Schools rarely call Child Protective Services

Q. Does Child Protective Services ever become involved in a truancy/absence issue? If so, why?

A. These are really two very different issues, so I will go into each. I think you are seeking information on absences and truancies, so let me answer that first.

There is a law that states that all children, who are 6 years old by the start of school in September, must be enrolled in school full time. This means that once the children are 6 years old, we can account for them each day through the school system. Parents may choose to home-school, but even this option comes with rules and regulations to make sure the children are receiving some form of schooling full time.

Once children are enrolled in school, there are education codes that state the rules for attendance and even go into tardies when the children are late. The rules in the education code are actually quite strict. If a student misses, "more than 30 minutes of instruction without an excuse three times during the school year must be classified as a truant and reported to the proper school authority." Now, this does not mean when a child is just late or absent, but it means if they are late or absent without a valid excuse for this amount of time, they will be considered truant after three occurrences.

We do this to make sure children are being taken care of and not neglected. This brings me to the second part of your question. If at any time the school officials think a child is being neglected or harmed in some way, including being held out of school for no reason, the school may seek guidance from Child Protective Services. This is not the first step any of us make, but we are required by law to report any form of abuse or neglect of a child. If a school official makes this call, the Child Protective Services officer takes the report and makes the judgment as to whether it is an actionable report or not. Calling CPS would be rare, but it can happen in conjunction with attendance for these reasons.

The more typical route a school takes is moving the child into the School Attendance Review Board to try to correct truancy issues. Chronically truant students and their parents are brought into the system to correct these problems. Parents have to be taught, at times, that they are required to compel, or make, their children come to school regularly. If the parents or guardians fail to meet the obligation to bring or send their child to school, they "may be guilty of an infraction and subject to prosecution." The county probation department and the juvenile justice system are also part of the equation for those students refusing to attend.

Basically, kids need to attend school regularly and families need to make sure this happens.

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