When Ross Williams started his 35-year career as a school attendance officer for Starkville-Oktibbeha Consolidated School District, chancery court judges were responsible for appointing and employing those officers.

Later, that responsibility shifted to district attorneys due to a conflict of interest with SAOs being required to testify in chancery court.

Then in the early 1990s, SAOs were moved under the Mississippi Department of Education’s purview, and the ways officers were allowed to enforce school attendance changed.

“Prior to that, we could probably be a real truancy officer,” Williams told The Dispatch on Friday. “We could see a child on the street and pick them up and take them back to school or take them home. When we got to (MDE), we couldn’t do that because of liabilities.”

As Williams sees it, the shift resulted in a lot of unnecessary restrictions that, in some cases, stifled attendance enforcement.

“The law had required home visits for students that were reported,” he said. “But the state department put constraints or limits on when you can do a home visit. In some cases, they would restrain (us) to just making phone calls, which is not very effective. … I worked for 35 years, and it was like I was being treated like I was just hired in some cases with their policies.”

A bill introduced in the Senate Education Committee aims to remove SAOs from the oversight of MDE and into local school districts in an effort to combat chronic absenteeism. The bill also would increase the minimum salary of SAOs from $24,000 to $30,000 and require the state to fund one SAO for every 3,000 students within a district.

Students who miss at least 10% of a school year – or 18 days – are considered chronically absent. For the 2023-2024 school year, the state had an overall chronic absenteeism rate of 24.4%. SOCSD had a rate of 25.7% that year. Lowndes County School District had a rate of 20.6%, and Columbus Municipal School District had an absenteeism rate of 28.4% for the same year.

Lt. Gov. Delbert Hosemann’s hope is that the change keeps more students in the classroom. When students aren’t in school, their future is limited, he said.

“Their potential is limited,” Hosemann said during a Jan. 6 virtual press conference, which The Dispatch attended. “Their chances for incarceration are much higher. Our labor force participation rate in our state doesn’t increase any. Really nothing good can come of this.”

‘A stronger presence’

Currently SAOs are responsible for tracking attendance within their assigned district. They work with administrators to ensure accurate attendance reporting and work with students and their families, whether that means making home visits, assessing challenges that prevent attendance or working within the court system, CMSD Superintendent Stanley Ellis told The Dispatch.

If SAOs are moved into local districts, SOCSD Superintendent Tony McGee said it would make it easier to identify problems or specific needs among students who are chronically absent, especially when the officers are better integrated with administrators, counselors, students and their families.

“Working in our district full time would also allow them to have a stronger presence in youth court, to work more closely with local law enforcement and to create better consistency in how truancy or chronic absenteeism is reported and addressed,” he said.

Lowndes County School District Superintendent Sam Allison does not see any potential challenges with moving officers out from under MDE’s purview.

“This transition will enhance communication and collaboration,” he said. “It will allow us to work closely together on a daily basis, improving efficiency and response times.”

State funding for SAOs is currently appropriated to MDE, but under the new bill, that funding will be rerouted to the districts instead. MDE Public Information Officer Shanderia Minor said the department supports the proposed change.

“MDE’s position is that such a transition would be in the best interest of students and families,” she wrote in an email to The Dispatch. “If the transition happens, MDE would continue to provide support and technical assistance to districts to reduce absenteeism.”

Hosemann said SAOs would be required to contact a parent or guardian after the third day a student has been absent from school.

“Then we need to have a home visit as quickly as possible to find out if there’s other problems in the home,” he said. “Do we have a drug abuse problem? Do we have a physical abuse problem? An illness? Whatever other services can be provided to this family to see why this child is not having a good education.”

Changes in youth court

While traveling to schools across the state, Hosemann said the reason students are not in their classrooms always came back to a lack of accountability and repercussions.

To address that, Hosemann also suggested some changes with the youth court judge system, including the addition of a chancellor in certain districts who is dedicated to child care issues and addressing absenteeism.

“Which include everything from separation from a family for a period of time to adoption,” he said. “It would also include all of these dads or moms or whatever. Haul them into court and follow the state law. Find out why they’re not in court, and if there’s a fine applicable, do so.”

One bill, introduced in the House Education Committee, takes a similar approach to reducing absenteeism by requiring SAOs to file a petition with the youth court after the child’s third unlawful absence. The youth court could order the child to finish 16 hours of community service within 30 days as a consequence.

If the petition is purely punitive, Ellis said he would be concerned that root causes of absenteeism would go unaddressed, but he does think community service could be an effective deterrent.

“Community service, when used correctly, can reduce absenteeism by fostering a sense of responsibility, engagement and connection,” he said. “However, it should be a part of a broader intervention strategy that includes counseling, mentorship and family support to be truly effective.”

Allison said both filing the petition sooner and using community service as a consequence could both have positive effects on students missing schools.

“The sooner unexcused absences have consequences, the sooner we will see positive results,” he said. “Any consequence imposed by the court can be effective, provided it is implemented in a timely manner.”

Because chronic absenteeism is a problem in all grades, McGee said he isn’t sure it would be a feasible consequence for some students, like those who do not drive or are in elementary school.

“Plus, we use community service for our older students as an important component of teaching leadership and citizenship. Many of our sports teams and extracurricular clubs require volunteerism,” he said. “I hate to see that become an element of punishment. At some point, parents have to become part of the equation.”

McRae is a general assignment and education reporter for The Dispatch.