Early truancy problems spiral statewide

Calaveras County tops list for having most K-6 students missing school

By Dana M. Nichols also by Roger Phillips

Record Staff Writers

SAN ANDREAS – Calaveras County has the highest truancy rate for elementary school students in California, contributing to a crisis that harms K-6 education statewide, according to a report issued Monday by the state Attorney General’s office.

According to the report, California public schools lost $1.4 billion in funding in 2011-12 because of truancy among elementary school students. The report says elementary school truancy factors into nearly $50 billion in economic damage to the state eventually caused by high school dropouts.

In Calaveras County, 31.3 percent of elementary school students were truant last year – almost one in three. San Joaquin County, at 26.5 percent, also was in the top 10, according to the first-of-its-kind report, which will be updated annually, according to Attorney General Kamala Harris.

California defines truancy as three or more unexcused absences or incidents of tardiness of 30 minutes or more in a school year. According to the report, the state Department of Education estimates the elementary school truancy rate at about 20 percent. The new report says a “sampling” of major districts set the rate at 29.5 percent.

“This has been at the forefront of what we are focusing (on) for the last five years,” Calaveras Unified School District Superintendent Mark Campbell said.

Dee Alimbini, Stockton Unified’s administrator of child welfare and attendance, said reducing truancy in the earliest grades is vital.

“The earlier that you get on top of things and you get parents on your team, the better chance you have when kids get to high school because the school-going mentality is already built in,” said Alimbini, whose district serves 37,000 students and had an overall truancy rate of more than 40 percent in 2011-12.

“Parents sometimes believe it’s OK to keep a younger child at home: ‘It’s only first grade or only second grade.’ But if you build (positive attendance habits) earlier, starting actually in preschool, it’s a habit that lasts for all the years we have them.”

Monday’s new report did not include elementary school truancy data for individual school districts.

The report says truant elementary students are more likely to drop out of high school, more likely to be incarcerated as adults, and less likely to find good jobs over their lifetimes.

Calaveras Unified, which serves students on the north side of the county, is the county’s largest school district, with 3,300 students, and it is the one with the highest truancy rates, according to state data.

Calaveras school leaders already are doing some of the things the Attorney General’s report recommends, such as collecting data on all absences and truancies and working with other agencies to reduce truancy.

The Calaveras County Office of Education currently has a countywide campaign called “Every Day Counts” that seeks to send an anti-truancy message to parents via radio advertisements and video spots played before movies at a local theater.

Among those participating in Calaveras County’s monthly School Attendance Review Board meetings are representatives of the county’s Child Protective Services Department, as well as District Attorney Barbara Yook.

“We actually had so many cases we had to go to two hearings a month,” Yook said of the truancy caseload countywide late in the school year that ended in June.

Yook said the review board often can assist parents by addressing everything from transportation to mental-health concerns that contribute to attendance problems. When parents simply refuse to cooperate, however, cases may be referred to her office for prosecution.

“Frequently these are families we know through having been through the (criminal justice) system already,” Yook said.

Under California law, parents convicted of failing to send their children to school can be fined up to $100 for a first offense, $250 for a second offense and $500 for a third offense.

Yook said judges often suspend at least a portion of the fine if the parent complies with the court’s judgment, which can include requiring that the parent attend a counseling and education program.

Alimbini said parents are responsible for establishing a school-going mind-set in their children at a young age.

“Little children follow their parents’ lead,” she said. “If their parent doesn’t make getting up and going to school important, (children) are not going to see it as important, either. Then when they are 15 or 17 or 18, you see you’re not going to graduate from high school. That started a long time before you got to high school.”

Contact reporter Dana M. Nichols at (209) 607-1361 or dnichols@recordnet.com. Visit his blog at www.recordnet.com/calaverasblog.

Contact reporter Roger Phillips at (209) 546-8299 or rphillips@recordnet.com. Visit his blog at www.recordnet.com/phillipsblog.