Truancy crackdown will target parents

With less than two months left in the school year, Hamilton County parents who let their children skip classes should be punished in a wider variety of ways, judges and law enforcement officials say.

Together, they’re on a crusade to educate people about a Tennessee law that allows parents of truants to be charged in General Sessions Court as well as Juvenile Court.

“We’re really going outside of the box in doing this, taking on the role of educating the public as to what the laws are in regards to truancy and the role the judiciary might be able to play in that issue,” Hamilton County General Sessions Judge Bob Moon said.

A consistently negligent parent who does not get a child to school can face a Class C misdemeanor charge in General Sessions Court, which includes a $50 fine and 30-day jail sentence, he said. Parents can face similar punishments on truancy charges in Juvenile Court, where parents and their children are sent by school-system social workers.

“It’s not my desire to put any parent in jail,” Judge Moon said. “Punishing parents is not going to solve all of the problems, but it is a beginning.”

In 2007, nearly 50 percent of students in Hamilton County were considered truant, according to school system records. Under state law, that means they have at least five unexcused absences.

On Friday, Judge Moon will try and raise awareness of the district’s truancy woes during a 12:15 p.m. speech at the Kiwanis Club of Chattanooga. The issue affects the judges as well, he said, because if students become truant, they often end up in court later for other offenses.

Chattanooga Police Chief Freeman Cooper agreed that punishment for truants’ parents has been too lenient, and he said now plans to serve truancy subpoenas during the monthly crime suppression sweeps throughout the city.

If students are not in school, they often are in their neighborhoods causing trouble without their parents’ knowledge, Chief Cooper said.

“This will hold parents accountable for the actions of their children and grandchildren,” he said. “It’s not just up to law enforcement to resolve this issue.”

Court is a last resort, school officials say, and more often cases are dealt with on an individual basis through parent meetings with one of the district’s 16 social workers.

Judge Moon said that no one has appeared in his courtroom for a truancy-related offense, but sessions judges are more than willing to carry their fair share of the caseload.

A similar push began this year in Marion County and has proven effective, school Superintendent Mark Griffith said. After charging assistant principals with the dual-role of attendance coordinators and developing a truancy review board, attendance rate in Marion schools has jumped from around 93 percent to 97 percent, Mr. Griffith said.

“The parents realize there’s going to be someone checking on that student on a daily basis,” he said.

Court referrals also have decreased in Marion County, Mr. Griffith said, and several parents have been put in jail.

Sequatchie County school leaders also recently instituted a truancy board to help identify any extenuating circumstances among the chronic repeat offenders.

Hamilton School Board Chairman Kenny Smith said he looks forward to hearing Judge Moon’s plans at Friday’s meeting. Truancy enforcement has been lax in Hamilton County, he said, and jail time for negligent parents may become a necessity.

“It may set an example to other parents that the court system and the school system are serious about students being in school,” he said.