Lake Bluff District 65 has started responding sooner to excessive absences and late arrivals this school year. During the 2014-2015 school year, students at District 65 missed school more than the state average.
Chronic truancy is defined as students missing more than 5 percent – about 9 – school days, according to the Lake County Regional Office of Education. The state average is nine percent of students missing nine or more days of school.
At District 65, five percent of students at Lake Bluff Middle School missed 18 days of school or more. Another 24 percent missed 8 or more school days according to Kevin Rubenstein, director of student services, technology and assessment.
At Lake Bluff Elementary School, 8 percent of students missed 18 days of school or more. Another 30 percent missed 8 or more school days.
“As the curricular expectations have ramped up over time – while it’s never good to miss a day of school, when you miss a day of school now, it’s difficult to keep up,” Rubenstein said.
“In the past, we really didn’t say anything about it,” said Superintendent Jean Sophie. “Our approach this year is to make parents aware of how many absences there really are and how many tardies there really are and to work together to cut those down.”
Sophie said there has to be a balance.
“Lots of time parents will pull their kids for vacations that are a truly educational experience and that they don’t get in classrooms,” Sophie said.
A variety of reasons was given for the absences last school year in District 65. Those range from sickness to a family vacation to doctor appointments that couldn’t be rescheduled to a family wedding, Rubenstein said. Almost all of those absences were excused by parents.
There are only four legitimate reasons for students to miss school, according to the Lake County Regional Office of Education. Those are illness, observation of a religious holiday, death in the family or a family emergency.
While District 65 doesn’t track reasons given, Rubenstein said his sense is that events like illness or death in the family are in the minority. And, to be clear, this is not about students playing hooky.
“Our parents are very diligent about letting us know when [students] will not be in school,” Rubenstein said.
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This year, District 65 has reset its computer system to give earlier notice – meaning an email to an administrator – when a student has reached a certain number of absences or tardies.
“In the past we’d send a letter,” Rubenstein said. “But we didn’t always have a system in place to do follow up and put supportive plans in place for attendance.”
At six days of excused absences the school principal will send a letter to the parents, Rubenstein said in an email. At eight excused absences, a meeting will be required between parents and a school administrator. At nine excused absences, a meeting will be required between parents and a district administrator. At ten excused absences, the matter gets referred to the attendance and truancy division of the Lake County Regional Office of Education
A similar timeline will take place for students that are consistently late to school. At five tardies the school principal will send a letter to parents. At ten tardies a meeting will be required between parents and school administrator. At 12 tardies, a meeting will be required between parents and a district level administrator. At 15 tardies, the Attendance and Truancy division of the Lake County Regional Office of Education will send a letter to parents.
If that doesn’t work, the Regional Office of Education can work with the student and family. In extreme cases where neither the district nor regional office has been successful, cases may be referred to the state’s attorney office.
If the state’s attorney gets involved, parents could be ordered to comply with an individualized education plan from the regional office of education. They could also be required to obtain counseling, perform public service or be fined from $5 to $100 per unexcused absence. In this case, more than nine absences for any reason consitute unexcused absenses. In extreme cases, parents can be sentenced up to 30 days in jail on a Class C misdemeanor . That’s according to the website of the Lake County Regional Office of Education.
Efforts to contact representatives of the Lake Bluff District 65 PTO by phone and email for comment were unsuccessful.
While part of the district’s concern is that students keep up academically, Rubenstein said District 65 is also concerned about the social and emotional development of students.
“They are also missing typical social situations when at lunch or walking in the hall or in the classroom that help them to become well-rounded boys and girls,” Rubenstein said.
At the Regional Office of Education, Monika Schwander said missing classes can be especially problematic for such subjects such as math and science which build on material in sequence. Schwander is director of the Attendance and Truancy Division. The regional office promoted this September as National Attendance Awareness Month.
Every week Schwander e-mails tips to school administrators on how to improve attendance. Some of those tips are passed on to parents, such as looking at attendance as well as grades on report cards, regular bedtimes for students or leaving for school early.
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