Students in St. Johns County who skip school will soon taste justice inside a real courtroom.
Beginning March 23 the Student Services division of the county school district in conjunction with the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office and the St. Johns Juvenile Court system will begin holding students accountable for too many unexcused absences in truancy court.
Sallyanne Smith, director of student services for the district, said the goal of truancy court is to increase the graduation rate and decrease the dropout rate through increased student attendance.
"We are going to start small to get the process smooth," said Smith. "We’re targeting the [students] who are staying home and don’t want to go to school."
Smith said the district modeled the court on the Clay County Truancy Court, which has been in effect since 2002.
"We don’t have exact data," said Smith. "Clay has told us that it has significantly reduced their truancy rate."
The Florida Statutes allow each district school board to establish an attendance policy that includes the number of school days in a year a student must be in attendance, the number of absences and tardinesses after which an explanatory statement must be filed with the school and the ability to create a criteria determining what absences are considered excused and unexcused. According to Statute 1003.24, each parent of a child within the compulsory attendance age is responsible for the child’s school attendance as required by law.
St. Johns County School District’s attendance policy maintains that more than 20 absences out of the 180 school year is presumed to be excessive. Truancy for the district is defined as absence from school with out the parent or guardian’s knowledge or consent. Habitual truancy is defined as 15 or more days of unexcused absences in a 90 calendar day period.
Smith said the district will be focusing on middle and high school students. In a presentation at a School Board workshop this week, Smith presented current data on students with 10 or more unexcused absences as of Feb. 25. There were 47 elementary students, 36 middle school students and 144 high school students.
Superintendent Joe Joyner said the district’s truancy plan is a great thing for the students.
"This will have a huge positive impact on keeping kids in schools," Joyner said. "By involving the judicial system it will help encourage attendance which is critical to us. We need every minute that we can get [with these kids]."
Smith said each school has a truancy contact person who is tasked with keeping a running total of students absences. That truancy contact person, she said, will send letters to parents, request conferences and exhaust all possibilities prior to truancy court. If it is necessary to then send the child to truancy court, the judge, either St. John County Circuit Judges John M. Alexander or Clyde E. Wolfe, has the authority to levy sanctions. Sanctions may include community service hours, individual or family counseling, parent teacher conferences, parent training classes, parent attendance with child at school, periodic court review or even placement in a youth crisis center in Duval County.
"It’s quite an endeavor when you start a court," said Alexander. "I think its going to be very successful."
Sgt Chuck Mulligan, spokesman for the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office agreed.
"There is no question that a child being educated is fundamentally important," said Mulligan. "Keeping kids in school is important."
Smith said the pilot truancy court program will stay small until they can manage out the kinks in the program. He said the feedback so far has been positive.
"We want to hold students accountable for their choices," she said. "We are going to give it a try. I’m excited about it."
sarakaufman@pontevedrarecorder.com
(904)285-8831 ext. 16
