GISD truancy officers update board on progress

The Graham ISD truancy officers gave a report Wednesday to the GISD school board and spoke about the progress they made from August through December 2019.

Under the Texas Education Code, school districts must apply truancy prevention measures when students have three or more unexcused absences on three or more days or parts of days within a four-week period. Students can also be referred to truancy court after an excess of 10 unexcused absences. GISD appointed the two officers last year during a school board meeting, according to GISD Superintendent Sonny Cruse.

“We repurposed some staff this last year with a couple of our retiree or part-time guys and we created two truancy officer positions to work with our principals and to work with our SRO (School Resource Officer),” Cruse said. “(…) I believe that our principals are seeing these two guys as an asset, one of the things I know we were able to accomplish within the first couple weeks of school, which this normally takes longer, was finding what is called our leavers. Kids that didn’t reenroll and where are they.”

The two officers have worked 20 hours a week since August and made 163 student visits so far with 30 being made in the last week, according to GISD Truancy Officer Tom Lewis. Lewis along with officer Thomas Iles have also made 24 parent phone calls during the same period.

“We spend a lot of time on the phone talking to parents,” Lewis said. “They don’t like to hear us when we call.”

Lewis said by law students are allowed 10 unexcused absences over a six-month period, with three in a four-week period serving as a red flag for the officers. He said they send a letter home at the fourth, sixth and eighth unexcused absence of the student, but have not filed many students with the court.

“We have actually only filed two,” Lewis said. “We have got one teetering (that) we thought that she was going to get it, but so far she has been back to school, so just the threat of tickets are working very well. We had three today (Wednesday) that we had to file on, so they are at that part of the year where they are starting to put those numbers up.”

Despite having to file for some students through the municipal court, Iles said it is not their first action when it comes to dealing with students.

“Our goal is not to file charges on them. Our goal is to get them to school and so we try to take all the steps we can prior to that with just conversation, counseling, whatever it might be, just the communication and what it takes to try to get that student and that parent to understand,” he said. “And I know on the campuses, with the campuses like Crestview and Pioneer, there is a difference in how we have to deal with those because when you are dealing with 6, 7 and 8-year-old, you are dealing with a parent. A 6-year-old is not getting themselves to school. If you are 16 and above, you better get yourself to school because you are responsible at that point.”

After three unexcused absences the student must bring a doctors note to the campus. Graham High School Principal Joe Gordy said with the two truancy officers on campus it has made it easier in enforcing this rule.

“We are finally making grounds in that now because we have these gentlemen to enforce it, so yes we are chasing down and requiring them, once they hit a threshold, to have physician documentation, because we have people who have time to chase it down now,” Gordy said.

The two officers are based at Graham High School because they said there are more cases at the high school than at other campuses within the district. Gordy said he has seen some changes in students that were historically absent.

“We have one young lady who at the end of September (…) had missed more than 10% of school, but she was eligible for the perfect attendance incentive we did in October,” Gordy said. “So even though she had missed more than nine days of school through the first five weeks of school, once they made heavy and hard contact with student and parent, she was here the rest of the time. I also have three kids who, since I have know them as sixth graders, have always been chronically absent who have three or few absences and were eligible for exemptions this year. So there is some really glowing spots, there are some of them that we are still fighting the same battle because it is generational.”

For the full story, see the Saturday, Jan. 18 edition of The Graham Leader.