By Annika Harshbarger, Brookelyn Lambright, Brenna Polovina, Karl Templeton, Emma Walls, Arnolt Center, and Aleksandra Appleton, Chalkbeat

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After the death of her parents, an Indianapolis student’s attendance began to lapse — her guardians were busy, and school became a lower priority.

Monarca Academy administrators talked to her guardians, and they promised she’d make it to school. But absences continued to stack up and Francisco Valdiosera, executive director of Monarca Academy, referred the case to the Department of Child and Family Services for educational neglect.

The student, whom school officials did not identify, ultimately received counseling and her attendance improved. But a new state law could have had that student and her guardians spending more time in the courtroom than the classroom.

As of July 1, Indiana school districts must meet with parents about their student’s absences and offer services to help improve their attendance. For elementary students who are habitually truant — defined as having 10 or more unexcused absences in a school year — districts must take a more punitive approach by referring those cases to the county prosecutor under Senate Enrolled Act 282.

While school officials have always had the ability to seek prosecution for parents of truant students, the General Assembly took the step of mandating this course of action in order to combat rising absenteeism. 

“Hearing from numerous schools, there is a problem with attendance. Our great educators are saying we want to teach these kids, but if they’re not there, it’s really hard,” said Sen. Linda Rogers, R-Granger, who co-authored SEA 282. “It’s become exacerbated after COVID.” 

The new law also requires schools and prosecutors to inform parents that their students’ absenteeism could have legal consequences, including misdemeanor charges that may carry a fine or jail time. And lawmakers may take further steps as they consider solutions this summer for older students who are absent. 

However, criminal prosecution for absenteeism has been rare. 

Reporting by the Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism and Chalkbeat Indiana found that, before the law went into effect, prosecutors and school districts rarely turned to the criminal justice system to tackle chronic absenteeism. In Marion County, which educates over 165,000 students, only 15 referrals were made to the prosecutor’s office in 2023, and in LaGrange County, with over 7,300 students, only 23 were made. 

A clear statewide picture of how often absentee cases are referred to prosecutors is difficult to piece together. Calls to 92 prosecutor’s offices, 398 public and charter school officials, the state Department of Education, and the Department of Child and Family Services found no centralized data on criminal referrals or the effectiveness of prosecuting absenteeism cases.

The Indiana statehouse. (Photo by Craig Lyons)

Critics of the new law say more prosecution won’t solve the wide array of reasons that students are absent, like a lack of access to transportation or adequate food and clothing. They argue that families instead need more engagement and wraparound services — though schools and counties did not receive additional funding to put these in place under SEA 282. 

“Jail for non-complying adults is not the answer,” Marshall County Prosecutor Nelson Chipman said in an email. “[The] criminal justice system has limited effectiveness for correcting this behavior.”

Indiana is not the only state to attempt to address absenteeism through legal means, with similar bills passed in Iowa and West Virginia. 

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During the 2020-2021 school year, the number of chronically absent students increased by 64%, according to IDOE. Since then, that figure has declined but not to pre-pandemic levels.

Rogers said she didn’t hear from state prosecutors during legislative hearings. A review of committee testimony for the bill did not find any comments by prosecutors.

“I’m not sure how well prosecutors like [SEA 282],” Rogers said. 

Rep. Ed DeLaney, D-Indianapolis, said a child services referral or criminal prosecution does have its place in handling chronic absenteeism. He said school officials can communicate that these are real consequences for parents if they don’t send their children to school. 

“People need to understand that the school system takes this seriously. All we’re doing here is saying the legislature took this seriously.” DeLaney said. “That’s really our message, and a very well-thought-out mechanism for the schools to point that message from us and send it on to the parents.”

Chronic absenteeism law is often tough to enforce

Indiana prosecutors have long complained that increasing caseloads and small staffs can bog down the wheels of justice and adding a glut of chronic absenteeism cases will only make that problem worse.

Pike County, just north of Evansville, has a population of approximately 13,000 people and only two prosecutors, who primarily handle violent crime cases.

The small county lacks the resources and funding to be able to hire more staff or offer diversion programs to students, Pike County Prosecutor Darrin McDonald said. An alternative to prosecution is detention or probation, McDonald said, but there is a lack of staffing, shortage of bedspace, and minimal resources and support for the juvenile court system.

“There’s a lot of wind coming from the legislature, but no substance to do anything practical that would make it better,” McDonald said.

Sen. Andrea Hunley, D-Indianapolis, said SEA 282 is underfunded and the General Assembly gave no additional money to schools or prosecutors to provide them with additional social workers or staff. 

For truancy rates to decrease across the state, Hunley said it is about reorganizing priorities. 

“It’s really about shifting [prosecutors] mindsets to prevention,” Hunley said. 

And some counties do have prevention efforts in place. The nearly 30-year-old Truancy Intervention Program in Allen County offers incentives such as phone calls, school visits and letters, and Pizza Hut coupons to help encourage students to attend school, said Tamyra Kelly, public information officer for East Allen County Schools. If that doesn’t work, students are sent to a truancy program.

In Marion County, students and parents are sent to a diversion program where staff can get an understanding of why students cannot attend school, said Jake Brosius, director of youth programming for Marion County. Marion County has not prosecuted a truancy case since 2019, Brosius said, because the program has been successful at connecting parents and students with the resources they need. 

“I would say we are definitely successful in getting contact and communication kind of restored with the school,” Brosius said. 

In some cases, school districts already inform parents and students of legal consequences of chronic absenteeism.

The Anderson Community Schools’ “2024-2025 Student Rights and Responsibilities” handbook lays it out plainly: “A person who knowingly violates the compulsory attendance law commits a Class B misdemeanor. punishable by up to 6 months in jail and up to a $1.000.00 fine for each separate offense.”

Lawmakers are hoping the threat of prosecution is enough for parents to take their child’s school attendance seriously. 

“I would hope that when it comes to parents and children, that this is enough as a tactic to force parents to make sure that their kids are in school,” said Sen. Jeff Raatz, R-Richmond, who was one of the law’s co-authors.

‘Common sense’ solutions preferred to prosecuting parents

Indiana school districts already rely on intervention programs to address chronic absenteeism and prefer those methods over the General Assembly’s solution of referring elementary students and their parents or guardians to prosecutors.

The solution for a Scott County student’s absenteeism was simply a phone call away.

The student’s parent worked early morning shifts, and he routinely slept through his alarm or missed the bus, Scott County Prosecutor Chris Owens said. The county’s attendance review board looked at his case and gave him a dedicated contact person at the school to call if he was late and needed a ride.

“That’s just one scenario,” Owens said. “There’s all kinds of cases like that where they try to use common sense and real-world solutions to fix the problem.”

Many school districts focus on student-parent-school communication to resolve truancy issues. For Kankakee Valley School Corporation, the process starts with a phone call, then parents will receive a letter at four, eight and 10 unexcused absences.

At Greenfield-Central Community Schools, administrators organize conferences to discuss attendance contracts, possible consequences, and solutions such as future phone calls or school-provided alarm clocks. 

At West Washington County School Corporation, an attendance committee meets with students to explain what Indiana Code says about state attendance policies and students can share reasons for chronic absences as well as possible solutions.

Kids miss school for a variety of reasons: medical issues, passing of a loved one, lack of transportation, struggling academically, bullying, and work, according to school officials.

Hanover Central High School has found banning chronically absent students from participating in extracurricular activities, school dances or sports events to be more effective. Hanover Central Principal Tami Kepshire said the school may also revoke a student’s driver’s license and parking privileges if they are chronically absent. 

“We’re constantly in contact with parents of kids that are missing frequently,” Kepshire said. “We’re on the phone with them, and I think it’s probably because we’re a smaller school, but we know the families, so we feel very comfortable giving them a phone call and saying this is what’s going on.”

Educators and prosecutors who work with students and families daily say each case requires a unique approach.  

“We attempt to develop positive relationships with students and create conditions for them to be successful in hopes that these relationships will encourage and motivate a student to attend school regularly,” Wendel McCollum, associate superintendent of Michigan City Area Schools said. 

Lawmakers mull absenteeism bills for older students 

As the 2024-2025 school year begins, and the new law remains in its infancy, the General Assembly may soon expand chronic absenteeism enforcement measures to include junior high and high school students.

The Interim Study Committee on Education plans to meet in September to discuss legislation for chronically absent students in grades 7-12 as the new law only dealt with K-6 grade students. However, lawmakers are unsure what holding students in grades 7-12 responsible will look like. 

“When it comes to seventh through twelfth graders, we’re saying, at what point does it become the student’s responsibility?” Hunley, a member of the interim committee, said. “How do you legislate in a way that doesn’t contribute to the school to prison pipeline? It’s really more supportive and preventative than it is punitive.” 

Lawmakers are also considering methods to track absenteeism data for all grades, Hunley said. Legislators want to ensure that the 2024 law is effective at curbing rates of chronic absenteeism across the state, but methods for ensuring schools and prosecutors are reporting truancy data are still up for debate. 

“We don’t have a streamlined way to collect that information. I think that’s going to be really key to know, did we prevent people from getting all the way to that point because then those kids won’t show up as being chronically absent, if we’re doing our job,” Hunley said.

This story was written by journalists at the Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism at Indiana University in partnership with Chalkbeat Indiana. 

Annika Harshbarger, Brookelyn Lambright, Brenna Polovina, Karl Templeton and Emma Walls are reporters from the Arnolt Center for Investigative Journalism at Indiana University.

Aleksandra Appleton covers Indiana education policy and writes about K-12 schools across the state. Contact her at aappleton@chalkbeat.org.