DES MOINES, Iowa — School is starting again for students in Iowa just as the state is introducing a new measure to combat school absenteeism.
Schools in Iowa have now introduced a three-tier system with which Republican lawmakers hope to put a stop to chronic school absenteeism.
“Last session, Republicans in the House saw a big problem when we found that about one in four students in Iowa were chronically absent from school,” said Rep. Taylor Collins (R-Mediapolis). “In fact, some of our larger school districts, particularly Des Moines or Waterloo public schools, have chronic absenteeism rates of over 40%.”
If a student is absent from school for 10% of the time, his or her parents and the district attorney will be notified.
When a student’s absences reach 15%, the child and his or her parents are invited to a mandatory meeting with the school to find a solution.
If they don’t stick to the plan or their absenteeism reaches 20%, the district attorney can intervene.
“It will be a change for our school administrators and teachers as well as our families and students, and we will have to get used to the new rules and regulations,” said Dr. Lisa Remy, executive director of the School Administrators of Iowa.
One of the most important changes is to eliminate the distinction between “excused” and “unexcused” absences.
“Schools used to talk about excused and unexcused absences and usually focused on unexcused absences when considering the possibility of truancy,” said Dr. Remy. “Now the law is all absences are an absence.”
This is one of the reasons why some parents criticize the new law.
However, there are some exceptions where absence from school will not be counted as truancy. These include religious services, legitimate medical reasons, and an excused absence by a court or judge.
Representative Collins said that while he understood that there were cases where students had to stay away from school, this could have a lasting impact on the child’s education.
“We should have taken some additional steps beforehand, some obviously less stringent steps, to make sure that when a student misses 10 to 15 percent of the school year, before they miss more than 20 percent of their total schooling, we are already intervening,” said Rep. Collins.
In an email, Lynn Hicks, chief of staff for the Polk County District Attorney, sent Iowa News Now her region’s “chronic absenteeism plan.”
Level one would be for the school to notify the prosecutor when a student reaches the 10% absence rate.
They say that stage two will occur “if parents do not sign a School Absenteeism Prevention Plan, violate a term of the School Absenteeism Prevention Plan, or do not attend school involvement meetings.”
Her office is currently working on creating a portal so that schools can enter the information required for referral to Level Two Truancy Court.
The plan also states that under the law, the district attorney has discretion whether to file charges or take action on behalf of truants in court.
“It is not the intent of this office to prosecute every case of truancy and punish or incarcerate the parents,” the plan states. “Polk County Truancy Court will be run to work with families to remove obstacles that lead to chronic truancy in children. Parents who are charged in Truancy Court and make progress in improving their child’s attendance rate are often rewarded with a dismissal of the case. The Polk County Prosecutor’s Office wants to work with schools to ensure that children receive their education.”
