News Conference
For immediate release: Oct. 28, 2013
Contact: Phil Rooney,
402-444-6427
How the Excessive Absenteeism Law Affects our Nebraska
Families
Douglas
County Commissioner Mary Ann Borgeson, Nebraska Family Forum Director
Brenda Vosik, and Nebraska Families invite you to join them on Tuesday, October 29, 2013, 4:30 p.m. in the
south side of the Farnam level lunchroom at the Omaha-Douglas Civic Center at
1819 Farnam Street for a news conference to learn how
Nebraska’s LB933- Excessive Absenteeism Law - is damaging our Nebraska
families.
In the 2009-2010 school year, before the law took effect that
made 20 days of absence from school a crime, the number of children prosecuted
by the Douglas County Attorney for truancy was 239. Those were kids who were truant according to
the real definition, absent without their parents’ permission.
In the 2010-2011 school year, after the new law was passed,
the number of referrals jumped from 239 to 3,100, a 1,180% increase. Those 3,100 kids were sorted out by deputy
county attorneys and they were questioned publicly, pressured to hand over
personal medical records, assigned to monitoring, put on diversion for being
ill, and offered “voluntary” services under threat of having charges filed and
being removed from their home. At the end of that first year after the law was
passed 244 were filed on for actual truancy. 239 truant kids before the law,
244 after.
Commissioner Mary Ann Borgeson said:
“I have listened to the horrendous stories of our Nebraska Families and
the negative unintended consequences of LB 933. It is time to act, to REPEAL this law, and REPLACE it with a
definition of truancy.”
Read more on Nebraska Families and their experiences at
http://www.nebraskafamilyforum.org
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