School truancy is currently receiving serious attention across the country, particularly in Philadelphia after District Attorney Seth Williams implemented a new truancy initiative in the city’s charter schools. The DA mandated that reckless endangerment charges be filed against charter school parents who refuse to meet with school officials after their students have been truant 10 or more days in a marking period, and he wants to extend the practice to all public schools in the city. However, State Senators Judy Schwank and Stewart Greenleaf have introduced Senate Bill 359 to stop the practice of punishing parents for their students’ absences, and to require schools across the state to establish individual truancy plans every time a student is truant.
The bill is in response to the jail death of a Berks County mother, Eileen DiNino, incarcerated after failing to pay $2000 in fines because her two sons were habitually truant.
In Pennsylvania, all children between the ages of eight and 17 must attend school, unless they are over the age of 16 and obtain an “employment certificate” (often called “working papers”) from their school district. According to the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE), truancy is any unexcused absence from school. Parents must provide a written excuse within three days for any student absence. Failing this notice, the absence is permanently counted as unlawful. Parents or caregivers are legally responsible for seeing that children attend school.
However, in families where parents must leave for work before students leave for school, truancy can be a problem despite parents’ best efforts. Truancy is greatest in overcrowded inner city schools and in areas of high poverty, two additional factors largely out of the control of the parents.
Under the state law, if a student accumulates three unexcused absences, the school superintendent or school attendance officer must serve the parents or caregivers with written notice of the absences, and the parent or caregiver must ensure that the student is back in school within three days. If the student fails to return to school, the school district must file a truancy petition with the local magistrate, who schedules a truancy hearing with the parent or caregiver. The parent and the child are required to attend the hearing.
Legal sanctions may be imposed on the parent or guardian and may include a $300 fine per offense, imposition of court costs, the requirement that the parent or caregiver attend a parenting education program, or that the parent or caregiver perform six months community service.
Failure to comply may result in up to five days jail time for the parent or caregiver. More than 1,600 parents, mostly mothers, have been incarcerated in Berks County alone since 2000. Truant students may have their driving licenses suspended or may be prohibited from applying for a learner’s permit. Habitually truant students may be referred to Children and Youth Services, or in the most severe cases, may be removed from the home and declared a dependent child under § 6302 of the Juvenile Act.
Truancy is linked with poor grades. The link is obvious: students who are not in school receive no instruction. Truancy is also an early predictor of school dropouts. PDE established a Task Force on Attendance and Truancy Reduction to address the dual problems of truancy and student dropouts, and in February 2015, published a School Attendance Improvement and Truancy Reduction toolkit, available on PDE’s website. Dropout rates among public school students in the Commonwealth have been declining, although racial disparities still exist. The Pennsylvania Information Management System (PIMS) reports that the 2014-2015 overall state dropout rate for public school students Grades 7-12 was 1.45%. However, that percentage translates to 11,762 student dropouts in just that one year. The dropout rate for Black and African American students in those grades was more than twice the average, 3.04%, and for Hispanic students, the rate was 3.06%. Males of both groups were approximately 21-27% more likely to dropout than females. The dropout rate for students already in trouble, either in jail, in alternative programs, or expelled and receiving alternative instruction, was much higher, with some rural and city districts reporting 100% dropout rates for these students. Reasons given by students for dropping out included academic and behavioral problems, as well as a dislike for school. Boredom was often the reason for the dislike.
Thirty to forty years ago, students without a high school diploma could still find jobs that paid enough to support a family; not so today, when even college graduates struggle to find well-paying jobs providing health care. School dropouts face a lifetime of economic hardship, suffer poorer health outcomes, and have higher rates of incarceration. Other negative outcomes include unwanted pregnancies and substance abuse. The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention estimates that the average school dropout costs society more than $800,000 during the course of a lifetime.
Research has shown that the problem of truancy and student dropouts is more related to students’ poor academic performances rather than lack of effective parenting.
The Center for Public Education reports that failing grades in Language Arts and mathematics in middle school, or falling behind in 9th grade, are the most highly predictive factors for student truancy and dropping out.
Institutional factors are critical. Schools with more “holding power” are characterized by smaller total student populations (1,500 students or less per school), rigorous academic curriculum that provides academic challenges for all students and a curriculum relevant to students’ interests or career aspirations, and, most importantly of all, supportive teachers in an environment that welcomes interpersonal interactions.
Most cases of truancy are handled by the more than 500 magisterial district judges in PA, and many of these judges work closely with school districts. More collaboration between school administrators and the courts is needed. Each of the 67 counties in PA has a truancy prevention program in place, but some are more effective than others. PDE notes that the President Judges of each County Court of Common Pleas are uniquely positioned to convene and coordinate the necessary parties to evaluate and strengthen each county plan. Simply punishing parents is not the answer.
Bottom Line for Schools
Schools should consider reaching out to develop communication and rapport with local county juvenile courts and magistrates in an effort to work collectively to identify and more effectively remedy the root causes of truancy.
School Law Bullets are a publication of KingSpry’s Education Law Practice Group. It is meant to be informational and does not constitute legal advice. John E. Freund, III, is our editor.
