KUT, Austin's public radio station, recently had a report on truancy in Austin schools. Cuurently under Texas law, truant students, as well as their parents can be taken to court by the School. Senator John Whitmire (D-Houston) has filed a bill that would protect students from legal charges, but not their parents.
In our imperfect world, with it's inequality and inequity, education might be the single most important resource a person has in order to live the life we Americans dream of, which is why in Texas its a constitutional right to have access to public education. Yet there are vast numbers of children who forfeit that right for an equally numerous number of reasons. Truancy is a symptom of more fundamental problems in student's lives. These causes of truancy are what must be dealt with, and taking students and their families to court solve nothing... unless the purpose of that court case is to help provide the family with resources that can address the underlying causes of truancy. Admonishment changes nothing unless there is a sense of support along with it.
In his post my classmate, Mr. Noe' Martinez, lends his support to HB 1490/SB106. a bill which aims to adjust the jurisdiction of truancy infractions. Instead of parents being sent to criminal courts, students would be referred to civil courts. Additionally the bill would establish a tiered system that school districts would need to follow before escalating the issue to the court.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Noe's point that there needs to be a holistic approach that takes into account the complexity of a given student's situation. This bill makes a reasonable attempt at doing so with the tiered system the school districts would follow. However, I think the bill goes too far in neutering the power school employees have to get the attention of less engaged parents (by removing the potential for a misdemeanor to the parents). I'm concerned this bill will setup schools to go through some long, drawn out process that ultimately has no teeth.
That said, an interesting study [http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2805010/] found there are 5 components for an effective truancy reduction program which are as follows:
"(1) parent/guardian involvement, (2) a continuum of services, to include meaningful incentives, consequences and support, (3) collaboration with community resources—including law enforcement, mental health services, mentoring and social services, (4) school administrative support and commitment to keeping youth in the educational mainstream, and (5) ongoing evaluation."
This bill does seem to utilize the tiered system to get parents involved, get students in counseling, have students utilize community-based resources, and keep the school involved in the process. For these reasons I think the bill is ultimately a step in the right direction.