Pickett County Schools will wait until a student tallies six unexcused absences per semester, instead of three, before moving the student’s case to a higher authority.
But who is that authority?
School Principals said they were told that the school system should send the cases to the Department of Children’s Services rather than to truancy court. School Board Member John Reagan said he does not think the school system should change its process.
“I just feel like as a local, we should do everything we can local, to try to get them in the court,” Reagan said. “Cause DCS, they’ve got too much other stuff to mess with. They’re not gonna mess with that, unless you report it as abuse.”
Pickett County High School Principal Vicki Crawford said in most cases, educational neglect is the reason for chronic absenteeism. Crawford said she believes sending the case to DCS is not the best process.
“We had some, I felt, were a lot more severe than that going on that I felt needed to be addressed,” Crawford said. “And within 24 hours, the case is closed.”
Reagan said most of the time, when the school system sends a case to the state, the state would ask what steps the school system takes before reviewing the case. Reagan said that if nothing has been done beforehand, the state will hand the case back to the school system. Crawford said that is the reason she believes that truancy court is the best first step.
“Let the judge talk to the parents, and then if he feels like at that point, that it needs to be referred, he can refer, we can refer, or whatever,” Crawford said. “At least we got that middle step in there that we were trying really hard to get something done before we took that step.”
Crawford said she will continue to report chronic absenteeism to truancy court.
