“Marie,” an eighth-grader at Littleton’s Euclid Middle School, was like a lot of other youngsters: She was smart enough, but there had been trouble in the family, and she was skipping school. In October, as her unexcused absences mounted despite the best efforts of the school, her parents were confronted with two choices: They could go to truancy court and face possible detention for Marie, plus fines for themselves, or the family could appear before the district’s School Attendance Review Board.
Rick Rufner, volunteer chair of Littleton’s attendance review board, says that the boards came into being because advocates for children felt that sending truant students to court too often ignored underlying family problems.
For example, he describes the case of a first-grader who came before the board with numerous unexcused absences. The boy’s mother was young and “totally overwhelmed,” Rufner says. “She had money problems and trouble keeping a job. Her son was … very active. She couldn’t make him go to bed at night, and then couldn’t get him up in the morning to go to school.”
When offered the option of a meeting with the SARB, the mother agreed. “The program is completely voluntary,” points out Lucinda Hundley, Littleton’s assistant superintendent for student support services. “The parent has to agree to come, and has to sign a release so that board members can see confidential information about the child and family,” including police, social services and mental health reports.
When the board meets with a family, the emphasis is on learning what the problems are, then identifying resources to alleviate them. The parent, the child and the board each sign a “contract” detailing their responsibilities.
The mother was referred to parenting classes and was put in touch with Big Brothers to find a mentor for her son. The boy agreed to ride the bus to school, found he enjoyed it, and now is eager to get up to catch the bus. The recreation district agreed to provide free recreational programs for the child so that the mother has some “happy time for herself,” Rufner says.
Aurora Public Schools is another Colorado district with an attendance review board. Like other districts, Aurora goes to extraordinary lengths to address truancy before it becomes serious. Dea Kreisman, coordinator for Aurora’s Community Attendance Review Board, says that when students start having unexcused absences, teachers and principals typically talk with the parents, send a letter of concern and/or meet with the family to develop an attendance plan.
Kreisman tells of a middle school student who refused to go to school despite all these steps. In a meeting with the girl, Aurora’s attendance review board members learned that her mother had recently died of cancer. Referral to a mental health agency revealed that the girl would not go to school because she feared that her father would also die if she did. Counseling helped get her back in school.
Unfortunately, attendance review boards are not successful in every case. Rufner regretfully tells of the Littleton parents who signed a contract to enroll their child in an alternative school program, but failed to do so. When unexcused absences continued, the family was sent to truancy court.
In Marie’s case, the approach of the attendance review board was more successful. The family received mental health and social services support, and board members explained the consequences of skipping school. “We told her, ‘You’ll have to go to school, but it will be school in juvenile hall,”‘ Rufner says.
The board also offered her a carrot, according to the girl’s father. “If her attendance is good, she gets free gym lessons” through the recreation district. Her attendance is now excellent, he reports. Going before the board was “a great experience” for Marie, he says, because she “met with people who took their personal time to show they really care about children.”
