OKPOLICY.ORG
This guest article is authored by David Blatt, Director of Research and Strategic Impact for for Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice
One of the few universally recognized truths about the education system is that students who are not in school on a regular basis cannot learn. Children who are chronically absent from school perform worse academically, are more likely to drop out, and experience poor outcomes later in life, from poverty and diminished health to involvement in the criminal justice system, research shows. How a pattern of absences should be addressed, however, remains a topic of much discussion. Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice’s new report Make Court a Last Resort: Truancy and Chronic Absenteeism in Oklahoma finds that the best way to address chronic absenteeism is for schools to work together with parents, students, and community partners, rather than rely on punitive measures.
The COVID-19 pandemic caused a cascading set of disruptions for students and families that resulted in, among other things, steep and troubling increases in rates of chronic absenteeism. Across the United States, the rate of students who are chronically absent – defined as students who miss 10 percent of school days, regardless of whether the absences are excused or unexcused – nearly doubled from 15 percent in 2019 to 28 percent in 2022 and remained substantially elevated in 2023, according to recent research from the American Enterprise Institute. In Oklahoma, the rise in chronic absenteeism has been less dramatic but still notable, increasing to 20 percent in 2022-23 from 16.4 percent in 2017-18.
Behind those overall numbers are significant disparities in the absenteeism rate across school districts and student demographic groups. For example, high-poverty school districts saw a 17 percentage point increase in their rates of chronic absenteeism from 2019 to 2022, compared with an 11 point increase for low-poverty districts, as can be seen in the chart below. In Oklahoma, 30.9% of Black students and 24.3% of Hispanic students were chronically absent in 2022-23, compared to 18.9 percent of American Indian students and 16.6 percent of white students.
While the rise of chronic absenteeism has provoked widespread attention and concern, there are differing views on how to solve the problem. Broadly speaking, there are two distinct approaches. One is more punitive and involves stricter enforcement of state truancy laws that apply legal consequences for families whose children exceed a certain number of unexcused absences. For advocates of a punitive approach, truancy charges against youth or their parents, which typically involve monetary fines, probationary requirements to maintain good attendance, and possible jail time for continued violations, is a necessary and effective way to change behavior.
Critics, however, challenge the effectiveness of the punitive approach and contend that it actually worsens problems. Hedy Chang, executive director of Attendance Works, argues:
“If you ticket a child, it’s not a strategy for understanding why kids might miss in the first place. If tickets come with fines and one of the reasons kids are missing school are issues of poverty … then, in fact, fining kids and their families could exacerbate some of the underlying issues that cause them to miss school in the first place.”
In particular, research has shown that an arrest and court involvement for youth who are truant or commit other low-level offenses actually decreases their likelihood of attending school and completing high school – directly counter to the goal of decreasing absences.
By contrast, the alternative, non-punitive approach promoted by Attendance Works and other organizations is based on multiple-tiered interventions that attempt to identify and address the underlying family problems and social barriers hindering students’ regular attendance.
Oklahoma has typically followed the former approach. Oklahoma’s compulsory attendance laws require school districts to notify district attorneys (or in some cases, city prosecutors) when students are truant, with maximum penalties of $250 and 15 days in jail per offense. Data gathered for Oklahoma Appleseed by the Oklahoma Policy Institute found that more than 14,000 truancy charges were filed against parents and guardians in Oklahoma district courts from 2012-22 and that truancy ranked as the 8th most frequently charged misdemeanor offense in the state. But our research also discovered and describes tremendous inconsistencies in how truancy laws are applied across Oklahoma. In some jurisdictions and at some times, a student reaching a certain threshold of unexcused absences may be immediately charged in court with a truancy violation, while in other jurisdictions and at other times, truancy charges are filed very rarely or never. In Tulsa County, for example, the District Attorney filed truancy charges on parents just twice from 2020-22. In Pontotoc County, truancy enforcement was less of a priority during COVID but is now being pursued more aggressively by a recently elected DA.
Just as truancy laws are applied inconsistently, there is also tremendous variation in how schools address cases of chronic absenteeism prior to legal system involvement. Some districts simply make phone calls and send notes home with students before referring cases to the authorities. Other districts make extensive and formal efforts to engage families, school personnel, and community partners to identify and address barriers to attendance before involving the justice system.
Given competing ways to address the issue, and with wide variation in school practices, we recommend that the Oklahoma Legislature require schools pursue a tiered or graduated approach to chronic absenteeism, with increasingly intensive interventions as students accumulate a greater number of absences. A court referral should be authorized as a last resort only if and when other strategies have been attempted and failed. In addition, legal proceedings, when necessary, should be launched only against parents, not children, and fines and costs should be dismissed for families that meet probation requirements.
The bottom line is that purely punitive measures like fines, jail time, and even probation rarely solve the problems that lead to students missing school, and may actually make them worse. Rather than increasing pressure on children and families, we need everyone working together – parents, school officials, community organizations, and when absolutely necessary, courts and prosecutors – to make sure that children and families are getting the supports they need for every student to be successful.
– – –
About the Author
David Blatt is Director of Research and Strategic Impact for Oklahoma Appleseed Center for Law and Justice. He is the author of Appleseed’s new report Make Court a Last Resort: Truancy and Chronic Absenteeism in Oklahoma. He previously served as Executive Director for OK Policy from 2010 to 2019.
