The Henderson County School District is pushing back against a growing national problem.
It’s called chronic absenteeism or habitual truancy, but thanks to Kentucky legislators, a school attendance law passed in the last General Assembly has new teeth, allowing school officials and the Henderson County Attorney’s Office to work in tandem to address the issue.
“Effective July 15, the new truancy portion of the law ( KRS 159.140 -3 A and B) states the director of pupil personnel will now be required to notify the County Attorney’s office by filing a petition when a student accumulates 15 or more unexcused absences throughout the academic year,” said Kasey Farmer Wolfe, director of pupil personnel for the school district.
Truancy is and has been against the law in Kentucky for many years. According to the school district’s handbook, three unexcused absences or three tardies is considered truancy, and is generally handled in house through parent conferences/attendance board meetings and loss of school privileges among other sanctions. The impact of the new law is that the judicial system is brought in to assist.
Henderson County Attorney Steve Gold said the law’s approach to chronic absenteeism varies slightly depending on the age of the student.
The consistency is a student has a maximum of 15 unexcused absences before the case is handed over to county prosecutors.
However, for students in kindergarten through the 5th grade, the legislation directive is a “determination of appropriate court intervention,” Gold said. “The legislature is presumably seeking a determination from the (county attorney) as to whether or not it would be appropriate to file a petition in Family Court alleging educational neglect against the parent(s) or guardian of the child.”
Older students could face more serious penalties, he said.
For students in sixth through 12th grades, the law stipulates, “the school is to consult with the County Attorney after 15 unexcused absences to determine whether or not it would be appropriate to bring habitual truant charges against the youth in juvenile court. If the charges are brought and the youth is placed on diversion through the Court Designated Worker’s (CDW) Office, the length of time a youth may be subject to the diversion is extended from six months to 12 months. However, HB 611 (or 159.140-3 A and B) requires that if a youth placed on diversion for truancy has four more days unexcused absences, the youth shall immediately be considered to have failed the diversion and the case will be sent to court for formal court proceedings.”
While the law cites sanctions for students, parents—regardless of the child’s age—are also held accountable for truancy.
Parents or guardians can’t be charged with a crime for educational neglect, but in some situations, a child can be removed from the home.
“Educational neglect is addressed in Family Court,” Gold said. “The parents of young children, who are not taking them to school, may be subject to orders of the court to participate in interventions designed to assist them in getting their child to school. Violations of those orders or plans could, in some circumstances, subject the parent to having the child removed from their home and placed with a caregiver or family member who will not neglect the child’s education.
“Older juveniles charged with habitual truancy are initially given an opportunity to enter into a diversion from the formal court process,” Gold said. “If that fails, the case can go to court. If the case goes to court, the youth is appointed an attorney. The court initially places the youth under orders under which the youth must follow—such as attending school, abiding by rules of their home, participating in programs designed to get them in school and back on track educationally, etc. If the child is in violation of those orders, the court can hold the youth in contempt and impose sanctions up to and including secure detention. Courts try very hard to avoid secure detention of ‘status offenders’ or youth who are in violation of the law merely because of their age, but it does happen.”
Parents of older students are required by law—KRS 310.071—to attend juvenile court proceedings, and if they violate this statute, they can receive a fine of up to $500 or 40 hours of community service, Gold said.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, chronic absenteeism has nearly doubled across the nation since the Covid-19 pandemic.
To put that in perspective, the department of education said chronic absenteeism rose from 16 percent to roughly 30 percent for the 2021-2022 school year. More recent findings have not been released. (For more information go to www.attendanceworks.org/chronic-absence/the-problem/10-facts-about-school-attendance/.)
Information obtained from an education website called Attendance Works said that 14.7 million students during 2021-2022 missed so much school it put them at “academic risk.”
Studies published by Attendance Works revealed that younger students who are chronically absent struggle to read proficiently, and as young as sixth-grade, absenteeism is a strong indicator whether a student graduates from high school.
According to this same website, Kentucky has 173 school districts. As of 2022, 29 percent of those school districts were experiencing extreme chronic absenteeism, 38 percent high chronic absenteeism, 29 percent significant chronic absenteeism, 3 percent modest and zero percent low.
Locally, Farmer Wolfe said, “HCS attendance yearly percentage for the 22-23 school year was 93.29 percent and for 23-24 was 93.34 percent.”
Because nationally absenteeism is at epidemic levels, state governments are encouraged to get involved.
Now that Kentucky has enhanced the truancy laws, it means the judicial system can be partners with the school district in addressing the issue.
In Henderson County, should a case of chronic absenteeism get to prosecutors, Gold said, “We will, as contemplated by the statute, confer with the school system’s Director of Pupil Personnel (DPP) or other necessary school staff to try to determine the appropriate course of action.
“In most instances, we will likely proceed with petitions in the appropriate court. However, there may be circumstances in the youth’s life or their family which mitigate in favor of allowing the school more time to work with them on attendance, such as a death or serious illness in family.
“Also, while age is certainly a factor, it is not the sole factor to be considered whether the case will be processed as educational neglect by their caregiver or as a status offense against the juvenile,” he said.
According to articles published by Attendance Works, addressing the issue of chronic absenteeism and stymieing the educational fallout from it will take state resources—like the assistance of a county attorney’s office—in addition to what school districts have in place.
“With the addition of so many resources both at the schools and the CDW’s office targeted at diverting cases from court … prosecutors and judges were often not seeing truancy cases until a youth had missed so many days that the school year was already lost to them,” Gold said. “When a case can’t get to court until a youth had already missed 70 to 100 school days, there’s just not a lot that a judge can do to salvage a student’s school year and try to keep them on-track to learn or graduate.
“It appears that (the improved attendance law) was the legislature’s attempt to deal with those frustrations and to try to get habitual truants before a judge sooner.”
