Police have 'important role' in reducing student absences, Tom Horne says
"Solving this problem requires an all-out effort by parents, school administrators, law enforcement and city attorneys," Horne said during a news conference on March 26.
Arizona's chronic absenteeism rate among first through eighth graders, meaning the percentage of students who missed more than 10% of school days, spiked after the onset of COVID-19 but has been declining since the 2021-22 school year. In the 2023-24 school year, about 24% of Arizona's elementary and middle public school students were chronically absent, according to state data. That's down from 32% in the 2021-22 school year and about 28% in the 2022-23 school year.
The 2023-24 school year chronic absenteeism rate, however, remains much higher than before COVID-19. In the 2017-18 and 2018-19 school years, chronic absenteeism in the state was about 12% and 12.68%, respectively.
In response, school districts in Arizona have implemented strategies such as tracking student absence data to enable staff to reach out parents as soon as children miss a certain number of school days, emphasizing the importance of school to parents, making sure kids have advocates at school checking in on them and rewarding students for attendance.
Horne said he thought police "have a very important role to play" in addressing the issue.
In a news release, he said that 'any certified law enforcement officer' is 'empowered to cite parents' under a state statute that says a parent of a child between 6 and 16 who fails to ensure their child attends school is guilty of a Class 3 misdemeanor, with some exceptions.
Horne said he urged city attorneys to 'give high priority' to truancy citations. Unlike chronic absenteeism, which measures all absences, including those that are excused or the result of a suspension, truancy refers to unexcused absences. Children in Arizona can be referred to court if they are habitually truant, meaning they have missed at least five days in a school year.
During the news conference, Maricopa County Sheriff Jerry Sheridan said he saw police citations as a 'last-ditch effort to get the attention of the kids and of the parents.'
'These are the cases that linger on — the kids don't respond to counseling, to guidance, to their parents,' Sheridan said.
The Maricopa County Superior Court's juvenile probation department operates a truancy diversion program for first and second truancy offenses called Court Unified Truancy Suppression. Students referred to the program by police are given consequences like community service, education and counseling, and they risk having their driver's license suspended if they fail to complete a consequence or appear at a hearing.
There have been relatively few truancy citations through the CUTS program in recent years.
During the 2019 fiscal year, there were 259 citations, which decreased to 92 in fiscal year 2020, 30 in fiscal year 2021, 49 in fiscal year 2022 and 58 in fiscal year 2023. Those numbers, however, only include referrals to juvenile court in which truancy was the most serious offense, so they may not include truancy citations that were a lesser offense on a referral, or truancy matters that were handled by a lower court or alternative resolution.
Janice Palmer, the senior vice president of government affairs at the Helios Education Foundation, which in January released a report on chronic absenteeism in the state, said in a statement that the organization was "encouraged that Superintendent Horne recognizes the severity of this issue and is bringing attention to it."
"Our research shows that the most effective way to improve student attendance is by building strong relationships with families and identifying and addressing the barriers that prevent students from attending school," Palmer said.
Legal intervention for truancy was listed as a "last resort" for students missing 20% of the school year under chronic absenteeism guidance created last year by a statewide task force led by Read On Arizona, an organization focused on improving literacy.
Horne also recommended that school districts not allow high school students to receive credit for a course after they have accumulated nine absences. Exceeding the number of absences under such a policy could prevent high school students from completing the credits necessary for graduation, or K-8 students from moving up a grade level.
Arizona schools already formally withdraw students who have ten consecutive unexcused absences.
Horne said his suggestion would go beyond 'soft solutions,' such as simply notifying parents of their children's absences, and instead, 'would deal more with the motivation of parents because parents are the ones who have the most influence" on students.
"Parents want their kids to graduate on time; they don't want them to flunk courses," Horne said. "This would be a great motivator for parents."
This lost credit policy is currently in place in the West Valley's Dysart Unified School District. At the news conference, Superintendent John Croteau and Assistant Superintendent for Support Services Craig Mussi said several new practices have helped increase the district's average attendance rate to 93%.
Dysart's lost credit policy impacts students whether or not an absence is excused. Mussi said both can lead to students falling behind.
'So once you hit that tenth absence, you're going to lose credit,' said Mussi. The district does offer a process to appeal lost credit, but stricter rules against absenteeism, he said, are 'the only way we're going to get the attention of the families.'
Dysart Unified has continued to notify parents about student absences through phone calls, letters and the ParentSquare mobile app, where parents can keep track of attendance. School officials also formulate plans with parents to get children into school and inform parents of the effects of missing classes, Mussi said.
The district also incentivizes students to maintain high attendance rates through competitions within the district, with some schools even hosting an Attendance Competition Spirit Week to encourage participation.
Mussi said the district has a close relationship with the Surprise and El Mirage police departments, which help issue citations to parents who fail to send their kids to school.
Coverage of education solutions on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is partially supported by a grant from the Arizona Local News Foundation's Arizona Community Collaborative Fund.
This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Police have 'important role' in reducing absences, Tom Horne says
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