A city that’s already tough on parents of chronically absent students just got a little tougher.
Martinsville public schools and the city’s commonwealth’s attorney announced that parents can now be charged with a Class 1 misdemeanor, contributing to the delinquency of a minor, for cases of chronic absenteeism. The punishment comes with a fine of up to $2,500, along with potential jail time.
The school division announced the change on Sept. 10. Previously, Martinsville truancy cases were tried as a Class 3 misdemeanor with a fine of up to $500.
Commonwealth’s Attorney Andrew Hall said he hopes the change will encourage parents to make sure their children are regularly attending school.
Though Martinsville’s absenteeism is lower than many other school divisions its size, it already refers far more cases to truancy court than like-sized school divisions in the state.
How does Martinsville’s absenteeism compare?
Students are considered chronically absent when they miss more than 10% of the school year, or about 18 days. Excused absences like those for illness are counted the same as unexcused absences and days missed for suspensions.
Martinsville, which counts about 1,800 students across two elementary schools, a middle school and a high school, reported a chronic absenteeism rate of 28% for the 2021-2022 school year. The state average was 20%.
For 2022-2023, Martinsville's chronic absenteeism rate dropped to about 18%, in line with the state average of about 19%.
Callie Hietala, the division's communications and community outreach coordinator, said she could not provide the city’s chronic absenteeism rate for 2023-2024 until the state releases the data at the end of September.
Prior to the pandemic, about 11% of students were chronically absent from Martinsville schools.
Nearly 60% of students attending Martinsville schools are Black. Three out of 4 students are economically disadvantaged, meaning they're eligible for support programs such as Medicaid, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families or free or reduced-cost meals.
“We’re talking about kids that have missed 20 or 30 days of school,” said T.J. Slaughter, director of school safety for Martinsville City Public Schools. “I feel that if your kids missed 30 days of school, that is contributing to the delinquency of minors.”
Slaughter said absenteeism is higher among older students. “A lot of the time, at the high school level, it's the parents that are having a hard time with their kids,” he said.
School officials request a meeting with a parent once a student has missed five days of school, Slaughter said. State law requires schools to communicate with parents after five absences and again after 10 absences before referring cases to truancy court.
For 2022-2023, the most recent year statewide data is available, Martinsville referred 65 truancy cases to court. No other similarly sized school division referred more than 25 students to truancy court.
Hall maintains that his office treats legal proceedings as a last resort.
“Everything that can be done about truancy, short of being charged, is done,” Hall said. “There comes a point where the school has made these phone calls, sent out the letters and we’re just not getting any response. The situation is not improving, and that's when they are going to be charged.”
Each jurisdiction handles truancy cases differently, said David Saliba, a former prosecutor in Wythe and Augusta counties who's now in private practice. Once a truancy case enters the court system, he said, there are many steps that can take months before punishment becomes an option.
Referring truancy cases to court can open up avenues for the Department of Social Services to help a family access services it may need to ensure school attendance, and it can start a dialogue with a family that may not have responded to the school’s efforts. “It’s a soft entry point before it gets ugly,” Saliba said.
Hietala confirmed that the school board was not part of the decision to make the change.
Hall said some might find the change jarring.
“It’s a tough statute, to be charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor. It’s significant,” Hall said. “I’m not one of these prosecutors who is like, ‘Hey let’s throw everybody in jail.’ Everyone who knows me will tell you that.”
The threat of a large fine and jail time could help remedy some chronic truancy cases, said Thomas Dee, a professor at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Education who studies chronic absenteeism. He cited welfare reform experiments where benefits were withheld from parents who didn't send their children to school regularly.
However, the threat of a financial penalty being used in isolation for chronic absenteeism doesn't create solutions for actually getting kids to school every day, he said, and should be coupled with offers of support. "And lead with inquiry. What are the barriers? What's keeping you from getting your child to the schoolhouse?"
Frequent absences could be related to a lack of transportation, safety concerns or doubts about quality of instruction, Dee said.
There's also what Dee calls "norm erosion." Some parents and students don't understand the value of regular school attendance in the same way they did prior to the pandemic. Parents don't understand how much their kids are missing if they don't go to school in person regularly.
Dee said that the longer schools remained closed with children in online classes, the worse chronic absenteeism now tends to be. Virginia was one of the last states in the nation to reopen for in-person learning.
‘All-in:’ Efforts to improve attendance already underway in Martinsville
This year, Martinsville has a new chronic absenteeism and dropout prevention specialist working in the city schools. The position is funded through a state initiative that seeks to boost academic achievement and speed recovery from pandemic learning loss.
Heitala said that staffers will schedule conferences with students and their parent or guardian “after attendance has become an issue.” They’ll work with Piedmont Community Services, the court system, school counselors and the Department of Social Services, she said, along with a school social worker, another new position this year in Martinsville.
“The goal of those meetings is to work with the student and their family to create a plan for that student prior to the issue getting to the level of a court referral,” Heitala said. “Our hope is that the meeting and subsequent supports will decrease the likelihood of that student crossing the threshold of chronic absenteeism.”
The school year started Aug. 14. Heitala said the schools are just now reaching the point where they can determine which students are having attendance issues and schedule meetings with families.
Attendance is one of three prongs of the All-In education program launched by Gov. Glenn Youngkin in September 2023.
School divisions must use 10% of their All-In funding to improve attendance. Many school divisions used their allocation toward hiring attendance specialists to work with families having a hard time getting to school regularly. Some are also using the money toward incentives for students who have good or improving attendance.
Martinsville received a total of $1.26 million through All-In.
Though the state did see improvement in attendance in the year since it launched All-In — chronic absenteeism is down to 16% from 19% — student achievement hasn’t yet shown marked improvement.
The education department's attendance improvement guide for superintendents recommends a caring approach to improving attendance rather than a punitive one.
"Working with families is critical for improving attendance. For our students who are missing school, it is important to ask their families ‘Why?’ so that we can ensure that the intervention is matched to the root cause," it advises.
The guide includes recommendations to analyze transportation barriers to attendance and advice to celebrate students with improving attendance, not just those with perfect attendance.
The guide also points to the three-tiered system of improving attendance, from national nonprofit Attendance Works. The third tier, for students and families needing "intensive intervention," recommends community-based, non-criminal truancy court, prior to legal intervention as a last resort.
We'd like to hear from Martinsville parents and students about your experiences with the school division's absenteeism policies. Email Lisa Rowan or Dean-Paul Stephens if you'd like to talk to us.