Families Face Steep Truancy Fines, Contentious Court Battles As Pandemic Creates School Attendance Barriers
By Mark Keierleber | March 17, 2021
This is one installment of a special series published in partnership with The Guardian: ‘聽See additional coverage of the past year for students and schools: ‘12 Million Students Still Lack Reliable Internet‘ and ‘As Teens Pile on Jobs to Help Their Families, Schools Strive to Keep Tabs on Students They Haven鈥檛 Seen in a Year.’
It was the Monday morning before Thanksgiving when a police officer showed up on Tracie Higgins鈥檚 doorstep and handed a $439 fine to her teenage son for missing too many days of remote school during the pandemic.
But the bulk of her son Mark鈥檚 repeated absences, the Wisconsin mother protested, were the result of faulty school technology, including a Chromebook that wouldn鈥檛 charge. Debra Pratt, also of Manitowoc, Wisconsin, faced a similar situation this school year with her son Jason, who was fined for racking up 28 absences that the school district marked as unexcused 鈥撀爄ncluding the same day in late September that he tested positive for Covid-19.
鈥淚 think it鈥檚 ridiculous, absolutely ridiculous, especially during a pandemic when there鈥檚 just too many other factors that are playing into this,鈥 said Pratt. Like many children nationwide, she said that Jason struggled to learn remotely. He recovered from the virus after experiencing mild symptoms, but the school disruptions have taken a toll on him both emotionally and academically. 鈥淧lacing a truancy fine on them is certainly not going to help the situation or make it any better.鈥
Similar feuds between frustrated parents and overwhelmed school administrators are playing out across the country as the pandemic鈥檚 academic upheaval reaches the one-year mark. States continue to enforce laws that require families to send their children to school or face steep punishments for unexcused absences, including fines, community service and, in some states, arrests. These 鈥渢ruancy鈥 rules have exacerbated the pandemic-induced challenges confronting many households, from economic instability and mental health crises to a lack of adequate internet access. It鈥檚 often these very hardships, school attendance experts say, that force students to miss school in the first place.
The result is a growing concern among policymakers that pandemic-era absences are funneling children into the juvenile justice system and pushing parents into contentious interactions with child protective services.
Attendance Works, a national nonprofit focused on combating chronic school absenteeism, has to students who aren鈥檛 showing up to class during the pandemic and offer help to ensure they don鈥檛 fall behind. But the group also advised districts to resist punitive responses to truancy that 鈥渄isproportionately impact students based on race, class and poverty and do not solve the problems that contribute to why students are missing school and can be especially harmful in this moment of crisis.鈥
鈥楥reating barriers for success鈥
In Manitowoc, a 33,000-person enclave along the Lake Michigan shoreline, truancy citations have spiked this school year, generating a flood of posts from frustrated parents on a local Facebook page. So far, officials have handed out 249 鈥渉abitual truancy鈥 citations to students who鈥檝e accumulated at least five unexcused absences, according to municipal court records. Before the pandemic threw the Manitowoc school district into disarray, officials issued 198 truancy citations during the 2018-19 school year.
Mark Holzman, the district superintendent, declined to comment on specific cases but acknowledged that some students were marked with unexcused absences in error 鈥 but teacher mishaps, he said, weren鈥檛 widespread enough to explain habitual truancy. Students are only fined for truancy after district officials make multiple failed attempts to re-engage them in school, he said.
鈥淚t鈥檚 in nobody鈥檚 best interest to provide fines,鈥 he said, but city rules allow the fines to be expunged if truant students begin attending classes regularly or complete community service at a rate of $10 per hour to pay them off. That strategy, he said, has been 鈥渞elatively successful鈥 in encouraging attendance. The schools chief recognized the negative impact remote learning has had on student attendance and engagement and the difficulties of holding students accountable for attendance when learning is not taking place in person.
鈥淪tudents not attending likely means students not being successful,鈥 he said. His point is backed tying chronic absenteeism to a host of negative factors, including a heightened risk of dropping out of school and becoming involved in the criminal justice system. Even before the pandemic led to a spike in student absences, more than missed at least 15 school days each year.
Yet it鈥檚 often truancy rules that introduce students to the juvenile justice system in the first place as many states rely on courts and criminal sanctions 鈥撀爄ncluding incarceration 鈥 to enforce attendance. In turn, truancy rules could perpetuate racial disparities in that same system. Nationally, students of color are for truancy compared to their white classmates.
In recent years, policymakers across the U.S. have been shifting truancy rules away from punishment as a growing body of research has found that punitive measures can backfire. One by the nonprofit Council of State Governments Justice Center, for example, found that South Carolina students placed on probation for truancy issues wound up with even worse school attendance than they had before the courts got involved.
Manitowoc has also recalibrated its truancy penalty scheme in recent years, said Elizabeth Majerus, the city鈥檚 assistant attorney in charge of prosecuting truancy cases in municipal court. Previously, students had their driver鈥檚 licenses suspended in addition to fines for habitual truancy.
鈥淭hat wasn鈥檛 really making a dent in the truancy problem and, in fact, we saw that was leading students to not get licensed to drive,鈥 she said. 鈥淚t was creating barriers for employment, barriers for success and that was not our goal.鈥
But many of the Manitowoc families who鈥檝e faced fines are struggling. Higgins, a stay-at-home mom, said there鈥檚 鈥渘o way鈥 she鈥檇 be able to pay the fine herself. Though a warning letter sent to Higgins threatened a driver鈥檚 license suspension should they fail to pay the $439, the municipal clerk鈥檚 office said overdue balances are now forwarded to a state debt collection agency.
鈥淵a, they are giving the kids an incentive that, 鈥極K, if you do nine weeks of school and pass all of your classes the fine goes away,鈥 but that鈥檚 not the point,鈥 Higgins said. 鈥淭he point is they shouldn鈥檛 have to give these fines out to these kids 鈥撀爀specially now.鈥
鈥楢 symptom of something bigger鈥
Some parents would like to see truancy rules taking into account the pandemic鈥檚 devastating toll on youth mental health. In one suburban Pennsylvania town, a mother blames her teenage son鈥檚 truancy on debilitating depression that appeared at the beginning of the pandemic. Before the outbreak, he used to enjoy computer programming and solving the Rubik鈥檚 Cube. Now, he languishes in his bedroom with the lights turned off 鈥 and has missed about a year of virtual school. The mother asked that her name be withheld over concerns the school district might retaliate.
Rather than providing the student with the mental health care and special education supports that his mother said he desperately needs, the district pushed the family into a court battle to address his truancy or face punishment, the mother said, costing her more than $1,000 to hire an attorney. The end result, she worries, will be a fine under the state truancy law.
鈥淚 can lead him to water, but can鈥檛 make him drink,鈥 the mother said. 鈥淚 was under the impression that I was going to get help from the school,鈥 but oversight by a judge and child protective services hasn鈥檛 led to any attendance improvements. The whole situation, she said, has left her feeling hopeless. 鈥淧arenting is a full-time job, but this is a lot. It鈥檚 taken its toll on me.鈥
In Pennsylvania, officials with child protective services said they鈥檝e been overwhelmed by the volume of truancy referrals. It鈥檚 also become a top issue for Christina Paternoster, project director at the PA Parent and Family Alliance, which provides support to the parents of children with mental health challenges. Paternoster has witnessed firsthand how the pandemic has harmed students鈥 mental well-being and led some to withdraw from school. Yet the challenges, she predicted, will stick around long after the virus is contained.
鈥淓specially moving forward where we have children who may not have ever had any kind of mental illness in their lives鈥 prior to the pandemic, 鈥渁s a society we鈥檙e going to have to really start to understand what mental illness is and really be more thoughtful on how we accommodate people.鈥
Even Majerus, the assistant city attorney in Manitowoc, questioned whether the issue belongs in the juvenile justice system, adding that chronic absences are often 鈥渁 symptom of something bigger.鈥
鈥淎 child is not going to just one day say 鈥業鈥檓 not going to school,鈥欌 she said. Instead, she said it鈥檚 critical that policies and taxpayer dollars target the underlying causes of chronic school absences, including poverty, inadequate internet access and shortfalls in mental health care 鈥 all issues that have been exacerbated by the public health crisis.
鈥淥nce you address that,鈥 she said, 鈥測ou would see children in school. Truancy would become a blip rather than a trend.鈥
This is one installment of a special series published in partnership with The Guardian: ‘聽See additional coverage of the past year for students and schools: ‘12 Million Students Still Lack Reliable Internet‘ and ‘As Teens Pile on Jobs to Help Their Families, Schools Strive to Keep Tabs on Students They Haven鈥檛 Seen in a Year.’
Lead Image: Tracie Higgins and her son Mark pose outside their home in Manitowoc, Wisconsin. Mark was fined $439 for missing too many days of remote school during the pandemic. (Photographs by Dave Kasnic/The Guardian)
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