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MCAS officials want parents accountable for truant students

Craig Davison
For The News-Dispatch

MICHIGAN CITY - The Rev. Stanley Mason knows the horror stories about bad attendance in school.

Mason, attendance officer for Michigan City Area Schools, recently spoke with a child who has been absent 94 days this school year. This week, he planned to meet with the parents of a third-grade student who has missed 50 days.

MCAS wants to hold parents accountable and hope to work with the courts and prosecutor's office to prosecute parents.

Sarah Fine, MCAS coordinator of student-support services, said she didn't know of any prosecutions of parents for educational neglect, but added, "It needs to start."

La Porte County Prosecutor Rob Beckman said when his office receives cases for educational neglect of children, it pursues them.

"We have several of those cases pending in La Porte and several in Michigan City," he said.

Magistrate Nancy Gettinger said she sees juvenile truancy charges, but adult cases do not cross her desk.

"Anything that would be filed in adult court wouldn't come across my desk and wouldn't require any agreement from me," she said.

She said there are many ways for truancy to be addressed.

"It's not perfect. We're trying to get everybody at the table," Gettinger said. "We try to be collaborative about this."

At a recent School Board workshop, Fine addressed attendance, saying students who are chronically absent have a higher chance of dropping out and delinquent behavior, as well as less earning potential in the future.

Fine said the district has taken steps in recent years to prevent absenteeism. In the 2007-2008 school year, MCAS hired eight family school-liaison casework assistants to provide support and monitor attendance in all schools. This school year, a new attendance policy was created. A pilot program at Krueger Middle School uses the phone messenger system to make "wake-up calls" to chronically late and truant students.

The data for attendance has improved. Each quarter this school year, attendance rates are up in almost all the schools. Michigan City High School is the only one in the district below the 95 percent attendance benchmark, but even it has shown increase each quarter this year. Overall, attendance for the district in the third quarter of this year is 95.59 percent.

[lbl]

MCAS officials want parents accountable for truant students

Craig Davison
For The News-Dispatch

MICHIGAN CITY - The Rev. Stanley Mason knows the horror stories about bad attendance in school.

Mason, attendance officer for Michigan City Area Schools, recently spoke with a child who has been absent 94 days this school year. This week, he planned to meet with the parents of a third-grade student who has missed 50 days.

MCAS wants to hold parents accountable and hope to work with the courts and prosecutor's office to prosecute parents.

Sarah Fine, MCAS coordinator of student-support services, said she didn't know of any prosecutions of parents for educational neglect, but added, "It needs to start."

La Porte County Prosecutor Rob Beckman said when his office receives cases for educational neglect of children, it pursues them.

"We have several of those cases pending in La Porte and several in Michigan City," he said.

Magistrate Nancy Gettinger said she sees juvenile truancy charges, but adult cases do not cross her desk.

"Anything that would be filed in adult court wouldn't come across my desk and wouldn't require any agreement from me," she said.

She said there are many ways for truancy to be addressed.

"It's not perfect. We're trying to get everybody at the table," Gettinger said. "We try to be collaborative about this."

At a recent School Board workshop, Fine addressed attendance, saying students who are chronically absent have a higher chance of dropping out and delinquent behavior, as well as less earning potential in the future.

Fine said the district has taken steps in recent years to prevent absenteeism. In the 2007-2008 school year, MCAS hired eight family school-liaison casework assistants to provide support and monitor attendance in all schools. This school year, a new attendance policy was created. A pilot program at Krueger Middle School uses the phone messenger system to make "wake-up calls" to chronically late and truant students.

The data for attendance has improved. Each quarter this school year, attendance rates are up in almost all the schools. Michigan City High School is the only one in the district below the 95 percent attendance benchmark, but even it has shown increase each quarter this year. Overall, attendance for the district in the third quarter of this year is 95.59 percent.

Did someone already post this? Doesn't anyone want to talk about it?

[Ang]

My daughter missed 12 days of school and I got a letter from Administration stating that if my daughter missed another day, I would be charged with educational neglect.
Now, most of those missed days were due to medical appointments, or us travelling. The travel days were arranged in advance so my daughter could still do her assignments, and I had doctor's notes for all of the appointment days. I reality she only had about 3 unexcused absences, but they still sent me the letter.

I was offended because my daughter had legitimate reasons for not being in school, and it was only 12 days! However, reading the article above, I can understand a little better. And if a child is absent as many times as the examples in the article, then the parents should be charged with educational neglect (whatever that entails)