7 comments
This data will help the state tackle truancy by setting sound policies and targeting resources where they are most needed to help improve attendance and graduation rates. Please grant the petitioners' request and draft these critical regulations.
I support this petition.
I strongly support the Petition to Promulgate Regulations governing more specific reporting of truancy and truancy intervention efforts.
Truancy is a major problem in my community. It is a well-known risk factor for substance abuse, teen pregnancy, serious violent and non-violent youth delinquency, and dropping out of school. These regulations will help Virginia's schools improve school attendance, increase Virginia's graduation rate, and reduce other risky youth behaviors.
Please grant the petitioners request and draft these critical regulations.
I am a parent of a student now in school, but I am also a lawyer who has been involved in student advocacy for a long time. I have represented children as a GAL and as a criminal defendent representative. I have represented students and parents trying to get special education services through the school system. It is a heartache to see the disrespect that these children have for school. I also taught special education in the southwest Virginia school systems. I know how the system works. There are many good teachers, but there are a lot of teachers who just put in their time. The attitude in the school is not one of pride of the students and encouragement. At graduation the pricinpal does not stand up and say we have X going to this college, X going to service, X going to this voc training. There is no encouragement to reach beyound where they are. The guidance counselors encourage the kids to just go to community college. The community college system is wonderful and a valuable resource for us all, but there are some fine opportunities in a lot of insititutions that the students are not informed about. Caring about the students being in school would go a long way by teaching supporting the students about the importance and life satisfying experience of being in school on a regular bases. School should be the haven and I find it is not very often that. I am relatively middle class and with all three of my children, I have had to confront the apathy of the school system towards my children on a daily bases. I think by having the school report unexcused absenses would bring to their attention the seriousness of the problem. If thy know someone is going to ask why the unexcused absences then they will ask themselves that question. I also think that education for teachers and administrators for child care motivation would also help keep kids in school. Teacher training would help teachers and administrators learn how to reach students so that they are more motivated. I have been given clear cues on many occassions that the school does not want parents involved. This attitude needs to be addressed. I have several skills and have offerred to help in every classroom my children have been in. My oldest is 38 and my youngest is 15. I have never yet been asked to help in a class unless I just insist that I am going to be there. Many community resources and parents need to be in the schools and involved to help in developing this motivation. The teachers and staff need to see themselves as partners with parents not the enemy. I have heard many teacher express this type of lack of appreciation for parents. I was always amazed when the finger regarding the inability to read was always pointed at parents. This was because, I wondered who failed to teach that parent. Head Start has a wonderful model for parent involvement, but research shows that those skills and involvement stops after the Head Start student reaches the third grade. Head Start works with parents where they are. They help them become better educated parents, why does the school system not do this?Sue Ella Kobak
I would strongy support the changes which would require schools to report to the Depart. of Education the number of students who miss more than 5 days of school annually. Can this information be divided into excused and unexcused absense? This information gets at many issues which need to be immediately addressed on a prevention level and monitored for concerns regarding school climate.
My organization works with families of youth in the juvenile justice system. Truancy is a well-known risk factor for serious violent and non-violent youth delinquency, and dropping out of school, which is also a risk factor for engaging in criminal activity.
I strongly support the Petition to Promulgate Regulations governing more specific reporting of truancy and truancy intervention efforts.
These regulations will help Virginia's schools improve school attendance, increase Virginia's graduation rate, and reduce other risky youth behaviors.
Please grant the petitioners' request and draft these critical regulations.
Va. Code § 2.2-4007 authorizes any person to petition an agency to develop a new regulation.
Va. Code § 22.1-8 vests general supervision of the public school system in the Board of Education (the "Board"). Va. Code § 22.1-16 authorizes the Board to promulgate regulations as may be necessary to carry out its powers and duties and the provisions of Title 22.1 of the Code of Virginia. Va. Code § 22.1-269 requires the Board to enforce Virginia's compulsory school attendance statutes.
Va. Code § 22.1-258 requires each school division (through an attendance officer or, where there is none, through the superintendent) to create an attendance plan for any student with five unexcused absences and to schedule a conference with the parents after the sixth absence. The law does not merely permit the plan and conference; it says the school "shall" create the plan and schedule the conference. The statute continues:
The conference shall be held no later than fifteen school days after the sixth absence. Upon the next absence by such pupil without indication to the attendance officer that the pupil's parent is aware of and supports the pupil's absence, the school principal or his designee shall notify the attendance officer or the division superintendent, as the case may be, who shall enforce the provisions of this article by either or both of the following: (i) filing a complaint with the juvenile and domestic relations court alleging the pupil is a child in need of supervision as defined in § 16.1-228 or (ii) instituting proceedings against the parent pursuant to § 18.2-371 or § 22.1-262. [emphasis and link to the Attorney General's opinion supplied]
That is, if the student continues to be truant, the school is required to file a CHINS petition and/or to initiate proceedings against the parents.
Unfortunately, the information collected by the Virginia Department of Education (the "Department") does not permit the Department, the Board, or the public to assess a school division's compliance with § 22.1-258 and does not provide the Board with information sufficient to discharge its duty to enforce that statute.
The Department's current data collection provides the raw number of unexcused absences for each student and an indicator whether a truancy conference has been scheduled. The Department reports to the public only the number of truancy conferences scheduled in a particular division. The Department does not appear to collect, and certainly does not report to the public, any information about whether a school division has created the required attendance plans, conducted the required conferences, or enforced the statute in cases of truancy following a conference.
In this information vacuum, the Board already has made at least two inappropriate decisions. When one of us demonstrated the gross failure of Richmond Public Schools to conduct the required conferences and to initiate proceedings following the seventh truancy, the Board nonetheless disdained to abate those violations of § 22.1-258. Later, the State Superintendent and the President of the Board held a private meeting with Richmond, destroyed a public record in violation of Virginia law, and decided -- on partial and one-sided information that nonetheless admitted ongoing violations of § 22.1-258 -- to continue to ignore their duty to enforce the truancy law as to Richmond.
The Board made those unfortunate decisions without the benefit of complete information about Richmond's (non)compliance with § 22.1-258. The Board will continue to be unable to make informed decisions until it collects more data. Moreover, the Board's ongoing failure to collect and publish the relevant information makes it impossible for the public to exercise its right to be aware of governmental activities and witness the operations of government, both as to local school boards and as to the Board. In particular, this dearth of information makes it impossible for the Governor and the public to know whether or not the members of the Board are adhering to their oaths to faithfully discharge all the duties incumbent upon them.
The Board should adopt a regulation requiring each school division to report at the end of each fiscal year:
· The number of students with five or more unexcused absences;
· The number of those students for whom a plan has been developed to resolve the student's nonattendance;
· The number of students for whom a conference is required to be scheduled;
· The number of conferences so scheduled;
· The number of conferences held;
· The number of students with one or more unexcused absences following a conference; and
· The number of those students for whom the division has instituted proceedings as required by § 22.1-258 and a summary of the outcomes of those enforcement proceedings.
The Board should further require the Department to publish these data on its Web site.
John R. Butcher
Carol A.O. Wolf