A continued struggle to curtail truancy within Boston Public Schools has city councilors considering if schools should spend less time punishing students and more time looking at those responsible for these hooky-playing kids — their parents.

Legislation filed last week by Councilor At-Large John Connolly and Council President Maureen Feeney could send parents across the city off to court, as the council looks to create a stronger message of parent accountability in the case of excessively absent students.

“Truancy has been a longstanding issue for the Boston City Council,” Feeney said. “It’s a serious, serious problem, and we want to nip this in the bud.”
The idea behind the proposal stems from a pilot program in Waterbury, Conn., that Connolly had been researching, he said. Within the Waterbury system, parents were required to appear before a probate judge when their child accumulated more than 18 unexcused absences. Since the program started last January, 87 parents have appeared in court, and the school’s total number of unexcused absences dropped from 1,072 to 87.

Connolly believes a similar program in Boston would help schools intervene before a student’s truancy becomes too out of control.

“The key here is that it is not a ‘lock ’em up’ strategy,” Connolly said. “It’s designed to be a wake-up call and address it as a family problem, not just a kid’s problem.”

A judge, through this program, could order guardians to attend parenting classes, counseling, anger management or drug and alcohol treatment, with the mission being to get to the root of student truancy. But the councilors stressed this is a means of treating the student’s truancy issues and not intended to be a punishment for parents.

“This is not a punitive proposal,” Feeney said. “It really can be used and should be used as intervention.”

Chris Horan, spokesperson for Boston Public Schools, said the truancy problem has been a major focus of the School Committee’s agenda recently. The legislation pairs well with the superintendent’s goal to have a truancy and transition center to provide resources for truant students looking to re-enter the system, he said.

Another effort already in place is a collaboration between the Boston Police Department, MBTA Police and school police called “Operation Stopwatch” to identify truant students and bring them back to school.

While this program has successfully identified many absent teens who may have otherwise slipped through the cracks, the councilors are optimistic that further control of this issue can best be obtained by bringing the issue back home — literally.

“For truant students, we’re not saying it’s because their parents don’t love them, the parents may be overwhelmed. There are a lot of reasons why this may be the case, but we need to address it,” Feeney said. “We can’t educate our children if they’re not in the classroom.”
A public hearing is planned for October.