Student attendance rate rising

Marisa O’Neil

An Orange County Grand Jury report released Thursday found that the

school district’s truancy levels are improving, but officials need to

better explain the policy on absentee students to parents.

The report, called “Combating Truancy in Orange County,” makes

recommendations to each district, including Newport-Mesa Unified,

which has shown a recent decrease in truancy levels.

In 1999-2000, according to the report, attendance levels in the

district stood at 93%. Last year, the levels increased to a 95%

attendance rate.

The grand jury also noted that Newport Mesa Unified School

District’s website provided an “inadequate treatment of attendance

matters and lack of explicit expectations for students’ attendance.”

Capistrano and Orange unified school districts both got high marks

for theirs. The grand jury recommended the district make improvements

to its website, something Supt. Robert Barbot said is already in

process.

“We’re already improving the Web page,” he said. “We want it to be

the best in the county.”

One plan district officials are working on to deal with truancy is

an alternative school for grades five through eight.

“We want to take those fifth- or sixth-graders and get them

refocused on school,” said Mike Murphy, director of student services

through the district.

The grand jury’s recommendations were a response to California

Department of Education information released in 1995 noting truancy

as a powerful predictor of juvenile-delinquent behavior.

Also recommended in the report was that district representatives

attend the monthly county School Attendance Review Board meetings.

Newport-Mesa Unified School District has its own monthly review

board, made up of district administrators, school board members,

probation officers and a parent liaison. They hold meetings with

parents, school principals and students facing discipline.

Murphy said the district will consider attending the county

meetings, which are more “philosophical and procedural” and don’t

handle student discipline. But much of the information in such

meetings mirrors items covered in other county meetings, he said.

When a student does not come to school, Murphy said, an automatic

dialer calls the parents’ home to notify them of the absence. If the

unexcused absences continue, a letter is sent home.

If they continue after second and third warning letters, the

student and parent appear before the review board and make up a

contract agreeing to attend school. Probation officers are contacted

if that fails, and the district attorney gets involved only as a last

resort, Murphy said.

This year, 23 students have faced the review board, six have gone

to probation and one is facing charges through the district

attorney’s office.

Parents of habitual truants can also face legal penalties.

“A lot of parents try to do everything they can to get their child

to school,” Barbot said. “Our goal is to get the child back in

school, not punish the parents.”

School programs like Renaissance seek to reward good attendance

and behavior with T-shirts and other incentives, Murphy said. And

counselors such as research advocate Pepe Montenegro get involved

with parents and students to find the root of the problem.

“We want to know ‘What’s the problem? What can we do to get it to

change? What can we do to help you not repeat the problem?’” he said.

The district did not supply data on habitual truants for the

report because they have not kept track of such things, Murphy said.

Starting next school year, the federal No Child Left Behind Act will

require all districts to do so.