D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser has unveiled a plan to address truancy and absenteeism and put in place more serious consequences for middle schoolers caught with drugs or guns on school grounds.
The proposal, called the “Utilizing Partnerships, Local Interventions for Truancy and Safety Amendment Act of 2024,” addresses the city’s approach to accountability and intervention.
The plan, which is subject to the D.C. Council’s approval, comes as schools districts across the region grapple with chronic absenteeism and truancy. Students who miss 10% or more of school days in an academic year, with or without an excuse, are considered chronically absent. Truancy applies to kids who miss school without an excuse.
“We don’t need to have conversations about extended days or extended years,” said Paul Kihn, the city’s deputy mayor for education. “We need our students to be in schools, where they’re safe and where they’re learning.”
The legislation calls on the city’s Department of Human Services to intervene before students and families are referred either to court or the city’s Child and Family Services Agency. Sometimes students miss school because of a lack of housing or food security, and Bowser’s office anticipates that DHS can address those obstacles.
If a student is still absent after that intervention, the court would be required to take action.
Laura Green Zeilinger, the city’s DHS director, said a team within the agency will be created to do the initial assessment of a family’s needs, but won’t necessarily be managing those cases on a long-term basis. The agency will also expand its teams for other programs to address what it expects to be increasing demands, Zeilinger said.
Students who are 5 to 13 years old will be referred to DHS when they reach 10 unexcused absences, Kihn said, as will 14 to 17-year-old students who reach 15 unexcused absences.
Once the younger group reaches 20 unexcused absences, students will have cases referred to the CFSA for an investigation into educational neglect, Kihn said.
After 25 unexcused absences, older students will have their cases referred to the Office of the Attorney General.
When the OAG gets the referral, it’s now required to take action. It can require participation in a program for truant students, mandate a family group conference with DHS or refer the student to court through a parent participation order.
Currently, when cases are referred to either court or the OAG, Kihn said “nothing happens. And so this legislation is disallowing that.”
“What we’re trying to do here is strengthen where we see gaps in the system right now,” Kihn said at a briefing with reporters this week.
In a statement, a spokesman for Attorney General Brian Schwalb said the office received the proposed legislation Wednesday morning and is still reviewing it.
To address accountability, Bowser’s proposal would limit diversion programs for students charged with a dangerous crime while armed or having a knife, pistol, firearm or imitation firearm.
The OAG spokesman said last year, the office diverted 15 cases of violent crime out of 751.
The proposed plans would also narrow the scope of young people charged with violent crimes who are eligible for plea agreements.
If a child is charged with a violent crime, the bill would require parents or guardians to participate in a required family group conference and rehabilitative services with the Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services.
“We haven’t shifted our feeling on diversion at all,” said Lindsey Appiah, deputy mayor for public safety and justice. “We believe in diversion. We believe that it’s appropriate for certain young people, but we are seeing an increase in young people who are involved in more serious crime, and dangerous, violent crime and gun crime in our city.”
Eduardo Ferrer, policy director at Georgetown’s Juvenile Justice Initiative, said he has concerns “about the mayor’s attempts to limit the discretion of the Office of the Attorney General. I don’t think that’s appropriate, I don’t think that will be productive.”
Mayor Bowser, at a news conference Wednesday, said the city is not “happy with young people who aren’t being held accountable. We’re also not happy with the level of transparency around what happens to them.”
Some elements of the proposed legislation create stricter consequences for students of certain ages. Middle school leaders can now suspend students for drugs, weapons and sexual harassment. The current policy, Kihn said, “effectively treats elementary schools and middle schools in exactly the same way, and then treats high schools differently.”
“Our goal is that every student is in school every day,” Ferrer said. “So as we’re making progress, or hopefully making progress on the chronic absentee pieces of the bill by involving DHS earlier, we shouldn’t be taking steps backwards on our approach to school discipline.”
The proposal also creates a school campus option as an alternative to suspension, Bowser’s office said.
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