Brenda Vosik
Comments for the OPS
Attendance Workshop
September 9, 2013
My
name is Brenda Vosik. First of all, I want to say that I am a proud graduate of Benson High School. I am now the mother of two college students,
a high schooler, and a middle schooler, as well as the grandmother of a
toddler. I am also the director of the
Nebraska Family Forum. The NFF is a
grass roots organization that was founded in response to the harmful effects of
the “excessive absenteeism” law passed by our legislature three years ago. Today, our group numbers 570 members, and we
are very active throughout the state, particularly in the Omaha area, as
advocates for families that have been harmed by this law.
The excessive
absenteeism law was passed in 2010 at a time when only 7% of Nebraska’s
children were absent 20 days or more per year—and 93% were not. There is no data on how many of those
absences were due to children skipping school, also known as truancy, and how
many were due to legitimate reasons, such as chronic health conditions. However, due to political and financial
circumstances occurring in the background, this 7% number was declared a
“truancy crisis” and a law was passed making 20 days of absence, for any reason,
a crime. Ironically, the word “truancy” isn’t even in the law, and the affect
it is having on children who are really skipping school is not even being
measured.
When
this law came to the attention of the founders of the NFF, they were concerned
that it would cast a huge net over all Nebraska families. Unfortunately, those concerns quickly became
a reality. Children with chronic health
conditions, children with special needs, including those with I.E.P.’s and
I.H.P.’s who should be protected under federal law, and many other innocent
children are being referred to law enforcement unjustly. In fact, the immediate result of the law here
in Douglas County could reasonably be called chaotic. The number of children referred to the county
attorney for “truancy” jumped from 250 in 2010, to 4,500 in 2011. Sick children have been removed from their
homes and made wards of the state, parents have been put in jail, and parents of
sick children have been forced to comply with monitoring and diversion under
threat of losing their kids.
Over
the past three years, Douglas County and OPS have created what I call an “attendance
industry” consisting of county attorneys, attendance officers, SPA’s, social
workers, and other enforcers of the absenteeism law. More than $1,000,000 has been funneled away
from educating our kids to punishing our kids.
This money could have been used to provide services to families who are
struggling with actual truancy issues, or other circumstances that prevent
concerned, caring parents from getting their children to school.
In
2012, the NFF fought for an amendment to the excessive absenteeism law which
would protect children with illnesses and other legitimate absences, while at
the same time cracking down even harder on real truancy. Although we had to settle for a compromise
amendment, LB 933, that small change in the law gave discretion to the school
districts to define excused and unexcused absences. No disrespect to Mr. Hamilton, but it is no
longer true that all students have to be turned into the county attorney at 20
days of absence; that is the old law. Under
the new law, students with all excused absences no longer have to be referred
to the county attorney. Unfortunately,
official OPS policy, as stated on-line, is that all students will be referred
at 20 days absence, regardless of the reason.
What
is the result of that policy, and who are the families that are being referred
to law enforcement? Every week, independent
observers attend Douglas County truancy court and watch the parade of children,
mainly from OPS, get sorted, monitored, diverted and prosecuted by young
assistant county attorneys. Granted,
some of these kids are teenagers who are indeed skipping school and are really
truant, but based on our observations, we believe the majority of children
being referred to the county attorney by OPS are not truant. Here are some examples of what we see every
week in truancy court:
Children with chronic
physical and mental health issues.
Children with asthma, allergies and autism; a child with Down’s Syndrome
and another with one kidney. Children as
young as age five who aren’t even legally required to attend school yet. Families who are facing difficulties unfathomable
to most of us in this room, families who have pressing priorities far more
urgent than making sure their children are present in school for an arbitrary
number of days, families whose top priority must be getting food on the
table and a roof over their head, even if that means their child must be
occasionally tardy or absent. Families
simply living their lives, full of challenges, behaving in a perfectly normal
manner. These are the families of
OPS. These are the families that are
being punished, threatened with losing their children, and forced into
diversion, as if a prosecutor could possibly “divert” a child from serious
illness, mental health issues, or poverty.
These children are not criminals and neither are their parents. They are human beings with human challenges
like you and me. The huge majority of
them love their children, like you and me, and want what’s best for them. They have the right to raise their children
and make decisions about the health and well being of their families, without a
government worker or school official – a stranger – micro managing their daily
decisions. The implication that these
parents can’t be “trusted” to decide when their own child needs to stay home
from school is not only ludicrous, it is insulting. This lack of trust has severely damaged what
should be a special and cooperative relationship between school, parent, and
student.
I
want to speak briefly about the GOALS Center.
I’m sure Treva will expand on this topic, but I want to point out that GOALS
was set up within the Learning Community for the specific purpose of offering
services and assistance to families who are struggling with attendance
issues. GOALS is supposed to be the
first referral offered by OPS. However,
last year only 180 cases were referred to GOALS and almost 3,000 were referred
to the County Attorney! Those numbers
should be reversed.
Please
refer to the binder that Gina gave you and read the accounts written by OPS
families who have been directly and negatively impacted by the current
attendance policy. As you will see,
these stories are frightening and heart breaking. They are also unnecessary, because of last
year’s amendment. You, the board, now
have discretion regarding who is turned over to law enforcement. We believe OPS should be offering protection
and support to its students, instead of throwing them into the juvenile justice
system. The NFF hopes you will revise
your attendance policy accordingly, to allow for reasonable absences from
school. It is your responsibility to
protect the innocent families in your district from ever falling under the
purview of law enforcement. By
fulfilling that responsibility, you can also begin the process of rebuilding
trust with the people you serve – the parents and children of OPS.
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