Published: March 22, 2008 10:53 pm            

Area schools reduce truancy

Dalton and Whitfield County schools cut the share of students missing 16 or more days of school by almost half between the 2004-2005 school year and the 2006-2007 school year, officials said.

A school cannot have more than 15 percent of its students miss 16 or more days of school and make adequate yearly progress (AYP) under the federal No Child Left Behind law.

Data provided by Dalton Public Schools shows the percentage of students missing 16 or more days dropped to 6.5 percent from 11.3 percent during that period. Numbers provided by Whitfield County Schools and the Georgia Department of Education indicate that the share of that system’s students missing 16 or more days dropped to 7.5 percent from 12.1 percent.

Officials say the rates have improved due to the combined efforts of school social workers and a joint attendance protocol committee that brings together people from both school systems as well as other government agencies and social service providers.

“This all came down from the state three years ago, that each community was supposed to form a protocol committee,” said Cynder Sims-Verheyen, a Whitfield County Schools social worker.

The state began putting even greater emphasis on reducing absences after Congress passed the No Child Left Behind law in 2001. That law ties some federal funding to schools meeting various standards.

Further, in 2005, the state began to require that those under 18 be in school and not have 10 or more unexcused absences to get and keep a driver’s license.

In Dalton and Whitfield County, the process of stemming absences starts at the school. The state considers any student who has at least five unexcused absences to be truant. Once a student runs up five unexcused absences, the school sends a letter to parents warning them their child has been absent.

“When they reach 10 days, we call the parents to school, and we sit down with them, usually an administrator, a teacher, a counselor and a social worker,” said Sims-Verheyen.

Before these protocols were set up, the process was less formal. The school would alert a social worker that a student was running up a large number of absences and the social worker would talk to parents.

Officials say that they often find problems they were unaware of — medical problems in the family, divorce or other issues — have caused the child to be absent. And they are often able to put families in touch with people or agencies that can help them deal with those problems.

But if the school meeting doesn’t halt a student’s absences, the parents will be asked to meet with a truancy treatment team that includes representatives from schools, the health department, Family and Children Services, Juvenile Court and other agencies.

“Our role is to attempt to find as many resources in the community as possible to strengthen the family to prevent the child from ending up in the court system or being removed from the home or dropping out of school,” said Kathie Kile, program director of Highland Rivers Child and Adolescent Clinic.

Data provided by members of the team show the number of referrals by school social workers to the Whitfield County Juvenile Court have dropped by more than half in three years — to 62 in 2007-2008 from 137 in 2004-2005.

        

• Click to discuss this story with other readers on our forums.