LaFAYETTE, Ga. — Tackling truancy involves understanding why students are missing school, officials in Northwest Georgia said.

“It is not very effective just to say, ‘You have to go,’” Juvenile Court Judge F. Bryant Henry Jr. said. “There is some reason they don’t want to go. What we have to try to do is find the underlying cause.”

According to Georgia law, students are considered truant if they have five or more unexcused absences, although school officials in each county create their own guidelines. For example, in Catoosa and Whitfield counties, students are allowed to miss 15 days, although parents are notified after five days are missed and again after 10 days are missed.

Officials in Atlanta’s DeKalb County recently began cracking down on the problem, arresting parents whose children missed too much school.

Judge Henry, who serves Dade and Walker counties, characterized the truancy problem as “significant,” although administrators from Catoosa, Walker and Whitfield counties said they have a good handle on it. Each system met adequate yearly progress in attendance, measuring the number of students who missed more than 15 days.

“Truancy is not one of our greater concerns,” Eric Beavers, spokesman for Whitfield County schools, said in an e-mail. “Our attendance rates have been steadily improving.”

Lindsay Boyle, a senior at Ridgeland High School in Rossville, Ga., said she doesn’t have a problem keeping unexcused absences to a minimum.

“It is usually the same people who miss a lot of days,” she said.

In Hamilton County, the issue is more severe, with more than 100 students considered truant only two weeks into the school year, according to Chattanooga Times Free Press archives.

a group effort

Before parents or students are penalized for truancy, officials in Northwest Georgia work to identify the reasons students miss school, and work to get them in touch with organizations who might help tackle the problems, officials said.

In some school systems, such as Catoosa County, after a student misses five unexcused days, attendance protocol requires that a meeting be scheduled with the student, parents and school officials.

“It should be a very positive meeting at this point in time,” said Coleman Burroughs, director of student services for Catoosa County schools.

If the student continues to miss — racking up 10 or 12 unexcused absences — parents and the student are required to attend a larger meeting in which organizations such as the Department of Family and Children Services and the Department of Juvenile Justice participate.

If a child misses school because of “mental anguish,” school officials work to get them help from the appropriate agency, Mr. Burroughs said.

Walker County social worker Hayley Pollard, who works with the county school system, said the goal of group meetings is to provide support to the family and help them communicate with school officials.

“As a community initiative, we have had many successes where we were able to help provide services that these families otherwise would not have received,” Ms. Pollard said in an e-mail. “For example: counseling, assistance with Medicaid, food stamps ... and other community resources.”

If the problem is not corrected, a complaint against the student can be filed in juvenile court or against the child’s parents in magistrate court, officials said.

It is important for agencies to work together, Ms. Pollard said.

“The community, the schools, the courts and all of our other service agencies have truly come together to send the message that school attendance is essential,” she said.

parents jailed?

Walker County Magistrate Judge William “Jerry” Day said truancy is a difficult issue to tackle because there are so many factors that may lead to a student being out of school.

“A lot of it that I’ve seen, it is single parents with no help ... or kids with health issues,” Judge Day said. “It is a tough situation.”

Parents who violate the state law are guilty of a misdemeanor and may be fined $25 to $100 and could be subject to imprisonment no longer than 30 days, community service or a combination of penalties.

Judge Day said some parents are doing the best they can, but with little income, no transportation and no phone, it can be difficult to get children to school.

“In my view, what does it accomplish to put a mother in jail who’s already struggling?” he said.

But he said there is a difference between someone who is trying and someone who isn’t.

“I’ve had a few of them where it just looked like, ‘You are not getting up in the morning and getting them to school,’” he said. “‘You are not doing what you need to be doing.’”

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