MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Virtual school resumed for Shelby County Monday, but thousands of students started the new semester with multiple absences already on their record. While some students have dozens of unexcused absences, Juvenile Court’s truancy docket sits empty.
As of Dec. 4, SCS reported around 20,000 students have five or more unexcused absences. That’s about one in five students. Even more unnerving is that 1,200 racked up 30 or more unexcused absences. All of them are considered truant by state law.
“We have had truancy dockets as long as I can remember,” Shelby County Juvenile Court Judge Dan Michael said.
Every year, except this one.
“We know that there are truant children out there,” he said. “We know that there are parents who are not getting their kids to school, but unless you come to me with a problem, I can’t do anything about it.”
Thousands of SCS students missing virtual class, school district reports
Shelby County Schools chose a virtual learning model this school year to stem the spread of COVID-19. District officials tweaked the attendance policy allowing excuses like power outages and internet problems, but students have to be there for “at least a half day” to be counted as present and five unexcused absences makes them truant.
In fact that last part is state law, according to Senator Brian Kelsey.
“Our state law on truancy apply whether a student is in the classroom physically or whether they are attending virtually,” he said. “Every school district is supposed to have its own plan on dealing with that and ensuring they get students back into class.”
In an email, SCS stated, “we have implemented the multi-tiered truancy intervention process.”
“We make daily phone calls to parents, but then there is a written notification at three days, then at five days there’s a meeting with the parent and we tried to put a plan in place,” Angela Hargrave with the district explained.
That plan is to work with the parent or guardian to mitigate barriers, figure out what’s causing so many absences and try to resolve it.
SCS said COVID hasn’t hindered the intervention process, stating “all district supports and external partnerships are in place.”
“We have really had a very intentional focus on a daily basis trying to keep students engaged,” Hargrave said.
That’s hard to do, said Keith Williams with the Shelby County Education Association.
“They are signing on and off at will. It’s a huge problem,” he said.
“Many of them are very savvy and they take the laptops and the devices with them where they are, and they may or may not be home,” he added. “Teachers are being held to some degree accountable for that, which they have very little control.”
According to the data, about 10,000 students have 10 or more unexcused days as of Dec. 10. SCS policy states it can get the District Attorney’s office and Juvenile Court involved when a student reaches that point.
“I think court intervention has to be the last step in the process and there needs to be a lot of pre-intervention work, but I worry,” said Michael.
Michael said they’ve morphed from going after a child to holding their parents accountable.
That’s right, a parent can get in legal trouble. That could mean a fine, but a lot of times, it means more court-ordered alternative programs and parent-education training.
“Truancy dockets were always busy, and we did a lot of good,” said Michaels. “We got a lot of kids back in school. We don’t know. We just don’t know.”
SCS used to work with the DA’s office to reduce truancy, but the school board suddenly cut ties last year leaving all efforts in house. The DA’s office said it hasn’t heard from the district at any point during the fall semester about filing truancy petitions, which Michael said has to happen to get the docket back up and running.
“I will say it right now, if Dr. [Joris] Ray in the school system, wants us to reopen our truancy docket, start filing those petitions. We will hear them. We don’t have a problem with that,” he said.
SCS said students faced the greatest challenges in math and science during the fall semester.
That’s one reason district leaders asked the Shelby County Commission last month for an additional $30 million to help with possible learning losses, like adding more support staff and summer programs.