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The 50 or so people gathered in the county Public Safety Center last week were there for one shared purpose...keeping students in school.  Their professional lives have been dedicated to kids showing up for the school day,  and connecting them with assistance where there is a need.

When kids don’t attend school, this is called truancy, but frequently its causes can be remedied.   

Attendees representing area schools and child protective services present in the training session last week shared their general impression that since the stay-at-home covid era, it seems school attendance is not the parenting priority it once was. Some individuals who are excessively absent from school have parents who are doing the wrong thing or are missing in action,  but there are individuals who are derailing themselves.  

The motto locally is ‘every day matters’ and the goal is to find out what can be done to correct absenteeism.  The potential for society to take on future expenses if a child becomes a non-productive citizen are far greater than initial costs for setting them on the right track as a kid.

A Chisago County Assistant Attorney Randi Setter said in Minnesota the age of 12 is the magic number triggering what type of response to use correcting truant kids.   If a frequently absent kid is younger than 12 the parents are the focus. The father or the mother, or both, maybe are not enrolling the child, not making an effort to provide their education, not addressing personal traumas that may be hindering participation.  

 If a truant candidate is older than 12 years old,  there’s an acknowledged  combination of factors and the student carries more responsibility in correcting truancy.

County Attorney Janet Reiter told those in the training session that she  was grateful everyone could make the time to gather in order to improve communications among all the agencies, schools and families to support youngsters on the “front end.”   She described how research shows that attending school — homeschool, private school or public school — up to age 17, when legally youth are no longer mandated to attend school means opportunity  for a positive life is vastly improved.

Reiter and assistant county attorneys working with truancy issues in Chisago County, rely on school counselors, teachers, School Resource Officers, child social workers, case managers and probation agents.

Being called to a hearing before the judge is the last step anybody wants to have to take.  Interventions can begin even before, but certainly after five to seven unexcused absences.  From the very start that attendance looks to be a problem, it needs to be addressed, the meeting go-ers heard.  Officials at last week’s session also discussed how contact should be a positive message and there’s nothing wrong with students being rewarded for showing up.  

Matt Lattimore, North Branch District administration, said the middle school has a recognition outreach they call “on a roll.”  It recognizes students who are seeing improved grades, but are not yet achieving the Honor Roll.  

The middle school also makes note of tardy students exhibiting the potential of turning into truancies.  Rewarding on-time behavior is even important sometimes.

Clint Link, North Branch High School Principal shared that the high school is also developing strategies that try to proactively prevent absences and make attendance a priority.

A staffer from the Isanti School District explained that with Minnesota’s open enrollment policy, there are many  students from Chisago County he deals with.  When he realized parents were ignoring letters and emails from the attendance offices of Isanti schools, he had county probation do the communications.  Response so he could do follow-up leaped to 80 percent.  

He also has discovered the costs to pay for counseling to help students who have chemical use issues or mental health hurdles,  can be prohibitive.  Many students have no health insurance. He suggested working on establishing funding for alleviating therapy expenses for qualifying students.

It also has been helpful to offer parents a choice of dates when they are required to confer with a school official.  When guardians or parents aren’t being ordered  but have some flexibility,  the appointments are better-kept, he explained. 

In a high school of 1600 pupils this Cambridge-Isanti truancy official had 250 attendance interventions last year.  

For public schools in Chisago County there were 441 attendance intervention meetings scheduled in 2023-2024.  This is an increase from 113 for the 2021-2022 school year and the 227 meetings for 2022-2023.  These include students who reside in Chisago County but attend Forest Lake, Trio Wolf Creek and North Lakes Academy charter schools. 

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