KINGWOOD — As Preston County Schools struggles to improve attendance rates, board members have inquired about truancy enforcement in the courts.
West Virginia law lays out the options open to courts to enforce attendance.
State code says compulsory school attendance starts in the school year in which the child’s sixth birthday is reached prior to Sept. 1, Magistrate P.L. Grimm noted.
If a child under 18 is truant, the parent or guardian can be charged. If the child is 18 or older and enrolled in school, the student can be charged.
In the latter case, Magistrate Eugene Jenkins said, the student usually ends the problem by withdrawing from school. Those who do not withdraw face the same penalties as parents of juvenile students.
If the parent of a juvenile is charged, conviction on the first offense can lead to a fine of $50-$100, plus court costs. Or the magistrate can require the parent to accompany the child to school and remain through the school day for as long as the court orders.
Jenkins, who served for many years on the Preston County Board of Education, said he does not require parents to go to school.
“It’s disruptive,” he said.
Grimm said she has never required a parent to attend classes either.
The magistrate can defer the sentence for 60 days and, if the child attends school regularly during that time, the case can be dismissed.
Fines and costs are the same for a second offense, but the parent could also be sent to jail for five to 20 days. And every day that the child misses can be charged as a separate offense.
Locally, “They never charge a second offense or more,” Grimm noted.
She has been a magistrate three years and worked in the court since 1999. Over that time, “we used to see a lot more” truancy cases, she said.
But, both magistrates said, one problem in the past was that complaints weren’t filed until so late in the school year that there weren’t 60 days left.
School officials seek enforcement by requesting a summons ordering the parent or adult student to appear at court.
“Which means that instead of going out and arresting you, there’s a date and time for that parent to come in,” Grimm said. “If they don’t answer that summons, the board can ask for a warrant. … And, if they don’t do that, it kind of just sits in our [file] drawers.”
There’s no set time that must be allowed when setting the date for appearance, but time must be allowed for an officer to serve the summons.
Jenkins said home life, drug use by parents and sometimes bullying at school are all reasons they hear for why kids aren’t in school.
“But there’s another reason, too,” he said. “The parents just don’t value education.”
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