Skipping school can also mean jail time for the parents...
Posted on 07/05/2005 12:51:18 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Bill and Rebecca Hardin sat in a Cypresswood court recently, waiting to find out whether they would be fined as much as $500 each because their son was allegedly truant from school.
On the same day, a 17-year-old Spring High student was hauled off to the county jail for at least a day for failing to honor a contractual promise to attend school.
And some students who played hooky during the school year are spending days of summer vacation washing school buses under court order.
The youths and their parents have been landing before judges as part of an anti-truancy program run by the Harris County District Attorney's Office in four justice of the peace courts. The program relies on early intervention, tough love and scaring-families-straight techniques.
After a student has three unexcused absences, the district attorney's office sends a letter warning the child and parents that they will face criminal charges and fines up to $500 each if the child has three more unexcused absences.
During the past two school years, the district attorney's office has sent out more than 15,800 warning letters to parents and children in nine area school districts.
If the warning goes unheeded, another is sent notifying the student that he or she has been charged with truancy and the parents that they have been charged with contributing to non-attendance at school, both Class C misdemeanors.
School officials say anecdotal evidence and limited early statistics indicate that the program is working. Prosecutors can get the attention of kids and parents when school officials can't, said Juan Lumbreras, attendance specialist for the southeast region of the Houston Independent School District.
"The program's been real positive. It helps make students and parents aware," he said. "We get tired of repeating ourselves."
'Been very successful' The district attorney's office runs the program in JP courts in Pasadena, Clear Lake, Sagemont in southeast Houston and on Cypresswood in northwest Harris County.
School districts participating are Pasadena, Clear Creek, Waller, Tomball, Spring, Aldine and La Porte. HISD's southeast region, which includes Milby and Chavez high schools, and part of the Cy-Fair district also participate.
"It's a great program. The whole idea is to expedite the process and get the kids back in school," said County Judge Robert Eckels. "It's been very successful in changing the habits of kids heading down the path of truancy."
In the past, schools would send out letters or make calls to homes about a child's non-attendance. Typically, only after a student had accrued dozens of absences would a prosecutor become involved and bring a charge.
"You'd see a case in April for 45 absences in fall semester," said Bill Hawkins, chief of the district attorney's juvenile division. By then, he said, it might be too late for the student to salvage anything from the school year.
During the school year that just ended, the district attorney's office sent out 11,910 letters to parents whose children had three unexcused absences.
Hawkins said that only 20 percent of the students who received warning letters cut school three more times.
Parents of those who do face a shock.
Bill Hardin was stunned when he received a letter informing him that he had been charged.
"At first, I couldn't believe it," said Hardin after a hearing on the family's cases in June. "They said I was contributing to the delinquency of a minor. But I was sending him to school."
Hardin said his son earns good grades at Spring High, but had skipped school several times to go fishing.
Parents are responsible Some parents said it is unfair of judges to hold parents accountable for making sure wayward, disobedient children don't skip classes.
Ernest Townsel said his ex-wife, Vonda Hill, tries to make sure their daughter, 16, goes to Westfield High, and their daughter, whose truancy case has landed before Judge J. Kent Adams, assures them that she is attending.
Hill is a busy single mother who has to rely on what her daughter tells her, Townsel said in an interview, and the daughter isn't always truthful about her attendance.
He asked the judge to give his daughter the shock treatment of a day in jail, but the judge declined, instead fining Hill $200.
Court officials argue that however difficult, parents are responsible for their minor children. Even after truancy charges are filed, prosecutors work to avoid trials and criminal convictions.
When youths and parents arrive at court, prosecutors try to convince them to agree to a contract stipulating that the students will attend class for six months without any unexcused absences.
Prosecutors coordinate with social workers and counselors to address family, economic or substance abuse problems that may cause a student to play hooky. A condition that a student attend counseling often is added to a contract.
The contracts usually require students to perform community service. At the Cypresswood court, Adams' concept of community service is hardly undemanding: about 20 to 40 hours cleaning school buses.
Parents often are required to take parenting classes.
Sent to lockup By signing the contract, students admit that they were criminally truant and parents admit that they contributed to their child's non-attendance. But the charges are dismissed if the child and parents fulfill the contract's conditions.
Judges can be tough on those who do not comply with contracts. Students who continue to skip school are brought into court on contempt charges. Brought in a second time, some judges send them to lockups.
In February, a 17-year-old girl from Spring High was brought into court after missing school 26 times, Assistant District Attorney Michael Moore said. She signed a contract saying she would not miss school during the next six months, but skipped school 38 more times.
At a recent hearing in Cypresswood, Adams found her in contempt of court for failing to live up to the contract.
He fined her $505. When she said she didn't have the money, she was handcuffed and taken to adult jail as other youths looked on.
Her mother, in court on a contempt charge for failing to see that her daughter abided by the contract, also was fined $505.
"Isn't this about the most ridiculous thing you have heard — we have to put your child in jail for failure to go to school?" Adams said.
Those under age 17 are sent to the county juvenile detention center — the fate of 40 youths so far this year, Hawkins said.
When youths age 17 and 18 are found in contempt and cannot pay the $500 fines often imposed on them, they are sent to the county jails for adults for a day or two. No statistics were available on how many were sent to adult jails.
The district attorney's office has decided to be tough on truancy because it is a "gateway" activity that can lead to drug use, minor crimes and, ultimately, more serious crimes, Hawkins said.
Adams said he supports the program because youths who don't finish high school face diminished prospects.
Other areas are running similar programs. In Forth Worth, a municipal court has been set aside to hear only truancy cases.
The Fort Worth program, like the one in Harris County, emphasizes quick intervention and the potential imposition of fines.
The program has helped push average daily attendance in the Forth Worth Independent School District, which serves about 80,000 students, from 93.8 percent in 2002-2003 to 94.9 percent this school year, said Delena Doyle, the district's assistant director of student affairs.
Affects bottom line Such an increase means more money in a school district's coffers. State aid to schools is based in part on average daily attendance. Fort Worth's 1 percent increase in average daily attendance brought $4 million more to the district this year, Doyle said.
In Harris County, the ability of the district attorney's program to increase state aid hasn't gone unnoticed by some local school districts, said Moore, one of two prosecutors assigned to the program.
"The school districts talk a lot about the average daily attendance money," he said.
bill.murphy@chron.com
Yes...I wonder how many of these parents receiving the threatening letters are homeschoolers?
Sounds like a case of slavery to me...
The sad thing is the kid probably learned more in a day of fishing than he would have in the classroom.
I'll never forget the day (I was a junior in highschool at the time) I had a 103 degree fever and some idiot from my highschool calls up asking my whereabouts. I explained the situation, and the lady said she wanted to talk to one of my parents. I was totally enraged. I told the lady that both of my parents had honest jobs (unlike herself) which required their presence on worksites and that if SHE would like to have a 103 degree fever she could come over and we'd make passionate love, and she'd probably get one. It's only idiots that you have to talk to like that.
Public schools are evil.
Skipping school can also mean jail time for the parents...
From your LINK.
***....Mr. Ogden died of pulmonary emboli — blood clots in the pulmonary arteries, said Lackawanna County Coroner Joseph Brennan, who ruled the man’s death is not suspicious.
Mr. Ogden had been in Lackawanna County Prison since June 21 on truancy charges, Ms. Ikeler said. ..........***
The truth only comes at the end of the article:
"Such an increase means more money in a school district's coffers. State aid to schools is based in part on average daily attendance. Fort Worth's 1 percent increase in average daily attendance brought $4 million more to the district this year, Doyle said."
Bump!
Follow the $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$.
You were getting socialized.
Great points.
I guess that this is where my thinking came from:
Washington 8 18 Child may withdraw at 15 for work or if proficient at the 9th grade level.
Using the data provided in the article, we can extract some information.
Given an enrollment of 80,000 kids, going from 93.8 percent to 94.9 effectively increases the enrollment by 880 students. Dividing 880 into the 4 million they gained comes out to $4,545.00 per student.
I think this is probably what you could find a good private school for. In fact I found one (through an aquaintenance whos daughter attends the school and thinks highly of it) and tuition is only $2,775.00 per year, and that includes the $300.00 enrollment fee covering ALL needed materials. 95% of their graduating alumni go on to college.
This is a small school. My daughters class will have 6 kids this year. My sons class probably will have around 8 or 9 kids. The school goes from Kindergarten trough 12th grade. It is a Christian school, and they do not take one penny of government money (which means they can run things pretty much how they want to instead of how the Government wants them to).
Now, on top of the $4,545.00 "tuitition" for this public school mentioned in the article, add in the money this public school is costing the taxpayer's in truancy fines, parenting classes, the slave labor gained from the kids, (they call it community service) lawyers fees, court costs, and the lost time and productivity dealing with it all (apparently they do iclude jail time for students and parents in some cases. Now there's a perk you can't put a value on).
So tell me again why public education is such a good thing. Good for who? Socialist indoctrinators? The courts? Drug dealers?
Close down the socialist cesspools of publik edukation. We are better off without it.
No offence to you good teachers out there, but this system was doomed to failure, as are all socialists schemes.
what a waste of time.
Mine wasn't a waste of time though. I learned quite a bit in most classes.
Spelling.
LOL.
Pot, meet kettle.
Why are 17 year olds "truant" when they can legally drop out at 16?
Maybe if the government would keep its nose out of discipline earlier in children's lives, we would have fewer teens running wild.
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