules, apologize, accept the suspended fine, and get the kids to school on time.
Cheryl McCoy and Danelle Swanson were led away in cuffs, each charged with educational neglect, after DeKalb Sheriff’s deputies pounded on their doors.
“When we get eight unexcused absences, that’s when we are getting involved,” said Sherry Boston, the DeKalb solicitor-general. The DeKalb County School District referred 900 cases to her office last year for truancy violations, she said.
The sweep underscores a nagging problem: truancy increases the likelihood that a student will eventually drop out. And students who drop out are likely to occupy a low rung on the economic ladder or a prison cell. Nine of 10 prison inmates in Georgia are high school dropouts
In Cobb County, the number of court referrals last year was around 350, said Paul Pursell, the school system’s truancy coordinator. Police complain to him that truants commit daytime burglaries and other mischief. Both Atlanta and Cobb schools refer cases to the courts after 10 unexcused absences, but school counselors and social workers get involved far earlier, typically after three unexplained absences.
Denise Revels, the coordinator of social work services for Atlanta Public Schools, said students who fail to attend until age 16, as the law requires, affect everyone. “They don’t become productive citizens,” she said. “So it’s a societal problem.”
School officials link parents with social services that try to help. This summer, Atlanta experimented with a month-long summer camp that placed 40 truant middle school students with Atlanta police officers. The kids took field trips, did community service, attended police training and bonded with cops, who plan to follow up with them during this school year.
“Court is really the last resort for us,” Revels said.
Sometimes, though, it’s the only option. About 70 of those 900 DeKalb court referrals last year failed to appear for their meeting with the judge, leading to bench warrants for their arrest, said Sgt. Adrion Bell, spokesman for Sheriff Tom Brown.
Swanson, 26, failed didn’t show for court after her child missed 16 days of kindergarten. McCoy, 43, skipped court after her teenager missed 37 days of middle school. Boston asks judges to impose one day in jail for each day of school missed, but only two or three cases actually got that far last year, she said. “The vast majority of our parents just need help and guidance.”
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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143 comments Add your comment
Batgirl
August 3rd, 2012
10:01 am
@Jane W., for may years our high schools had JROTC. We middle school teachers were amazed and thrilled to see the transformation of kids who had been chronic disrupters when we had them. Unfortunately, the program fell by the wayside when the recession started. But God knows, we keep those elective classes that benefit the students from well-to-do families.
ATL Parent
August 3rd, 2012
10:40 am
It is amazing that no one is looking at all the pieces in the puzzle for good education all aroung. Teachers should be held accountable for every student that meets the requirement of attendance in their classroom. They are not accountable for your childs attendance, proper dress, nor to feed them. Teachers are to teach and not raise your child. It is the students responsibility to learn, listen, and retain what is taught. Some may need more help, parents may need to find tutoring. Students are not at school to text, play games on the phone or any other device, socailize for the entire day – they are there to learn. Parents are responsible for discipline; ensuring their child is getting the proper education including tutoring if needed; getting your child to school on time; making sure your child is dressed properly; and making sure your child is getting all the requirements at home: food, clothing and shelter. Parents, rich or poor, that refuse to comply should be offered ‘CharterJail’ (thanks Mark) at their expense were they are taught parenting 101. Putting parents in jail should be the very last resort. Jails are being supported by more money than the school systems are given. We need to let inmates suffer more than our children.
usually lurking
August 3rd, 2012
10:43 am
@Batgirl – Good distinction between chronic tardiness and truancy and creative solution to require the children to ride the bus. From reading the WaPo story, seems to me like this is an upper-middle class family who believes that since they volunteer in the school, the rules do not apply to them. @Annette – I think I know the school of which you speak – crying shame to punish children for walking to school, and borders on criminal to build a school that children are prohibited from walking to.
Tony
August 3rd, 2012
10:53 am
Allowing parents to continually bring children late to school is disruptive and COSTLY. For all of you who think we should maximize our resources (and I am one of those), we must understand there is a financial cost and hidden costs in accepting children late into classes that have already started. There is an expectation that the child be caught up for the time missed. There is a paper trail for children who did not arrive on time so attendance records will be accurate. There is a cost for meeting with the families when children have excessive tardies and have gotten behind. There is a cost for the remedial education that has to be provided for the children whose parents do not get them to school on time.
Is this criminal? Maybe not. Instead, let us charge the fees related to these costs. That way, the school can recoup some of the losses to the taxpayers.
pull my other leg
August 3rd, 2012
11:00 am
Cobb county reports after 3 day? Hah, don’t make me laugh. I have seen several children missing more than 20 days of school. I have seen children tardy more than 60 days. This was reported to the social worker. Did anything happen? You guessed it . Nothing! No wonder they say less than 400 referals were made for truency.
Parent/Teacher
August 3rd, 2012
11:00 am
Two different examples of truency I experienced this past year. One family, two parents, both were at work while a 2nd grader prepared two younger siblings for school. One family, two parents, could not get their 2nd grader on time and missed breakfast multiple times, disrupting the whole class due to crying and tantrums. What’s the answer…Hold parents accountable and yes, shame them.
Really amazed
August 3rd, 2012
11:16 am
So let me understand this…if a child is absent more than 10 days a year in Cobb, social services will show up at the house?? What about the child that is late every other day????? To me this is just as bad or if not worse.
Parents
August 3rd, 2012
11:19 am
There are some children that cannot be controlled by parents. There are some children who act as if they are going to school and fall in with others who play hookey. There are some children who face peer pressure for following the rules. I do not think, i most cases that punishing the parents will work. I wish it would.
Should the parents be punished for the sins of the children??
When the power to discipline was removed from the teaching community, the education process was harmed. Some of the children who now are absentee very well may be such a disruption in class that the teacher and the other students are the ones who suffer.
My suggestion?? Draconian?? BOOT CAMP!!!!!
Lee
August 3rd, 2012
11:19 am
This is what happens when school attendence went from being a privilege, to a right, to a government mandated requirement.
Add in a low IQ, non-producer who lives in Section 8 housing receiving a government check, er, government debit card (aka, the Democratic base) and the result is the current state of affairs.
Personally, I dont care if they show up for school. Flunk them. Still doesn’t show, flunk them again. I do, however, like the idea of tying welfare benefits to school attendence.
Actually, ending welfare would solve a LOT of problems in the US.
williebkind
August 3rd, 2012
11:23 am
Make schoool voluntary! Our country was not founded on social education or engineering. The liberal’s government controlled education system is a bust. I got it just pay them to go to school–like a welfare check.
Dr. Monica Henson
August 3rd, 2012
11:26 am
One of the worst cases of chronic lateness to school I ever dealt with was the youngest (son of a local physician) who just couldn’t be bothered to be at high school on time. His dad was incensed that tardiness without an excuse pulled a 6:30 AM detention with me every time, which was before the buses ran, so a parent had to drive him. Missing detention without an excuse pulled a day of out-of-school suspension, and no one got back into school after an OSS without a parent conference with me. Problem solved, after a lot of yelling by a disgruntled doctor who just didn’t see what the big deal was…
I’ll do whatever it takes to get kids to school when I’ve worked in the brick-and-mortar world…but my caveat to my staff has always been, when they get here, do NOT waste their time. That means that teachers must create learning environments that are engaging & interesting to be in, not droning on at kids while they struggle to stay awake during a boring, endless lecture session.
For too many kids, school might as well be jail, given what they “learn” while they’re there. We owe it to students to make sure that the time they spend in school is WORTH every minute. That would take care of an awful lot of chronic lateness.
Mountain Man
August 3rd, 2012
11:41 am
“There are some children who face peer pressure for following the rules. ”
Another issue to be dealt with in education.
GetReal
August 3rd, 2012
11:43 am
Issues such as this should be taken on a case-by-case basis. My daughter misses on average about 15 days of school per year (I’m one of the few parents that actually cares enough to keep my kid home when she has a fever or is infectious so the other kids don’t get sick while every other irresponsible parent sends their hacking kid to school doped up on meds to hide the fever!) Nonetheless, my daughter always ranks in the top of her school on standardized tests (top of the nation, actually). Considering the fact that her public school teacher told me she “did not teach social studies or science because it was not on the CRCT in 1st grade” I think my daughter actually got more from staying home than she did at her public jail (I mean school). She is now in private school and misses however many days she needs to without fear of DFACS. She performs in the top of her school (not grade, school). Every situation differs. For the kids who miss school due to parental neglect (too tired to take them, drug use, etc.) that is fine to deal with that but do take it on a case-by-case basis, please. Every story has two sides.
Reality
August 3rd, 2012
12:16 pm
williebekind –
You really make me sick. You likely make many many others sick as well. With any and every issue, you twist it and then blame a group you label as “liberal”. What is WRONG with you????
I would wager a good amount that you don’t even know the correct definition of the word “liberal” do you? Look it up PLEASE before you post anything else!!!!
Public HS Teacher
August 3rd, 2012
12:21 pm
Bottom line…..
As long as there are laws on the books that school is mandatory, then yes, the parents should and must be held accountable.
Some people posting say that linking this to welfare are off base. There are many wealthy parents with kids skipping school and/or late for school. I know because I teach in one of these areas.
I had a kid in my class whose mother kept her out for a ‘day at the spa.’ I’ve had kids in my class late because they had a ’sleep over’ at their friends house and the house mother wanted to cook them breakfest.
I could go on and on, but I hope you get the picture.
Again, ALL parents need to be held accountable for their own kids!!!! Gee – what a novel concept?
Digger
August 3rd, 2012
12:24 pm
When certain kids don’t show up, it’s cause for celebration. Make hay while the sun shines.
Angela Palm
August 3rd, 2012
12:30 pm
This is one of those topics that illustrates the complexity of education policy. Just a reminder of some of the things that have been put in place:
In 2004, the General Assembly passed legislation creating attendance protocol committees, led by the chief judge of the superior court, in each county. This was the culmination of a task force of Gov. Perdue and the Dept of Ed. Under this law (20-2-690.2), the committee details the procedures for identifying, reporting, and prosecuting violations.
Far as I know there has been no follow up to this venture to see how or if it is working in each county.
Public schools have been greatly criticized for not ensuring graduates leave school with “soft skills” such as the self-discipline to show up on time on a regular basis. Last year, legislation was passed authorizing the Governor’s Office of Workforce Dev to create a certification of soft skills and workforce readiness. It also says they “may collaborate” with DOE and Technical and Adult Ed. I believe the GA Chamber is helping with that initiative.
Although there is a lot of political rhetoric about individual responsibility and accountability we seem to have lost the ability to figure out how that applies to public education.
Hillbilly D
August 3rd, 2012
12:31 pm
By the way, from a business community viewpoint, one of the valuable lessons that is learned in school (and college) is the ability to follow rules and be present and be on time. If a kid is not taught to get to school every day and be on time, how long do you think that he/she will last in the workforce?
That’s a good point but I learned that at home. Every day when I got up to go to school, Daddy had already been gone for about 2 hours. No matter how bad he felt or how sick he was, unless there was a funeral that day, he went to work, day in, day out, year after year. All these things go back to the home. Kids don’t listen to what adults say, they watch what that do. That’s how they learn.
Hillbilly D
August 3rd, 2012
12:34 pm
“There are some children who face peer pressure for following the rules. ”
That one goes back to the home, as well. If the consequences at home are severe enough, they won’t bow to the peer pressure. As for peer pressure in general, nobody can make you do anything you don’t want to do or don’t feel is right.
another comment
August 3rd, 2012
1:38 pm
My daughter missed 36 excused days in 6th grade last year. The bullying she was subject too, made her physically sick. She was first subject to bullying in 4th grade in Cobb. She was physically assulted by minority free lunch students both on the bus and on the play ground. She was mocked for her Freckles, if a white child had made comments about a black child’s skin coloring the black mama would have been on the news claiming it was racial. It was racial, to my Irish/Scot child as well she can’t help her freckles. Then she was called the “B” word and punched in the eye by the Black girls who lived in the section 8 apartments, just because we lived in the nice subdivision. So was the other white girl who lived in our subdivision. My daughter suffered a concussion, an assult that I filed charges through the police, after the school did nothing through 3 assults. Finally, I got a NTLB change of school for 5th. My daughter thrived, was an Obama scholar. I knew that in middle school she would end up with the same trash who were bulling her at her zoned school. So I took a $300K loss on my house and moved to Fulton.
Then the worse nightmare happens again. Right off the bat, she is bullied by one of the free lunch ghetto line jumpers at her new school. This bully girl, is kicking her, kicking her chair. Threatening that if she tells she will beat her up more. My daughter starts refusing to go to school. She is sick, headaches, stomaches, etc. The doctor’s believe her, give us excuses. Finally, I get the truth out of her, go to the principal. Guess, what they even have a desk in the Principal’s office for the kids to demonstrate. It stops for a little bit. But I can basically tell my daughter is now afraid of black kids at her school. Thank goodness Fulton County has the bus route seperated, homeowner’s rank seperate routes from the apartment complexes. So at least we don’t have to live in fear that our child is going to be beat on the bus because we own a nice house.
Until the School systems stop the bullying, stop the line jumpers, who don’t belong in the better schools, my child will stay home when she does not feel well enough to go to school. Even Children’s Healthcare said she had School Phobia, caused by fear of being abused at school. So when the School Social Workers call me, I ask them when are they going to stop the bulling. When are they going to enforce my childs IEP, when are they going to follow her 504. Her 504 allows her to be late everydate, due to her severe depression.
TheGoldenRam
August 3rd, 2012
1:52 pm
I have a rule that I live by when it comes to sharing comments about teachers and the teaching profession. I don’t say anything that I wouldn’t say directly to my own mom, who was an exceptional 3rd- grade teacher in public schools for 33 years. With that caveat in mind, I say this with all due respect to the many wonderful people that have found their calling in public education.
Pretty much all of the teachers that I know are great people. The same can be said for the many teachers I’ve met over the years when my mom was teaching. There is something very special about that profession. I came to realize a long time ago that it truly is a calling for these people as much as it is a career. It takes very dedicated, caring, inspirational, patient, motivated, people to do that job well. My family and I have been beneficiaries of great teachers. My nice neighborhood and neighbors benefit from great teachers. The fruits of their labors are ubiquitous in our society. They are a national treasure and their collective efforts have been and always will be a large part of our democracy’s foundation and success.
However…I find teachers, and the teaching profession as a whole, to be politically inept and almost painfully naive.
I’ve come to believe that it’s a tragic byproduct of all the beautiful and altruistic tendencies that contribute to them being those great teachers. I’m sure the family members and friends of other teachers share in this opinion. It’s tragic to watch people you care about and respect get continuously battered and beaten and blamed for so many things that are far outside of their control. Those of us that love the teachers in our lives don’t need to read polls and studies about the steep decline in the profession to know that much of education is in crisis. We eat dinner with these people(and glare menacingly at other guests that say things like, “Ann, how’s teaching?”.) We know and have known, for quite a while.
The frustration is the lack of any real push-back. In the micro, one-on-one with the teachers, you get profoundly intelligent explanations, fierce justifications and thoughtful defensiveness. You hear ideas and solutions based in reality and experience that make a lot of sense. In the macro, in the great public dialogue about education, teachers are almost nonexistent. It is irony beyond measure that teachers deal directly with the consequences of bad parenting, bad administration, bad politics/legislation and now corporate invasions into the field, yet the public conversation is being held by parents, administrators, politicians and executives to the exclusion of the actual teachers themselves. That absolutely amazes me!
This truancy issue is just another big issue/theme that teachers utterly fail to weigh in on politically. As teachers have frequently asked on this blog for as long as I’ve been a reader, “How do you teach students that aren’t even there?”.
How big is this problem? Huge!
Miami-Dade County has done studies that show on any given day 160,000 students are absent in a school system of about 450,000.
Philadelphia reports that on an average day, over 16,000 students are absent without an excuse.
Random attendance audits of Detroit Public Schools showed many days that attendance is under 75%. The worst day on record was 11/24/2010 when the rate was 43%. About 42,000 kids didn’t come to school that day.
Atlanta Public Schools has a truancy rate of about 10%. That’s over 6,000 kids that have missed at least 15 or more days of school.
Through the power of Google, I could go on & on & on with the depressing statistics from all over the place.
Again, this is “just” the issue of truancy. It’s not like it affects discipline or test scores or teaching pace/planning/resources. Or does it? I guess John/Jane Q. Public can get their answers from the ‘pros’ that are having the conversation just like they do for all of the other issues surrounding education.
Why are teachers, the professionals on the front lines, so accepting of politically marginalization/irrelevancy as their profession is literally dismantled in front of their very eyes?
Are teachers too afraid to fight back or is it that they’re too nice to engage in conflict? What explains the paradox of the teacher as both educational professional and political weakling?
It’s maddening to watch.
long time educator
August 3rd, 2012
2:03 pm
The comment above by “another comment” speaks volumes about what teachers and principals are dealing with on a day to day basis. From the ghetto kids who lack parents to the adversarial parent of a child with a 504, principals and teachers cannot concentrate on the main thing: learning. Discipline needs to be restored or we just need to give up because a school without discipline is not safe. We need to build alternative schools for the children who need extreme structure to learn; otherwise they wreck it for all the others who do want to learn. Would the alternative school look alot like juvenile detention? Probably, but the children will end up in real prison if we do not do something.
Asinglemom
August 3rd, 2012
2:08 pm
I work a job that requires that I leave for work before 7am. My children are straight A students
I wake them up before I leave and require feet on the floor
I leave for work if they go back to bed
Now I can go to jail
This is an over reach of government
And for all of you about to bash that it is all because I am a single mom …tell it to the recruiters of 3 major Universities that have offered them a full ride to college
Once Again
August 3rd, 2012
2:08 pm
A sound improvement that could be made to the failed government-controlled education system in this country would be to abolish all mandatory attendance laws. If someone doesn’t want to attend, don’t make them. I know I will get a lot of grief over this remark, but hundreds of learned folks who have looked at the failed government system all agree that mandatory attendance laws are a big part of the problem with education in this country.
Every time I post something about choice, I get an onslaught of comments to the effect of “but if the state doesn’t force/pay for/mandate, etc. attendance or provide ‘free’ education, etc. then they won’t get educated.” Fair enough. But why would you want to force YOUR child to have to suffer in a class with these folks who don’t want to be there??? Why do you care MORE about everyone else’s child than the welfare of your own?? Seriously, why?? Because that is what is going on. This is not about taking care of your child and then being voluntarily charitable to assist another less fortunate. This is about sending your child to a school where they will be forced to try to learn in a class with children whose parents don’t care about their behavior and who themselves don’t wish to be in attendance. Why would you consciously and knowinly support such treatment of YOUR child??
Further, these kinds of laws are also about control by the government. They are also designed to assure that THEIR definition of attendance in “school” is enforced which fundamentally supports the teacher jobs programs that they run with the money of the taxpayers.
Dr. Monica Henson
August 3rd, 2012
2:08 pm
Attendance to instruction is extremely important. Up to 7.5 million students miss a month of school each year in the United States. GetSchooled.com has a calculator that shows the impact of missing 1-30 days of instruction in middle and high school–sobering to see. https://getschooled.com/attendance-counts
A lot of the attendance problem can be attributed to lackadaisical attitudes by parents–and by no means is this limited to the low-income sector, either. I’ve dealt with middle-class moms who allow their kids to stay home whenever they darn well please, have no qualms about pulling their kids out of school for the day early for the slightest reason, then demand that the school somehow figure out a way for their kids to earn credits despite not having been present OR doing the work to do so. An awful lot of middle-class parents in this country see school as a taxpayer-funded daycare center for their tweens and teenagers, with simply being listed on the roster as reason enough to expect a diploma to be awarded.
Beverly Fraud
August 3rd, 2012
2:19 pm
Are teachers too afraid to fight back or is it that they’re too nice to engage in conflict? What explains the paradox of the teacher as both educational professional and political weakling?
It’s maddening to watch.
@TheGoldenRam you’ve hit the nail on the head. For starter, why do teachers make, as THEIR advocate, two organizations, PAGE and GAE who, as part of their mission, have to protect ADMINISTRATIVE interests?
It’s like a chicken saying “Nahh, that PETA is so outspoken; I think I’ll let Truett Cathy advocate for me instead”
Maddening indeed.
Momtoktb
August 3rd, 2012
2:24 pm
@another comment: I’m sorry your child has suffered so much. You were smart to include this issue in her 504. We did the same. If a young child is distraught about leaving for school due to the treatment he/she receives there (from peers and often from teachers, who don’t realize the role they can play in creating a bullying atmosphere!), then it’s best for their emotional health and education to take time to reset the day. Why drop him/her off when they are upset and expect the school to handle it?
(As an aside, my child was tormented on a bus due to his beautiful freckles. When he responded by commenting they we are all different, like the almond shape of the tormenter’s eyes, you can be sure I got a call from the momma. Ugh.)
Don't Tread
August 3rd, 2012
2:53 pm
They should criminalize “California Parenting” in general.
In the real world, you break the rules, you get punished…it should be the same way in school. But we know who’s in charge of the [public] school systems now, don’t we? See the APS scandal…
And we wonder why this country is going the wrong way.
Beverly Fraud
August 3rd, 2012
2:58 pm
See the APS scandal…
And people like Sam Williams and Kasim Reed (aka “the Hall enablers”) wonder why taxpayers don’t BLINDLY trust them with over 7 BILLION dollars in new taxes?
As bad a traffic is, what a DAMNING indictment of the lack of trust people have in political and civic leaders.
jarvis
August 3rd, 2012
3:04 pm
Someone please inform the governor that cutting University System funding for tax relief isn’t really “cutting” anything. It’s redistributing the problem. If he can make a promise that in-state tuition won’t rise with the “cuts”, I’m all for it.
Otherwise, taking money from left hand as opposed to my right hand accomplishes very little.
Mountain Man
August 3rd, 2012
3:12 pm
“My daughter misses on average about 15 days of school per year (I’m one of the few parents that actually cares enough to keep my kid home when she has a fever or is infectious ”
I think the emphasis is on “unexcused absences” – as long as you have a doctor’s note for that absence, I am sure you will be fine.
catlady
August 3rd, 2012
3:13 pm
What I have seen here is the few times it actually goes before the judge, the parents are told “not one more unexcused absence”. By this time it is the end of the year, and the clock resets the next year (even if the behavior has been going on a decade!). I am unaware of ANY parent who has had to go to jail! In 39 years!
And as for the “social worker,” she seems to be constantly having meetings that end up making excuses for the family. They get “more chances” and “more interventions” and “more help.”
On the other hand, I have been exposed to a great deal of serious sickness from parents sending their kids to school very ill. I have lost thousands of dollars in doctor, hospital, and lost wages due to the parent’s unwillingness to take care of the child. (And don’t say it is due to parents’ work; in my area many of the children have NO parent working!) They say, ‘I just thought I’d send him along and if you think he needs to go home, you will call” after exposing at least 30 kids and some adults to the virus or bacteria.
Let’s face it–until the school regains its authority to handle matters of discipline and attendance, we will continue down this road to mediocrity (or worse).
BT
August 3rd, 2012
3:14 pm
It is bigger than that, you are teaching the child it is okay to be late. Their employer is not going to put up with tardiness, why should schools?
Hunter
August 3rd, 2012
3:19 pm
Getting the parents of truant kids involved won’t help. These parents just don’t care. Perhaps if the parents had to pay some kind of penalty (jail would be good) it might knock some sense into them.. The kids are crying out for their parents to care.
Mommy Knows Best Over Here
August 3rd, 2012
3:49 pm
“as long as you have a doctor’s note for that absence, I am sure you will be fine.” Funny, you should say that, as it is true, however, I too, like that mother, care to keep my children home when they are sick or have a fever, HOWEVER, since I am on private insurance and not any type of government peach care or medicaid, I actually have to pay out of pocket for that doctor’s excuse. $118 to be exact! Our insurance won’t pay until my children have met their $1200 deductable. So, while my kid is up all night with the stomach bug, I am expected to get him up to make a “work in sick visit” to his doctor for an illness they can do NOTHING for AND pay over $100 for a note so that the school knows we weren’t out at the movies all day! GIVE ME A BREAK! With severe asthma attacks, the annual stomach bug, pink eye, and common cold, I shouldn’t need to pay a doctor to give me permission to care for my child at home. My kids are both honor roll kids, however, they both miss on average about 8-10 days of school each year. I hate that the school system can threaten me with DFACS (or court) for being a responsible parent.
Dan
August 3rd, 2012
4:06 pm
As with many education issues, a large part of it has to do with entitlement and a desire by parents, teachers, administrators and students to pass the buck and shift responsibility. Education should be viewed as the priviledge it is. Pushing someone to do something they have no interest in, only wastes time, energy and money better spent on those who appreicate the opportunity.
Public HS Teacher
August 3rd, 2012
4:42 pm
@Once Again….
While your point sounds good in theory, think about the impact long term on our society and Country. There is no question that education is critical for individual and for society success. This is why, I think, there is the law in place to begin with. It is for the common good for our community and our citizens.
The problem is when parents do not parent. This is a theme told on this education blog time and again. Adults can reproduce and have no intention of actually parenting their offspring. Some say that it is the school’s responsibility (yes, I have heard this from a mother!).
The impact of parenting not parenting is far reaching beyond the classroom. Think of the things that good parents pass along to their children – common manners, reinforcing proper speach, and other “soft skills”.
Today’s schools (private and public) are charged with so very much. I feel it ridiculous to put parenting on their shoulders as well. If schools (private and public) can teach the basics of formal education – science, social studies, English, math – and do it very well, then that is the best of all worlds. It SHOULD be up to parents to do the rest – what I call parenting.
If adults cannot or do not want to parent, then they should not have offspring!
Public HS Teacher
August 3rd, 2012
4:44 pm
@Dan –
From my post above, you can see that I feel that there is a clear line defined on what is and is not the responsibility of schools and of parents.
Do you agree?
Fred in DeKalb
August 3rd, 2012
4:44 pm
I wish DeKalbite was participating in this thread. They indicated that Central Office employees were solely responsible for student performance. This despite having parents such as those mentioned in this article. Of the 900 referrals in DeKalb, it is fair to speculate where in the county a majority of the problems occurred. It is also fair to speculate that those schools are also impacted by those students and parents, perhaps even in not making AYP.
As someone said early, you can’t teach a student that is not there. This despite the best efforts of the educators to help all students. To simply blame the educators without looking further at each situation is an easy way out. I’m curious of the reasons the mothers mentioned in this story provided for not ensuring their children went to school, especially for the kindergartner.
There is enough blame to go around….
Cobb Coach
August 3rd, 2012
4:49 pm
Who ever said councelors and social workers get involved before the 10 days in Cobb is flat out lying. I’ve had students with 40 absences despite calls home and nothing ever happens.
Frustrated Parent
August 3rd, 2012
5:00 pm
I have held the same job for over 20 years. I don’t make a lot of money but I’m doing ok and I’m not on welfare. I never go out and can count on 1 hand how many times in my children’s lives that I’ve had a babysitter for them. I teach my children the value of working everyday and to be proud of what they do. I’m always on time to everywhere I go and have taught this to my children from day 1 as well. When you have a high school child who is over 6′0″ and refuses to go to school, what are you to do? I can’t physically make him go to school (or I would get put in jail for daring to lay a hand on him) I have preached to my children the importance of education on a daily basis. I have fights with my son every morning when I try to get him out of bed to go to school. I stress about this on a daily basis to the point where if I keep fighting it I will end up dead from all the stress and my son still doesn’t care to go to school and says he’s quitting the day he turns 16. But the state has made it to where he can quit when he’s 16 and I’m still responsible for him until he turns 17. So after my son quits school I still have 1 year to make sure he is clothed and fed and have a roof over his head until he turns 17 and if I don’t do this I go to jail for deglect and for that entire year, I can’t even make him get a job. Because the state has made sure of that. It is not the parents fault when you’ve tried EVERYTHING. By the way, I have another child who goes to school everyday and is also on the A-B honor roll. But I guess people don’t see that when they are making judgements. Unless you’ve walked a day in my shoes you need to watch the stupid comments you make and don’t even pretend to know what I go through on a daily basis.
Ron F.
August 3rd, 2012
5:02 pm
“For too many kids, school might as well be jail, given what they “learn” while they’re there. We owe it to students to make sure that the time they spend in school is WORTH every minute. That would take care of an awful lot of chronic lateness.”
Dr. Henson: oh, but if it were that simple. Think about it. In high school, a kid has 6 or 7 teachers. If one doesn’t click with a kid, the kid might want to use that as an excuse for not coming to school. There are ways to address that issue, but the foundational attitude of valuing education enough to come regardless is taught at home. I’ve had conferences and chaired 504 meetings with parents who allow that excuse and consider it the right of their child to feel comfortable every minute of the day. While I too think we have a monumental responsibility to make school worth attending for every child, there is a life skill the kids need to learn about dealing with people they don’t like and putting up with them for the sake of a greater goal. I’m not excusing bad teachers and have pushed for schedule changes for some kids when there is no effort on the part of a teacher to try to motivate a kid. At the same time, I’ve also had kids whose schedules we’ve rearranged several times only to have them find yet another reason to complain. It’s not easy to engage a kid all day when he’s looking for an excuse to be disengaged. On any given day, with between 100 and 150 kids coming through my room, it’s likely a few will get frustrated beyond my ability to reengage them.
I’d also like to ask, what is your take on the CCGPS? I’m concerned about how to balance the need for engagement with the very full, fast-paced curricula I’ve seen so far. How are you working with teachers to make sure they keep the learning engaging when there’s so much to get done to keep up with the pace of the state curriculum maps? I’m working with a couple of new teachers, and they’re a bit overwhelmed by it all right now.
Public HS Teacher
August 3rd, 2012
5:11 pm
@Fred in DeKalb -
In any job or profession, when responsibilities are not clearly defined there will be this type of “passing the buck”.
Teachers/educators should provide a very specific list of what will be provided. In these times of budget reductions, I feel that EVERYTHING should be listed. As a teacher, myself, here is a partial list of things that public shools provide:
1. breakfest. Yes, some students get it free, some get it reduced, but the bottom line is that our tax dollars must still be spent to build a large commercial kitchen not to mention the employees.
2. lunch. Yes, some students get it free, some get it reduced, but the bottom line is that our tax dollars must still be spent to build a large commercial kitchen not to mention the employees. Even if a student pays the full student price, that price is not 100% of the cost, tax dollars pick up the rest.
3. security. Schools have security guards to ensure the safety. Some schools have one, two, or even more of these. These folks have an office (built with tax dollars) and sometimes extra equipment.
4. Nurse or other type of medical assistance person. Not only is the person’s salary paid for, but there is the equipment in that office all paid by tax dollars. This may include a wheel chair, and general medical supplies.
5. Social worker(s). Depending on the size and location of the school, there may be one, two, or more of these. They need private offices.
6. Bus Drivers, buses, maintenance workers, etc. Few realize that cost of this to the tax payers.
Schools have become too much. The actual requirement of schools – to educate – has been watered down so very much.
I feel that we need to strip down schools to the basics. Only teach the basics. Don’t provide anything else. A building with teachers and supplies to teach – that is all that is provided. No administrators, no secretaries, nothing else. What the teacher says, goes.
In that case, I would be 100% in favor of holding the teacher accountable. Also, the teacher has the power to expel a student, etc.
Imagine the decreased cost. Imagine the increase in learning.
Ron F.
August 3rd, 2012
5:22 pm
To those blaming this on “entitlement” mentality, think about this. I work in a high poverty school in a rural area. In the years I’ve worked there, we’ve seen a significant increase in the number of poor parents coming to Open House and making sure to give contact information. The tough economy has definitely made many of them see that their kids need better than they have now and they’re trying to be better parents. Some aren’t, but that number might surprise you. Many of those receiving some type of assistance are, in fact, working. They work a lot of hours in low-paying jobs, and feel lucky to have a job at all. It’s easy to talk about those folks, but how many of us are actually talking TO them? I guarantee you your attitude would change a little if you spent some time talking to them. Their skills are often limited, and many will tell you they didn’t have a good educational experience. Many of them know their kids need better, and they truthfully don’t get enough from any aid program to afford to sit and do nothing. There will always be a few who somehow manage to take advantage of “the system”, but we can’t judge the whole group by that small number. It’s as bad as blaming race, and some of us here want to equate the two.
I’d challenge you to get to know them, and really listen without judging them by our middle-class lifestyles. The longer I work with these kids and the more parents I meet, I learn more about the challenges and frustrations they face and how hard many of them are working to at least get their kids a chance at something better. As Atticus Finch says in To Kill A Mockingbird, “”You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view – until you climb into his skin and walk around in it.”
Mary Elizabeth
August 3rd, 2012
5:34 pm
From the AJC article above:
“And students who drop out are likely to occupy a low rung on the economic ladder or a prison cell. Nine of 10 prison inmates in Georgia are high school dropouts.”
“. . . “The vast majority of our parents just need help and guidance.”
————————————————————————————–
From my experiences as a high school teacher, Reading Department Chair, and Student Support Team Chair for 16 years, I have recognized that many students stop attending classes because they are too far behind in the curriculum concepts that they must confront every day in their classes. They are sitting in classes that are being taught on their academic frustration levels.
As wise educators, we must find ways to address the myriad instructional levels within every grade level, so that ALL students are being taught on the precise academic levels in which they are actually functioning, irrespective of their grade levels. Educators must expand instructional models to include multiage groupings, team teaching, volunteers as mentors to students, instructional “coaches,” instructional paraprofessionals, and the possibility of taking more than 12 years for some students to earn a high school diploma.
These instructional adjustments would save Georgia’s citizens money because, from the AJC article above, we see that “Nine of 10 prison inmates in Georgia are high school dropouts.” Let me restate that, for emphasis: “90% of prison inmates are high school dropouts.” Georgia’s drop out rate is betwen 35% and 40% of the total student population. Tax payers will either be spending more taxes for prisoners or for students. Better to pay for the growth of students, through more innovative and targeted instructional models, than to pay for their demise when they end up in prison. We must fund public education adequately, as well as improve its instructional delivery models, so that all students are well-served.
Below is the story of Robert, who was in the process of dropping out of school, when I noticed him and intervened:
http://maryelizabethsings.wordpress.com/2012/04/01/roberts-story-love-never-fails/
bootney farnsworth
August 3rd, 2012
5:59 pm
can’t help but wonder why so many are so gung ho on criminalizing / punishing parents for their kids lack of attendance, but so few will even comment on school being voluntary.
this is all about controlling/rewarding behavior, not about getting kids in school
bootney farnsworth
August 3rd, 2012
6:02 pm
voluntary attendance. the biggest choice of all.
Title1 Educator
August 3rd, 2012
6:18 pm
Perhaps, one reason that problems like truancy are hard to deal with is that so many people who want to speak to the issue can’t stay focused on the topic at hand.
For instance, “another comment” who writes an essay on her daughter’s experience with bullying from a ghetto girl from Section 8 housing. What does the social class of a bully have to do with a discussion of truancy? Does she somehow think that only kids from low socioeconomic backgrounds are bullies? Reading her comment made me suspect I knew why her daughter’s desk was kicked every day. In my experience, repeated truancy is not because of less-than-engaging lessons or school-born infections.
Unfortunately, I think that school systems must create punishments that parents fear in order for everyone to comply with the law. When communities try to corral truant children, of course, there is an acknowledgement that teachers can’t lead students toward excellence when they aren’t present. (BTW, parents who want to taut their kids’ success by virtue of the snapshot of a test, please stop. Successful test-taking is a skill that some people have innately, but doesn’t truly measure achievement or predict success. Just consider every bad driver on the road who’s passed their GA driving test.) No community wants unsupervised children at home or in the neighborhood. Every rational adult believes that parents should choose and establish a sound educational routine for their child: public, private, or charter school; homeschooling.
However, truancy, many times is an indicator that there is irrational or irresponsible behavior in a household. I’ve had students with excessive absences being forced to parent younger siblings, care for sick or drug-altered parents, or be abused/neglected/molested. I’ve worked in several school districts and none of them had truancy officers who checked students’ reason for being absent. That leaves a social worker to schedule a home visit, but they usually cover multiple schools. As a middle school teacher, when a healthy kid is absent too often, I get scared ’cause I know something very wrong is happening at home. Also, as Dr. Henson stated, schools always outline their attendance policies and follow-up with individual meeting as necessary. For the county to seek criminal actions means that the parent has refused to respond to many entreaties for a long period of time.
When we read the horrible stories of kids starved to death or locked in closets, we all wish someone had done something. This is one thing that the system is already set up to do.
Dr. Craig Spinks/ Georgians for Educational Excellence
August 3rd, 2012
6:59 pm
The State of Georgia has compelling interests in financing and overseeing a statewide public school system from which the overwhelming majority of its kindergarten enrollees would graduate thirteen years later with the knowledge, skills and attitudes necessary for lives as responsible citizens.
When will we insist that The State of Georgia protect these interests? And our future?
bootney farnsworth
August 3rd, 2012
7:51 pm
@ title 1
like hell. using “the children” as justification for behavior control has long been a favorite of despots and tyrants everywhere.