->> The city of Peoria, AZ, came up with a new program which was piloted
->> in several districts in Phx this year which outlines criminal
->> prosecution of parents & children who do not attend school.  Those
->> The Attendance is Mandatory program sends the police out to the
->> family's residence after two warning letters (@ 5 & 8 unexcused full
 SK> Wow! That's pretty tough. I wish the attendance rules at our school had
 SK> a bit more teeth in them, although we don't have _that_ many problem
 SK> attendance students. There is some limit after which a student is put on
 SK> "attendance probation" and they get a letter and a parent conference and
 SK> stuff. But my understanding was that nothing "really" happened after
 SK> that.
This is a city wide problem; mine isn't the only school involved in AIM.
There are cumpulsory attendance laws on the books, but hardly anyone had
been enforcing them strictly.  With the recent cuts in school funding,
principals have been looking for more & more creative ways to increase
attendance; the more students who attend a school, the more money the
school qualifies to receive.
I'm not too familiar with the history of the program, other than
residents of Peoria, AZ, were getting pretty fed up with the numbers of
truant students running around & committing crimes ("Why aren't these
children in school, etc.?)  The city prosecutor got together with the
school officials to develop a system to get students back to school & to
"encourage" parents to get involved in making sure their children were
attending regularly.
 SK> BTW, I notice that you wrote _UN_excused absences. Are these parents not
 SK> covering up for their children and saying they were "sick" or something?
 SK> We have a fair number of parents who do that at our school.
State law says that a parent may keep a child out of school for almost
any reason, but they must notify the school, either in a note or phone
call, what the reason for absence was.  (Dratted book, still can't find
it.)  Most of the parents who have been receiving the letters neglected
to excuse the absences.  If the parent claims the child is attending
private school without withdrawing from the public school, it is
investigated to ensure that it is true.  If a parent is teaching the
child at home, s/he must register with the county superintendant of
schools.
 SK> I saw this post of yours after I typed in the article from the L.A.
 SK> Times about the Truancy law in Monrovia. I did have mixed feelings about
And you were my inspiration.  Great minds think alike.  Or is it, great
mimes ride a bike?
 SK> that article. I thought the law was good, but apparently a lot of kids
 SK> don't see it as that much of a deterrent to ditching classes. Do you
Well, kids.  What can you say?  They also swore last year they'd rather
die than wear blue & white at the Prep, & you know how that one ended.
Hee hee.
 SK> know if students feel they can get around this AIM program in AZ?
So far, it's helped a lot.  Initially, many of the kids who received the
first two letters just ignored them.  Either they yanked them from the
mail before mom/dad got home or mom/dad has been allowing them to skip.
What I need to stress is that attendance is only cumpulsory between ages
6 & 16 (or 8 & 16, I forget.  Where is that damned book????) or until a
student passes the 10th grade, unless a 14-5 year old has a verifiable
job. (And there are provisions about what kind of job the under 18's can
work, how many hours, etc.)  Theoretically, the 17 year olds can slide,
because they aren't covered under the law. Everybody's most interested
in the young ones to change their behavior & keep them from becoming
at-risk of dropping out.
In March, one of my kids, Moses, came back from a ticket round-up in the
media center with a stunned look on his face & a traffic citation in his
hand & said, "*I* didn't know it was against the LAW not to come to
school, I just thought you didn't get an education."  He's such a
roly-poly, lovable, naive airheaded little munchkin that I really
believe he didn't know.  He didn't miss a day after that, because the
officers running the round-up asked him the judge's question I quoted,
"You wanna see  your mom go to jail?"  He just sat & stared
unbelievingly at the ticket the rest of the period.  The next day, he
asked where the law is, so I showed him the book.  We looked it up & he
felt better getting to see it in print.  (What have I done with that
stupid book? It was here a couple of weeks ago.)
Leona Payne
... "Good thing it wasn't a Double Jeopardy question." -- Mulder
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