Recently there has been an uptick in absences in schools. Much of this is due to COVID, with many children being infected by the disease. Online learning is tough on students, so some just chose not to do school some days. The child cutting school is actually breaking the law, as they are truant.
Truancy is defined as when a school-age child or adolescent frequently misses school without an adequate excuse. Each state has its own laws about missed school days and the exact definition of truancy.
Private schools experience much less of this. Some say it is because their parents care so much more about their child’s attendance since they are paying for them to be in school. Parents will make every effort to get their child to school since it is more valuable, while in a public school, the stakes are not as high.
“Since you’re paying for school, family commitment is higher,” Joseph Burke, assistant principal for discipline at Paul VI High School in Haddonfield, New Jersey, said. “The parents will tell on the kid [for skipping school] in many situations. In a public school, it’s a battle with the parents, in public, there may be other issues going on.”
In public schools, there are a lot more students, which allows for more kids to be truant. There could be a multitude of reasons why a student is skipping school. Many of these trace back to family issues happening at home. If a child is under the age of 18, the parents could face charges.
Chester County Magisterial District Judge – District 15-4-04, Matthew Seavey, is praised for his efforts to combat truancy. He has faced 150 truancy cases in his years on the bench, and he has helped lower the dropout rate significantly in the Avon Grove School District. Seavey has a unique way of going about it.
“Every case is different. I talk to the kid to try to get to the root of the problem,” Seavey said in a Zoom interview. “Once I find out the problem, I continue the case and I’ll meet them back in a month. Before they leave in that second hearing I tell them I’ll be in the school to check in on you.”
Most kids are taken off guard when Seavey visits them at school later that month. He goes into the guidance office and sits with them, so the child isn’t embarrassed in front of his/her classmates.
“Their eyes get as big as golf balls when they see me in school,” Seavey joked. “It shows that I care and I’m fighting for them. The dropout rate has lowered significantly in my 12 years on the bench because the kids see that someone actually cares about them.”
Seavey doesn’t stop there. If he sees that a kid is continuing to be truant, he calls up a police officer, sometimes even a state trooper to help him scare the kid straight. With the parent’s permission, he and the officer will yell at the kid, sometimes forcing them to cry. Seavey uses this tough love because he cares.
People notice Seavey’s commitment to keeping kids in school, and the parents like it too. The students don’t always notice it at first. Seavey started doing this all because of what happened at his first truancy hearing. He got emotional talking about it.
“I had a kid who was a wise guy, but I couldn’t help but like him. I told the kid I’ll see you in school, but I was just rolling with it, unsure if I’m actually allowed to do that or not. He asked the truancy officer if it was allowed and the officer was excited about it. The kid did not end up well. He came to see me for a traffic violation recently, and he asked to talk in private. We went into the room and he thanked me and explained that he didn’t really know what I was doing for him years ago, because you actually cared, and the kid started crying. He is now 27 years old, and I’ve gotten to know the family well and the kid is on drugs now and I told him ‘I don’t want to have to go to your funeral.’”
Seavey is up for reelection this year as Magisterial District Judge is an elected position. His real passion is water slide racing as Seavey is the five-time world water slide champion.
Every day kids are absent from school because they’re sick, have somewhere to be, or on a vacation. Sometimes kids aren’t in school because they want to play hooky. If a parent or guardian doesn’t report a child absent, most schools call home the child’s home to tell the caretakers that their child is not in school. If there is no justified excuse for the absence, the child is considered truant, which is illegal.
In all schools, the first order of business when finding out a kid is truant is alerting the parents. The kid is then located, and if a house visit is warranted, the school will send someone.
“There have been times where the parents can’t control the kid and the parents don’t want to drag them into school, so I have had situations where I had to go to the house and talk to the student,” Joseph Catanoso, security director at Margaret Mace Elementary School in North Wildwood, New Jersey, said.
Catanoso, known around the school as Officer Joe, explained that the number of students truant he sees is not nearly as high as other schools. It is mainly because North Wildwood is a small town, and Margaret Mace only has roughly 200 students.
“You will see the numbers much higher in the city,” he explained. “If you see a ten-year-old walking around in North Wildwood in the middle of the day you’re going to stop and ask why he’s not in school, but in a big city like Philadelphia, there’s much more an officer has to worry about.”
Schools around the country have incentives like perfect attendance to keep kids in schools. There are also major punishments for skipping school.
“The state gets on the schools, but the three principals figured out ways to help attendance,” Rich McHale, former attendance officer at Cape May County Technical High School in Cape May Courthouse, New Jersey, said. “At first we employ disciplinary measures if a kid is constantly late or has nine or more unexcused absences per half a year the student would be penalized. Sometimes the student would be held back a grade, or would be required to go to summer school in order to advance to the next grade level.”
Truancy is punishable by law and can hold a child back for the rest of their life. The rules are different in each state, but the parents can be held accountable across the country. Children need to be in school so they can grow. If a child is truant, it is not only the child hurt, but the parents as well.
