District Takes Tough Tack on Truancy

Hundreds of Hollywood High School students and their parents were summoned to a meeting on campus Wednesday night to learn about the consequences -- academic and legal -- of frequently missing school, part of an effort to reduce student absences that are costing the Los Angeles Unified School District millions of dollars.

The students called to the meeting were among the nearly 40% at the school with 15 absences last year and 10 so far this year, some excused and others truancies.

District officials are trying to reduce absences by 1%. Chronic absences have been an expensive problem, because schools receive about $26 a day for each student in class.

About 30,000 of the district’s 380,000 high and middle school students are absent each day. Improving attendance by 1% would earn the district an additional $29 million this school year.

The Hollywood High seminar -- the first in a series at district schools -- targeted students whose absentee records were considered extreme.

Hollywood High School Principal Fonna Bishop said missing so many school days jeopardizes academic success and school funding. And in some cases, she said, chronically absent students and their parents could face criminal prosecution.

“We’re saying it’s not too late for the parents to get involved,” said Stephan Blustajn, an attendance counselor for the Los Angeles Unified subdistrict that includes Hollywood High. “They still have a responsibility for their children’s education.”

Though some students skip school to evade a test or other academic deadline, Blustajn said, some don’t show up because they lack proper clothing or bus fare or because their families are in crisis. District officials work to resolve those problems, helping students find counseling and even taking them shopping for clothes.

The more extensive intervention is part of a program called “Count Me In,” the latest district effort to improve attendance. It offers incentives such as movie tickets, coin holders and certificates to students.

As further motivation, additional funding received through improved attendance rates is split 50/50 between the campus and the district, the nation’s second-largest. In the program’s first month, Jordan High School, with an enrollment of about 2,400 students, increased its attendance number by eight percentage points and received $42,800.

The Wednesday seminar also outlined the legal repercussions of truancy. Speakers at the event included representatives of the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office, the county Department of Children and Family Services and an on-site school counselor. Parents were reminded that they could be fined and prosecuted and if they receive public assistance, they could lose it.

But some parents and students at the meeting questioned the program’s tactics.

Barbara Perkins, whose daughter is a senior in Hollywood High’s performing arts magnet school, called the letter that told her and her daughter to be at the event “threatening.” She said her daughter, who missed school days for auditions, was an excellent student with a 3.5 grade-point average.

“It’s not like we have an issue with failure,” Perkins said.