A second parent has been charged for not making sure their child gets to school, with charges coming after she was originally summoned to court last month and a $3,400 warrant was issued for her arrest.
Quadricka Jackson, 31, of Racine, was charged Monday in Racine County Circuit Court with 17 counts of fail/cause a child to attend school. Each count includes four or five dates the child missed school. Each count carries a 90-day sentence and a $1,000 fine.
The seven-year-old should be a first grader at Knapp School, 2701 17th Street, but the student missed 90 days of school between Sept. 22, 2012 and May 13, 2013.
According to the criminal complaint, the case involving Jackson's child was forwarded to the Racine County District Attorney's office by Racine Unified officials after several failed attempts to work with the family to get the student in class.
"Outreach efforts include letters home, phone calls and even home visits," said district spokesperson Stacy Tapp. "We do everything we can and then we're required by state statute to report the situation to the DA's office."
This is the second case of extreme student truancy charged this month. In the first case, Jane Belasic was also charged with 17 counts of truancy because her child missed 88 days of school between October 2012 and April 2013.
Tapp said she couldn't comment further about this particular case because it does involve a student. She did say that even though it's up to the district attorney to decide how to proceed from here, the district isn't done trying to work with the family.
"We are still here to help so this child gets the education they need," she said. "But it's up to the DA on how to proceed with the case."
Court records show that Jackson was assigned a $1,000 signature bond during her initial appearance Monday. Conditions of her bail include making sure her child is in school when class is in session and to attend all future court dates.
Jackson has a pre-trial conference scheduled on July 18 and a status conference on Aug. 12.
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