That's what they are doing in Atlanta and surrounding communities...
If your child misses too much school, you can get arrested.
That's what happened Thursday to two DeKalb County mothers. 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.
"I have seen entirely too many kids who have sustained substantial physical injury or have been killed when they should have been in the classroom," Pursell said.
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."
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. Sometimes, a student doesn't like school because of poor vision. Other times, it's embarrassment over clothes or emotional toil due to a parental split.
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."
21 comments:
Well, we know there might be reasons why the children aren't attending school....maybe the state could tie attendance to the link card or perhaps a tax return refund. Loss attendance is lost state aid for schools, so hit them in the pocketbook instead.
And teachers can quit being blamed for not educating little Johnnie, since he missed 49 days of a 176 day school year. If I had a nickel for every child who I asked, why were you gone yesterday and they replied, because my mama couldn't get up cause she be partyin all night long...I would be a MILLIONAIRE.
My answer might appear to be a bit harsh, but something has to be turned around. There was a time when all parents with children in school knew that there were stiff penalties for not attending school. We have reached a time now when, for far too many students and parents simply do not regard attendance as important. Leniency has taken over. I am all for some of these extreme measures to get everyone's attention. When parents know that the schools are serious about rules, the parents will adjust--I do believe most parents want their children to be educated. The schools simply must be the bad guys for a while--they are already considered the bad guys--why I don't know.
As long as there is a social service angle to it.
It doesn't matter if the child is in school every day if they are not ready to learn. All being in school every day does is get the school paid.
"All being in school every day does is get the school paid"
Never used to be that way years ago. Going to school was a social obligation on the parents to make sure their child was getting educated. Now in the days of free lunches and credits for kids in school because funding has dried up that's all the schools seem to care about, body count. Maybe the days of free this and that should be over. I mean if the parent had to pay for the books, pay for the education, spend time with and in the schools, it may matter more. Look at the private schools like Notre Dame. Those parents pay through the nose to get their kids there and they are involved all the way. Here in public land, it's just another freebie that is owed to me mentality.
Where were the fathers of these children or were only the mothers arrested?
I think it's time (for the sake of kids, not for the schools or the teachers, or state aid, etc.) that the parents are forced to find out that they have obligations as parents. Their main obligations are to teach their children how to behave in social settings (that is not the job of the schools)and to get them to school on a regular basis. And it is the obligation of the schools to make the parents accountable in whatever way that gets the message across to them. If we don't stop playing around with these situations, the public school will be dead and American society will be destroyed. The parents who care simply must start putting pressure on the schools to provide the appropriate learning environment--and being in a class where a large number of kids are absent every day is hurting the other kids. I have taught classes where literally a different five kids were absent every day--there is no way to keep a class moving through material with that kind of attendance problem. If the same 5 were absent every day, that wouldn't be as much of a problem. But that isn't the case.
I know this is a bit off subject, but as I read this, it reminds me of an article I read about a school district in Texas that calls the police and lets them deal with classroom disturbances. I remember parents being very upset that their second grader got arrested for punching then hitting another student in the head with a book. There were a lot of "disturbing the peace/disorderly conduct" type calls and arrests. Yet all of this occurred after repeated attempts by the school to get repeat offenders' parents involved with no success and then just applied it to all behavioral offenders. As Sharon says above, parents, not schools, should be held responsible for attendance and other social behavior obligations. While either may be extreme, something has to be done to get the parents' attention.
If parents are not willing to discipline their children for misbehaving at school, then actions such as punching a teacher or student, throwing a chair, etc. should be cause for arrest by the police, just as if the children were adults. Because they are exhibiting adult behaviors that they may be witnessing on the home front. Time outs, referrals, and parent/teacher conferences are not as effective as they used to be.
But, juvenile detention only takes kids on a point system. Many of the students are just put back in the classroom because there is no room at PDJDC. They can technically be "arrested" but not removed, unless the child is sent home for the day.
Then, they go before a judge who gives them probation, and demands the kid goes to school while serving probation. The judge does not tell them to behave, or learn, with that demand. Probation officers are overworked in a big way. School officials can call and let them know what is happening, but often get no response.
We have been told in no uncertain terms to not call the police, but jump through the fifty hoops every nine weeks dealing with the same classroom miscrient. Seriously, the inmates ARE running gf he assylum that is district 150. It is going to be another scary year if administrators don't draw a line in the sand. We need to make student discipline the parents' responsibility.....NOW!
As Educators, there are obvious situations beyond our control. So, let's live with that. However, we can control the interaction and relationships we have with our students and their parents. When we chose to work in a large urban school district, we signed up for all the social ills that come with dwellers in an urban community. We must remember that many of the parents don't know how to be parents. They understand that their child needs to be in school but due to their many struggles, school is not a priority. So, they allow their child to miss school. We get mad with these parents and sometimes with the kids and want the worst punishment ever to be imposed.
If parents go to jail,who takes care of the kids? If public assistance is taken away, where will the kids stay? How will they eat? Where will they get clothes, if they do decide to come to school?
As teachers, we become so wrapped up in our middle-class culture that we fail to show compassion for those who struggle.
Some of us never delve into the underline causes of behavior, attendance, lack of parent support and other issues we find to be unthinkable in our world. You are right, it is not our job. You are right, it is not what we were hired to do. But, if we take just one kid in our school who has behavior and or attendance problem and build a relationship with him/her by being a mentor for him/her for a school year, we can make a big difference.
There are 1300 of us. If we adopt just one family with a child struggling with behavior, attendance, and other school issues we can make our schools better places to work. There will be 1300 kids who have learned from us, on a personal note, what is required to be successful in school.
That's my challenge!!!! Who's willing to sign-on.
Not me.
Well said! I totally agree.
So far the school as the curer of all of society's ills has not worked. For much of my career, I bought into the idea. However, the money and resources to take care of children's emotional, psychiatric, and physical needs are not available to the public schools--and to do the job the school has been assigned: to educate children. If nothing changes, the results aren't going to change. Parents will continue to believe that the school will make everything right--or blame the school when it doesn't. My opinion is that churches and/or other groups not directly connected to schools need to make these kids their mission.
I know that it is harsh and I know that it even may seem unkind, but young people (and their parents) simply must learn to be responsible for their own lives. Many of the excuses just have to cease.
I disagree totally with the idea that the schools have to live with societal ills that are beyond their control. That's what we're doing now--just coasting downhill and nobody is being helped; so many are being harmed because they are not given the education for which taxpayers think they are paying. We just have to stop letting so many feel that they are victims. That puts them under the control of those in authority and keeps them from believing they can help themselves. People would be amazed what they could do if they became convinced they had to do it--especially when it comes to their own children's welfare.
Well said Sharon. I believe that I go above and beyond for many families of my students. What I have learned from this experience is that these same families come to EXPECT this treatment as a career opportunity. My pocket book is empty.
You are so right Sharon schools need to go back to educating children and not raising them. How easy can we mKE FOR SOME Parents, free lunches, free books, free supplies, free transportation, free health check ups, and free babysitting. Let's get back to using funds for education.
I agree also, Sharon. Well said!
If you read the challenge from Anon, it was plain and simple. The poster wanted each of us to embrace one child and help that struggling child for one school year. That's all.
I understand what all of us do for kids every day. I understand how we help families and our desire for parents to step-up and be parents. That is not happening.
The challenge is that we take one child. I think that is doable. I AM IN.
I remember years ago I sat in a room with representatives of nearly every agency in town, discussing how we could create "wrap-around" services for at-risk kids. There was buy-in from the agencies, but nothing ever came of it. Lack of leadership? I don't know, it just fizzled. Sadly, some parents will refuse the help if it places expectations on them and doesn't come with a Wal-Mart gift card attached.
Or a free meal. At our back to school meals or other events that have a meal, we have sometimes 20 members of a family show up. Aunts, uncles, etc come with the student plus the immediate family. Then the parents don't even go to the class room. They just eat and leave.
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