Detroit Public Schools' New Policy Seeks to Get Tough on Truancy
September 16, 2013 – Detroit Free Press
By Chastity Pratt Dawsey
Detroit Public Schools’ 3-6-9 policy
■ Three instances of tardiness of more than 15 minutes after the start of class is equivalent of one unexcused absence.
■ With three unexcused absences, a phone call will be made to the home room and to the student’s home.
■ With the sixth unexcused absence in the school year, the student will be referred to an attendance agent for intervention.
■ Any student with more than nine unexcused absences per school year will face a truancy referral to the attendance department. The case will be processed and forwarded to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office.
After years of angst and lost funding because of chronic truancy, Detroit Public Schools is implementing a new attendance policy for the 2013-14 school year that could result in parents being reported for prosecution after nine unexcused absences for their child.
The policy for DPS’s estimated 50,000 students is being criticized as softer than truancy policies in other districts because DPS students can accrue 30 absences in a semester before facing mandatory summer school or possible lost high school credit. The policy also faces enforcement challenges because of budget cuts to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office.
The policy, referred to as 3-6-9, is a district-wide formalization of past practices, calling for intervention after three unexcused absences. Initially, it would result in a call home to parents; further absences would lead to the matter being referred to the prosecutor’s office. “As a district, we cannot stress enough to parents and students the importance of good attendance — being in school regularly and prepared to learn,” said Karen Ridgeway, superintendent of academics. “In order to truly achieve our mission to provide a high-quality education to all students, we need help from our parents in ensuring students are at school, on time, every single day.”
School districts lose state funding when attendance dips under 75% on any given day. In 2012-13, the average DPS attendance rate was 87%, reaching 75% on the second day of the year — a threshold typically not reached until the third week of school, according to Michelle Zdrodowski, spokeswoman for DPS. In 2011, DPS lost about $4.3 million in state aid because fewer than 75% of students came to school on several days.
Under the new policy, three unexcused tardies equal one unexcused absence. Three unexcused absences will lead to a call home; six will result in intervention by a district attendance agent. After nine absences, DPS had planned to report parents to the Wayne County Prosecutor’s Office.
But that may not mean what it used to mean. Budget cuts have eliminated funding for the prosecutor’s Erase Truancy/Truant Net intervention program, said Bob Heimbuch, chief of the juvenile division.
Thousands of students rack up nine or more absences a year, but few were reported to the prosecutor last year. A total of 575 youths were in the truancy-intervention program in 2012-13.
As part of the program, an assistant prosecutor used to meet with chronically truant youths and parents or guardians at the schools’ request to help address the problem without prosecution. Due to cuts, the Prosecutor’s Office now will only determine whether to prosecute truancy complaints that schools filed in court, Heimbuch said.
Keith Johnson, president of the Detroit Federation of Teachers, said the new policy lacks the sanctions necessary to prepare students for the accountability they will face in the working world.
“It is just a way of chronicling absences. I don’t see it changing the culture,” Johnson said. “In the real world, you don’t come to work, what happens to you? You get fired. ... (The DPS policy) tells kids, ‘I can be absent 25 times and still pass.’ ”
What State Law Requires
Michigan law requires all students who turned 11 before 2009 to attend school regularly until age 16. Those who turned 11 on or after Dec. 1, 2009, must attend school regularly until they are 18 (unless they graduate before then). Parents whose children do not attend school regularly face prosecution for educational neglect, a misdemeanor punishable by up to 90 days in jail or a $50 fine.
Each school district can create its own attendance policy.
In the absence of the prosecutor’s truancy program, schools may still have some influence on the lowest-income parents whose children are truant. Under a state law that took effect last year, parents who receive cash welfare benefits distributed through the Department of Human Services risk losing the assistance if their children do not attend school regularly.
The DPS lists referrals to DHS as among its “truancy prevention measures.”
Also, K-8 students who miss school 30 times in a semester must attend summer school; high school students who miss 30 days of a class in a semester “should expect” to lose credit, the policy states. The principal has the final say on credit for a senior who misses 30 days of a class needed for graduation.
What Other Districts Do
Nearby districts have tougher attendance policies that carry stiff penalties. Among the effective penalties for truancy in other districts: Saturday school, automatic lost credit for classes and parent conferences.
Harper Woods District Schools decreased the high school truancy rate by 22% from 2011-12 to 2012-13, said Superintendent Todd Biederwolf.
After six absences in one semester, Harper Woods students may get a credit hold. They then must complete school work at an attendance-redemption program held on Saturdays. Suspensions of one to 10 days are possible, as well.
Thomas Niczay, superintendent in Hamtramck, said low-income students have challenges that keep them out of school. However, the average daily attendance in Hamtramck schools was 95% last year, while 88% of students received free or reduced-price lunch and 64% lived below the poverty line, he said.
Hamtramck high school students lose credit after missing a class for nine periods — regardless of whether the absence is excused or unexcused. The student must continue to go to class and can appeal to a committee to reinstate credit by showing better attendance, effort and performance.
“We try to keep them motivated to go to class and to make an effort at passing. That policy has helped. Before this, they were losing credit and getting F’s,” said Terrence George, the district’s director of student services.
Tyrone Charles, a volunteer and parent advocate in DPS for the last decade, said the DPS policy needs penalties and enforcement similar to those in other districts.
“No more excuses,” he said. “Hope does not come from how you live. Hope comes from knowing you can do better. ... We have to change the mind-set.”
http://www.freep.com/article/20130916/NEWS01/309160015/