Chronic absenteeism has been a problem among many school districts during the past couple years, and Marshalltown is no different. When a student misses six or more school days in a quarter, they are considered chronically absent.

The last report from the Iowa Department of Education in the 2020-21 school year indicated the Marshalltown Community School District had 24 percent of students who were chronically absent. The state average is 21 percent.

“We’ve battled what would be considered chronic absenteeism in the district for a long time,” said Superintendent Theron Schutte. “Not particularly unexcused absences, but just absences in general.”

According to Schutte, the percentage of chronically absent students is not surprising considering the demographics of the district.

“All things factor,” he said. “Higher poverty districts have higher degrees of chronic absenteeism. That does not mean that can’t be improved or changed.”

Schutte said they are trying to determine all of the reasons students miss school. However, one reason that might contribute is lack of access to quality healthcare. The COVID-19 pandemic certainly did not make the rates any better. Schutte said the district encouraged parents to keep their children home at the first sign of any illness. Now staff are trying to break that mindset and are finding it challenging.

“We are figuring out what we should be doing differently,” he said. “I’m really encouraged by what we have learned over the course of the last year or so.

Two things the district has done is partner with Attendance Works — a nonprofit which works with districts to address chronic absenteeism using positive, problem-solving approaches — and hire Kayla McCall as a district attendance coordinator. After speaking with superintendents in other districts, Schutte determined having a monitor in each building with a focus on attendance will help. He said they would like to hire an attendance monitor for every school building.

“So far, we have only successfully hired two,” Schutte said. “With the labor shortage, it has been extraordinarily hard.”

There will also be a presentation at the Aug. 7 Marshalltown Community School Board meeting regarding recommendations on how to improve attendance during the 2023-24 school year. The recommendations will include how the district could improve communication plans with parents.

“Communications will focus more on caring and empathy and trying to get to the root cause of why their children are missing so much school, versus the punitive part of it,” Schutte said.

For years, when a student would be considered chronically absent, school personnel would contact parents. If the problem was not resolved, the county attorney would be contacted, but Schutte said taking such action is the last thing they want to do.

“We do everything in our power to prevent that,” he said. “But we have met with them on a number of occasions. The county attorney’s office has a willingness to work with us to figure out how best to approach it from that standpoint. Again, we don’t want to be in a position where we don’t have to have people pay fines or be held accountable for child neglect.”

Iowa Code Chapter 299 is solely about truancy, or chronic absenteeism. Under law, after mediation with the county attorney is concluded and there are failures to comply, criminal action follows:

The first offense is a simple misdemeanor. The parent will face a maximum penalty of 10 days in jail, a fine of $100 or 40 hours of community service.

The second offense is a serious misdemeanor, carrying a maximum penalty of 20 days in jail, a fine of $500 or an undetermined amount of community service.

The third offense is a serious misdemeanor with a maximum penalty of 30 days in jail, a fine of $1,000 or both or community service.

In addition, any child who fails to meet requirements of attendance after mediation will not be allowed to obtain a driver’s license until the age of 18.

Addressing chronic absenteeism is one of the top priorities for the district, Schutte said.

“If the students are not in school, they are not learning,” he said. “It is definitely key. It is key to a higher graduation rate, and to us improving our student achievement results.”

Schutte mentioned the 2020 graduation of the Marshalltown Community School District was 90 percent. The following school year, the graduation rate dropped to low to mid 80s, Schutte said.

“Not many districts like ours can come close to a 90 percent graduation rate,” he said. “COVID and the derecho did set us back, but I am confident we can get back up there. The key is getting the students back to school regularly.”

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Contact Lana Bradstream at 641-753-6611 ext. 210 or

lbradstream@timesrepublican.com.