Malheur County, one of the poorest and least educated counties in Oregon, has seen a significant increase in school attendance after reinstating truancy citations. The county’s 6,000 students attend school at higher rates than those in Portland, Eugene, Salem, and even Riverdale, Oregon’s wealthiest school district.

Reinstating Truancy Citations

In 2021, lawmakers passed Senate Bill 817, which eliminated the use of truancy citations to enforce attendance laws. However, local educators in Malheur County believed that this change contributed to a steep rise in truancy. By the end of the 2021-22 school year, the Vale School District’s regular attendance rate fell from 83% to 70%.

In response, the superintendents of Malheur County’s 10 districts and leaders of its five cities persuaded the county commission to pass a citation ordinance in 2023. Since then, attendance rates have climbed steadily. The Vale School District, for example, has an attendance rate of 83%, 18.5 points above the state average.

Accountability and Support

Superintendent Alisha McBride of the Vale School District believes that the ordinance makes a difference in attendance. The district uses a combination of phone calls, letters, home visits, and referrals to health care and child care support to promote attendance. If families don’t engage, the district can issue a Class C citation to parents who fail to get their children to school.

The citation requires parents to appear before a judge and carries a possible $500 fine. However, the district rarely needs to insist on it, as conversations and meetings with families often resolve the issue before it reaches that point.

Experts say that no single remedy will solve chronic absenteeism, which can be driven by problems with logistics, health, school culture, and parental support. However, the experience of Malheur County suggests that reinstating truancy citations can be an effective tool in improving attendance rates.

Original reporting: Salem Reporter — read the source article.