Racine Unified Changes Truancy Policy

students will be subject to a revised truancy policy under a plan unanimously approved by the school board on Dec. 19.

The truancy policy is comprised of eight sections, some of which saw revisions to more closely reflect current practice by Racine Unified, the Racine Municipal Court, Racine County Human Services and the community at large.

Following are the revisions to the affected sections:

• Section A: More clearly places the responsibility of disciplining truancies on the parents of the offending student at the elementary level and on the student at the secondary level
• Section B: Creates a collaborative model to identify truant children of all ages and perform an intervention focused on engagement with the goal of returning the student to school
• Section C: Aims to increase public awareness of the effects of truancy and provides for educational programming about the legal system’s response to truancy
• Section D: Gives the district the flexibility to use alternative accommodations to reengage a truant student, including creating a Student Support Team to develop academic alternatives and interventions
• Section H: Creates a program that allows for the referral of all students 12 years old or older with 30 or more truancies in one semester to Racine Municipal Court

Truancy has significant short- and long-term consequences for students who miss school as well as for the Racine County community as a whole, according to the district’s truancy plan. The economic well being of the county, its crime rate and the general quality of life are all greatly impacted by truancy.

With that in mind, the district is required to have a truancy plan on record. The school board adopted the current truancy plan about five years ago, said Dan Baran, Chair of the Racine County Truancy Committee. Other districts, however, are less progressed in maintaining their policies, Baran said.

“Racine Unified is one of the bellwether districts for doing this,” Baran said. “I would venture to guess it’s still way ahead of several hundred other school districts in the state.”

It’s important to note, however, that multiple steps of intervention are utilized before sending a student to court, said Holly Moore, Unified’s Lead Social Worker.

“The most success I’ve seen was having a formal meeting with the student,” Moore said. “If those efforts aren’t having an impact, going in front of a judge and seeing the consequences of truancy might help.”