Since the COVID-19 Pandemic, Warren County schools have struggled with absenteeism and poor attendance from students, and through a new partnership with Prosecuting Attorney Hannah Dunakey, they hope to attack this problem at its roots. 

The initiative, a joint operation with the prosecuting attorney’s office and the Warren County R-III and Wright City R-II school districts, will start taking a closer look at students who miss significant time in the classroom. 

Dunakey and both superintendents were quick to point out that the goal is not to punish students or families, but to find the causes for absenteeism and work with families to find solutions. 

The districts and prosecuting attorney’s office plan to address cases of education neglect, and prosecute them if necessary. The laws have always been on the books in Warren County, although in recent years, their enforcement has been lax, according to Dunakey. 

“Essentially, it hasn’t been enforced in the prosecuting attorney’s office in recent years, and even before that, enforcement had been dwindling,” said Dunakey. “So there was really no negative reinforcement or any incentive to the parents to make sure that they were really sending their kids to school, and so we have seen school attendance suffering in Warren County as a result.”

They also stressed that prosecution would be a last resort and that students with legitimate reasons for absences, like illnesses, would not be pursued. 

“That’s not something we’re interested in prosecuting,” said Dunakey. “What we’re looking to prosecute is the kids who are absent significantly, with no real excuse, no valid reason.”

Both superintendents, Dr. Gregg Klinginsmith of Warren County R-III and Dr. Amy Salvo of Wright City R-II, conceded that attendance rates have been a problem since lockdowns from the COVID-19 sent students home for extended periods of time in 2019 and 2020. 

“COVID definitely didn’t help our attendance rates, but we are looking in Wright City to improve that by partnering with our families to remove any barriers,” said Salvo. 

Klinginsmith admitted that attendance had been an issue prior to the pandemic as well, and was appreciative that the district would have additional tools at its disposal to help solve these issues.

“We needed some support, on education neglect,” said Klinginsmith. “We’ve had a real problem with chronic absenteeism.”

As a last resort, Dunakey will be looking to prosecute cases for education neglect, and although it is similar to truancy, there are important differences between the two charges. 

According to Dunakey, truancy is usually a case with an older child where they themselves are responsible for going to school and are not attending despite efforts from the parents. Education neglect takes place with younger children when parents are still responsible for their child’s transportation and are not taking the necessary steps to ensure their child receives an education. 

“The cases that would be referred to me are where the parent is not taking responsibility for the child’s attendance, or they’re not taking the steps necessary to ensure their attendance, or they’re not cooperating with the school,” said Dunakey. 

Cooperation with schools will play a large role in these cases as they arise, since both superintendents said they plan to take as many steps as possible to solve issues with families first before escalating to Dunakey’s office. 

“We have a theme that we’re using this year called every student, every day. So for us, for attendance, it’s really about removing barriers, connecting with our families, and reminding them of the importance of attendance,” said Salvo. 

Klinginsmith agreed, stressing the importance of attendance as one of the single most important factors in a student’s success in school. 

“We don’t like going down that route (prosecution), but we need kids to come to school,” said Klinginsmith. 

Both superintendents emphasized that the initiative is not designed to punish students who miss time for legitimate reasons and that the first step when addressing cases of extended absences would be to reach out to families. 

They did differ on how they would approach cases of extended absences. Salvo said that Wright City R-II has established benchmarks, and a tiered system to approach families about absences before sending any cases to Dunakey’s office. 

“We’re looking at (students) at over 20-30% but again, everything is situational for us. If we know our families and what they’re going through, … We hope to have a connection with the family and hopefully we can remove those barriers and help them be present,” said Salvo. 

Klinginsmith felt it was too early to tell exactly when families would be contacted for absences but that their primary goal was to increase attendance, not prosecute families. 

“Ten absences in May is a lot different than 10 absences in September,” said Klinginsmith. 

As the school year moves on, staff in both districts will continue to work with school counselors, resource officers, administrators, families and Dunakey’s office to improve attendance rates and most importantly, student outcomes.