Anniston City Schools updates attendance policy to combat truancy

Schools are working hard to reduce student absences. Anniston City Schools has a plan to combat truancy that ranges from letters to home visits to an attendance workshop. This year, the school system changed the number of parent notifications allowed for student absences.

“We changed the number, I call them mom notes. So the number that you as a parent can write. I believe we increased it to a total of five for the whole year. Because when you start adding up, obviously something can happen, parents get up late or whatever, or something happens, a child says they don't want to go to school that day, then it's great that you can write that note,” explained Superintendent Dr. D. Ray Hill. “But now after those five excuses, everything else has to be a doctor's excuse. I believe we've reduced the number of days that you have to submit that doctor's excuse.”

Parents can submit five excuses if their child is absent from school. Students have three days to submit an excuse. After five parental notes, only medical notes will be accepted.

“Honestly, because we have manipulated some things. Not a lot, but enough to say how we can contain it. The goal is to make sure that every child is here every day.”

For Dr. Hill, it is of utmost importance to ensure that all students are in school every day, except when they are sick.

“From school to prison. Think carefully about how many days your child is going to miss, especially in the early years. The more days they miss, the less likely they are to get to the level where they can read well by third grade. And not only that, if they are not proficient by that grade, and if they are already two years behind by sixth grade, the likelihood of them graduating is pretty slim. Zero to none,” Hill said.

According to the most recent data available from the Alabama Department of Education Report Card from 2022 to 2023, Anniston City Schools' chronic absenteeism rate was 15.2%, lower than the state average for the same school year of 17.9%

If a student is absent without excuse three times, parents must attend an attendance warning workshop, which is offered weekly.

“You basically check the child's attendance and their grades with the parents. Make them aware of the rules and sign again that they understand them, because once a child is absent from class for seven days, we're talking about a referral to truancy court.”

Hill said sometimes it's just a forgotten medical note, but other times it can serve as a real reminder.

“Sometimes parents forget. It can happen that they were away for two days and had just caught up on everything. The child was actually sick and they had a doctor's note, they just forgot to hand it in.”

“Hey, ma'am, we've gotten to the point where your child is not allowed to miss another day, or if he misses this number of days after that, that's the plan. This is our way of alerting parents, giving them a heads up. It's been very useful to us in many ways.”

What happens if the absences continue? A warning letter, an SRO could make a home visit, early warning court could be convened, then a petition or warrant could be issued for neglect of school responsibilities or truancy. Hill said he could imagine parents being in court in September, even though he hasn't even been in school a month.

“I know we know of about four parents who are likely to have to appear in court in September on truancy charges,” Hill explained. “That concerns me because we know we want the child to be there every day. If we can get the child to school every day, except when they're sick, we probably have an 80-85 percent chance of the child being successful.”