The first statewide truancy numbers collected under a new Nebraska law indicate that, despite recent efforts, the state still has a ways to go in making sure students stay in school and keep out of trouble.
From the start of school to Sept. 30, nearly 49,000 of the state’s roughly 283,000 public school students in grades K-12 had missed two or more days of school, State Education Commissioner Roger Breed said Friday. That’s about 17 percent, or roughly one in six of those reported.
And last year, some 85,000 students missed more than 10 days of school. A total of 23,000, or 8 percent, missed 20 or more days.
Breed reported the numbers during a public hearing held in Omaha by the Legislature’s Judiciary Committee, which is doing its first review of the new law. The measure, which took effect in July, addresses a number of juvenile justice issues.
It includes provisions requiring school districts to establish policies stating the number of absences that will trigger a district response, to report absences to the state and to collaborate with county attorneys on how to deal with truants.
In an interview, Breed acknowledged that the absences were more than anticipated. The state also has gathered data for private schools, though those numbers were not reported Friday.
“Anybody who’s looked at them would say they’re higher than they would have thought,” he said.
Heightened attention has been placed on school attendance as school and community leaders seek ways to improve students’ academic achievement and prevent juvenile crime.
A 2009 World-Herald investigation of Omaha Public Schools graduation rates found that the more days of school students missed, the less likely they were to graduate on time.
State Sen. Brad Ashford of Omaha, chairman of the Judiciary Committee, said truancy is one of the triggers for youth violence.
“No one should be confused,” he said in an interview. “Those kids on the streets, they’re in those numbers.”
As a 40-year veteran of education, Breed said he could certainly testify to the investment in “time and energy and resources it takes to keep our students up to speed” when 8 percent of them miss 20 or more days of school.
John Cavanaugh, executive director of Building Bright Futures, a local education-focused philanthropy effort, said he was shocked to hear the numbers.
“We’re still at the tip of the iceberg” in terms of the problem, he said.
Ashford said the next challenge will be to dig deeper into the data to determine what’s behind the absences.
Several state agencies and other organizations, including Building Bright Futures, are working on a data-sharing initiative that would allow those working with youths who are missing a lot of school to identify risk factors that might keep kids out of school, such as a parent who’s out of the home or a health problem, and find ways to address them.
Building Bright Futures, for example, already has established six school-based health centers.
A variety of other efforts already are under way to keep kids in school or, if they’ve already been absent, to get them back in school sooner.
One is a court-supervised diversion program that Douglas County Juvenile Court Judge Elizabeth Crnkovich launched last February.
Instead of sending students who’d missed the state threshold of 20 or more school days to court, the program orders them to go back to school and refers them to services such as counselors or drug treatment. Some 400 students went through the program last year.
Contact the writer:
444-1223, julie.anderson@owh.com
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