by carla gray
carla@themonitor.net

MABANK‑Mabank Independent School District officials say truancy court is a last resort, with prevention efforts focused first on removing barriers that keep students from attending school.
Texas law requires students who are at least 6 years old or who have previously enrolled in first grade to attend school until they turn 19, unless they qualify for an exemption such as graduation. Students enrolled in prekindergarten or kindergarten also are subject to attendance requirements, according to Texas Education Code 25.085 and the district’s board policy manual.
Assistant Superintendent Henry Tracy said the law reflects the state’s recognition that education benefits children. The rules also allow excused absences for circumstances such as illness and medical appointments, he said.
Tracy said the district does not begin with a truancy filing. Its primary goal is to help students overcome attendance problems and remain in school.
Under state requirements, the district must file a truancy case when a student has 10 unexcused absences within a six-month period. Before taking that step, the district uses truancy prevention measures (TPM) to identify and address the reason for the absences.
Those measures can reveal family circumstances the district may be able to resolve without going to court. In some cases, Tracy said, the answer is as simple as arranging bus transportation. Although bus transportation is not required by law and is an expense to the district, however, Mabank ISD provides it as a service to the community, Tracy said. 
A TPM also may uncover a need for counseling or other community resources, according to Tracy. Older students and sometimes younger ones may resist their parents’ authority, making intervention more complicated, said Tracy.
Assistant principals at each campus oversee the TPM effort and state law requires schools to implement strategies before filing a truancy case, Tracy said.
Attendance monitoring can do more than return a student to class, Tracy said. It can alert school officials to family problems that have not otherwise been reported and connect families with help, he added.
“It is the attendance monitoring that helps us,” Tracy said. “It is the clue that leads us to a situation with which we could help.”
Tracy said the district accepts the time and expense involved in prevention efforts and court filings because regular attendance improves a student’s chance of graduating and pursuing college, vocational training, or work.
National Center for Education Statistics data underscores the economic value of completing school. Median earnings for full-time workers ages 25 to 34 were $26,000 for those who had not completed high school, compared with $32,000 for high school graduates, $39,000 for those with an associate degree and $55,000 for those with a bachelor’s degree or higher. More information is available from the National Center for Education Statistics.
Tracy’s takeaway: “It is to try to get the kid that earning potential, it is to try to set them up for success. I want to make sure the narrative of attendance is not negative. It is wrapped around that kiddo. That is why we do what we do. We are truly here to try to help these students. That is the win. Faculty and staff are here for that kid that we get to watch blossom. Truancy is a last resort, and it is a metric, or a lever that we really mandatorily have to pull at times. But there are so many things that we do prior to that.”