[Mail_emis] Truancy and out of school suspension.edu

[Karen Wilson]

Good afternoon,
I received this from Hillsboro the other day on Out of School Suspensions and  using them for triggering Habitually Truant Students.


Karen,
I asked the prosecutor's office about counting the suspension days toward truancy and her answer is given below.

"A habitual truant is means any child of compulsory school age who is absent without legitimate excuse for absence from the public school the child is supposed to attend for thirty or more consecutive hours, forty-two or more hours in one school month, or seventy- two or more hours in a school year.  The same "gray area" still exists in regards to whether the days a student is suspended from school is truant or not.  It is my opinion, in the spirit of the law, that it is not counted.  The school is telling the student to not attend, so even though it is an "unexcused" absence in some districts pursuant to policy because they are not permitted to receive credit for missed work, they are not "truant."  I would not count that time in filing charges, however I think it is an individual decision with the school whether you want to initiate the intervention plan based solely on suspension days.  This is a new area and my interpretation of the RC.  You may see if the state office has any guidance on the matter."


Since there is nothing in the HB410 documentation that specifically addresses this, I put a ticket up to ODE asking who we could be referred to for an answer since ODE did verify at the meeting on Wednesday that OSS was to be unexcused.

ODE indicated that we needed to contact  school_improvement at education.ohio.gov<mailto:school_improvement at education.ohio.gov>.

I sent the above to them and received a very speedy reply.

Good afternoon,

Though suspensions are considered unexcused absences, suspensions should not towards truancy triggers because it is a legitimate excuse to be out of school. Suspensions count toward excessive absences because excessive absence triggers include both legitimate and not legitimate reasons for being out of school.
Thanks,
Brittany Miracle


It is so great to have a definitive answer on this question.  I would encourage all of you , if you have questions  about HB410 to email school_improvement at education.ohio.gov<mailto:school_improvement at education.ohio.gov> .  I just received another email from them indicating that they will be updating the HB410 documentation to include this information.


As for the attendance letters that have been set up for tracking truancy, you will need to make adjustments to the habitual letters that you set up.  You will need to edit the rules and pull back over to the left  your OSS type.

If you have any questions on  how to update your letters, please send an email to HelpStudent at mveca.org<mailto:HelpStudent at mveca.org> for assistance.

Thanks

Karen and Annette




Karen Wilson MCEP
EMIS Support Specialist
Miami Valley Educational Computer Association
330 E. Enon Rd., Yellow Springs, Ohio 45387
937-767-1468 ex 3115
Fax 937-767-1793
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