BY JEFF CHUDZINSKINorth Country This Week

CANTON -- Legislator Jim Reagen is calling on the state legislature to reform laws to give school districts and Social Services more tools to combat chronic absenteeism.

Specifically he wants to see reforms made to the Persons in Need of Supervision program, which essentially serves as a probationary program for children and teens.

Reagen introduced a resolution during the Jan. 6 Operations Committee after raising the subject in previous meetings.

Legislation was signed in 2017 to raise the age of criminal responsibility to 18 to ensure young people who commit non-violent crimes can receive the treatment they need. The legislation also eliminated state funding for PINS placement and detention as of Jan. 1, 2020, but did not alter the ability of the family courts to order such placements, officials said.

The reforms have led to numerous complications for Social Services, family courts and limited intervention efforts, officials said.

Chronic absenteeism

"I had raised a question about the shocking number of children who are not attending school and the need to work with our school districts to put more of a focus on these families who are not fulfilling their primary responsibility, making sure their children are going to school," he said.

Reagen said prior to the reform legislation, Social Services would be made aware by districts when a child was chronically absent.

He said that would allow the district and Social Services to determine if a serious problem within a family was present, allowing the family to work with the district and Social Services to "ensure the child continues their schooling and does not fall further behind."

Reagen said children who never learn to read or establish a consistent routine of going to school are at an increased risk of ending up in various programs with law enforcement, substance abuse counseling and "a host of other problems."

"While Social Services agrees with us that they feel they're sort of hung up by state regulations, (state lawmakers) don't see the need to make attending school a major priority for schools," Reagen said.

Reagen said he asked County Attorney Steve Button to draft the resolution, saying he wanted to bring the issue to the attention of state representatives for whom "this might not be on their radar."

He said it is important to ensure any group involved weighs in, whether that be teachers, school administrators, county administrators or other governing bodies.

We have a lot of kids that are falling behind. We have a lot  of kids who, when the school bell rings in the morning, are in bed and (later) wandering the streets," he said.

Reagen said he knew it was not possible to "fix them all" or "save them all" but commented that communities "can do better than we are right now."

"It wasn't that long ago that the state didn't tie the hands of DSS and school districts," he said.

He called the reform legislation "misguided," while calling on state lawmakers to help "get our state back on track."

What are schools saying?

Legislator Margaret Haggard weighed in as well, asking Reagen if he had an opportunity to speak with local school administrators about the issues surrounding chronic absenteeism.

"From my experience there's a lot of emphasis placed on attendance, but I haven’t been there in a while," she said.

Reagen said he has spoken with a number of local administrators, including his local superintendent regarding the issues and their concerns about the reform legislation.

He said those conversations also prompted further discussions with Social Services.

"The commissioner (Joseph Seeber) said it's a serious problem because of Albany," Reagen said.

Reagen said he is hopeful that a number of school superintendents will join the legislature in demanding changes to the law, allowing for intervention efforts once again.

"We need to make this a priority," he said.

Legislator Rita Curran said the issue extends beyond the reform legislation as well.

She said social workers who handle pediatric cases are "sort of aghast that in the last year when they called in a hotline because someone's kids are not going to school, they don't want to take those hotlines."

"They don't want to take that as the reason that they're sending DSS to your house, that your child isn't going to school," she said.

Stats needed

As for the figures related to chronic absenteeism, Legislator Rick Perkins said he would like to see figures from the county's districts.

Legislator Nicole Terminelli said those figures are typically released each October by the state, with a public dashboard posted online.

According to a report issued by the state Comptroller's Office, chronic absenteeism rates are higher in high-need school districts, with high-To view the Comptroller's report, visit www.osc.ny.gov/files/reports/pdf/missing-school-ny-chronic-absenteeism.pdf

need rural districts seeing an average absentee rate of 33% last year.

That marks a 10.1% increase from the 2018-2019 school year, the last full academic year prior to the COVID pandemic.

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