After launching a tough-on-truancy campaign earlier this year,
the district attorney charged a Hollister mom with violating the
education code for not sending her kids to school, and a local
judge placed her on probation for a year.
Hollister – After launching a tough-on-truancy campaign earlier this year, the district attorney charged a Hollister mom with violating the education code for not sending her kids to school, and a local judge placed her on probation for a year.
She must send her children to school every day or face jail time or a hefty fine, according to District Attorney John Sarsfield.
The 41-year-old woman whose children attend an elementary school in the Hollister School District pled no contest to two charges of violating the education code earlier this month, and was required by a judge to obey all laws and send her children to school every day, Sarsfield said. He would not name the woman to protect the identity of the children.
The charges are considered infractions, but if the woman violates the terms of her probation, she could be charged with misdemeanor child neglect, which carries up to six months in jail or a $1,000 fine, he said. Sarsfield said he would file a civil contempt charge which would carry a fine of up to $1,000 before filing child neglect charges.
“We prefer not to do these, but we will if we have to,” Sarsfield said. “We have to do a couple cases like this a year to let people know we’re really serious.”
The district attorney’s office has been cooperating with the school district to lower truancy levels and held a “Big Meeting” in September where parents of truant children were invited to learn about truancy laws. Of the 400 families that received invitations, 100 parents showed up.
Sarsfield said it is hard to say how much good that meeting did, and that truancy is still a big problem in the county.
“It takes awhile for the message to get out there and sink in,” he said.
Before the mother was charged, she went through mediation sessions with counselors at the Hollister School District, said Connie Childers, at-risk advocate for the school district.
The school district had been working with the family to send the children to school for about a year and a half before referring the case to the district attorney’s office, she said. Childers said the woman and the children signed a contract some time ago promising to attend school but didn’t follow through.
“This family has a history of not sending their kids to school,” she said. “It was not that the kids didn’t want to go – I got the impression the kids enjoyed school. They were just told they didn’t have to go.”
Childers said she was not sure how much school the children missed but that it was “obviously enough” to warrant charges being filed.
When she asked the woman why she wasn’t sending her children to school, Childers said she never got a clear answer .
Childers said excuses ranged from the children not getting up in time or the family being unable to provide transportation. But the children had access to a school bus and were also within walking distance from school, she said.
“It wasn’t a priority to the family,” she said.
The Hollister School District has a 7 percent truancy level for its approximately 6,000 students in kindergarten through eighth grade, Childers said.
While the main focus for cracking down on truancy is to improve kids’ education, Childers said the district isn’t receiving as much funding as it could from the state when children aren’t in school.
The school district receives approximately $27 a day per child when they’re in school, said Tim Foley, San Benito County superintendent.
Foley said the county loses about 10 percent of its potential revenue due to unexcused absences or attendance problems.
“The money’s important, but the whole idea is if you miss school you miss out,” Foley said. “I’m glad we’ve finally proceeded to the very clear conclusion. Hopefully the kids will be in school and cultivate healthy attendance habits.”
California law states that if a child has three or more unexcused absences, the parents can be held liable. Only an illness or doctor’s visit are considered excused absences – anything else, including family emergencies, are up to the principal’s discretion to decide if they’re excusable or not, Childers said.
While it may take a while to get truant parents used to the idea of sending their children to school everyday, Childers said the district attorney’s cooperation in mediation has been helping to alleviate some of the problem.
“It has helped us out a lot to have somebody like that behind us,” she said.
Erin Musgrave covers public safety for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or [email protected]
