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Program penalizes parents for kids' chronic truancy
(Published July 12, 2004)

By G. STEPHEN THURSTON
Staff Writer

Kids who stay in school commit fewer crimes and go to jail less, and the parents of chronically truant kids can go to jail.

Those two facts are the driving force behind a program in the District's Family Court designed to keep kids in school.

Under the program, which began this year, parents who face jail time for neglecting their child's education can have their sentence deferred while they try to keep their kids in school.

"We want parents to know that they are going to be held accountable for doing their job," said Judge Lee Satterfield, the presiding judge of the District's Family Court.

"The key [to this program] was that the judge would monitor them (the parents)...bringing them back two or three times during the period of agreement," Satterfield said.

All of the parents appear before Judge Robert Morin to give the program continuity and he has reported success, Satterfield said. The Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency (CSOSA) reports that 33 individuals successfully got their children back in school. Fourteen have failed. Fifty-three cases are still under supervision. Charges are dropped against the parents who are successful.

Nine children who were chronically absent during the 2002-2003 school year, and whose parents were in the program, dropped their absentee rate by 83 percent last year, said Tarifah Coaxum, a spokesman for the District's attorney general.

Leonard Sipes, a spokesman for CSOSA, said his agency wants to see more kids in school. "And we want parents to support that goal and to see the need for it," he added. Officials in charge of the program are "also trying to make sure the parents understand that this is clearly within their child's best interest," Sipes said.

The program is run in cooperation with many D.C. agencies and departments and is aimed especially at children under 12 because they are can more easily be controlled by their parents. Also, fixing this problem early is best, officials said. Older children can be tried for truancy themselves.

People think that truancy is "the first sign of problems in the family," Satterfield said. Catching the problem early is an aim of the program. For that reason the court holds many of the hearings during the summer in order to get the parents and kids on track by the start of the school year, he added. If they start in September with the truant children and their families, it's October before the parents have had even one hearing before the judge, Satterfield said.

It is the job of the public schools and CSOSA to bring truant children to the attention of the courts. Parents are charged under the Compulsory School Attendance Law.

"We act as the judge's administrative arm," Sipes said.

CSOSA's community supervision officers also get involved in diversion cases, where the judge defers sentencing because the judge feels there's some hope that the problem can be worked out, Sipes said.

"Oftentimes, the community supervision officers will take an increased interest where a person will successfully complete the sentence and not have a court order," Sipes said. "Generally speaking, the people have an interest to succeed."

However, community supervision officers have a caseload of about 50 people, including released murderers on probation to diversion cases. Those people who pose a risk to public safety are naturally going to get more attention, Sipes said.