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D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) recently released a bill that her administration made in collaboration with District principals and agencies to address truancy, chronic absenteeism and a bevy of other issues related to student safety and family engagement.
Bowser’s bill, titled Utilizing Partnerships, Local Interventions for Truancy and Safety (UPLIFT) Amendment Act of 2024, counts among its many goals the streamlining and strengthening of the District’s truancy referral process, via D.C. Department of Human Services (DHS).
If the bill passes, DHS would become the entity that contacts and assesses the needs of families of truant youth. A Fiscal Year 2025 budget allocation of $7 million expands the agency’s capacity to serve 500 families in its Parent and Adolescent Support (PASS) Intensive Case Management program and 180 families in its Alternatives to the Court Experience (ACE) Diversion program.
“We are aware of issues related to childcare, transportation needs and other behavioral health needs where a person might suffer anxiety,” DHS Director Laura Zeillinger told The Informer. “Our job is to partner with a parent to understand the root of why a child isn’t attending school. We’ve had success in our programs to date.”
PASS provides early intervention support to youth between the ages of 10 and 17 years old who skip school and exhibit unruly behavior in and outside of the home. In partnership with D.C. Department of Behavioral Services, DHS connects youth to mentoring, tutoring and after-school activities. Other elements of the program include short-term family counseling and crisis stabilization to curb behaviors leading to hospitalization and out-of-home placement.
Young people who participate in ACE receive community support instead of prosecution. DHS coordinates this program in tandem with the Office of the Attorney General, the Metropolitan Police Department, and Court Social Services.
Zeillinger said that, through the UPLIFT Amendment Act, this work would continue to the benefit of truant students and their families.
“It’s but a ramp up and the level of effort to be effective. It’s a different team and contract work,” Zeillinger said in response to an Informer inquiry about how to mitigate case worker burnout. “Separate from this legislation, I have legislation to increase capacity in the community to meet casework needs.”
Ongoing Attempts to Improve Truancy Response in the D.C. Council, District Agencies
Deputy Mayor Paul Kihn and D.C. Public Schools Chancellor Dr Lewis D. Ferebee recently alluded to ongoing efforts to improve schools’ ability to make referrals. Ferebee told The Informer that principals who learned about the UPLIFT Amendment Act supported it due to the focus on DHS, Child & Family Service Agency.
Ferebee said that relationships between families and schools became strained in the aftermath of referrals. He also mentioned that some administrators expressed frustration about the lack of CFSA follow through.
Bowser’s introduction of the UPLIFT Amendment Act follows the introduction of truancy bills by D.C. Council members Robert White (D-At large), Zachary Parker (D-Ward 5), and Charles Allen (D-Ward 6) that focus on various parts of the ecosystem.
A provision of Parker’s bill would require the Office of the State Superintendent (OSSE) to produce truancy reports more than once a year. On Thursday, State Superintendent Dr. Christina Grant noted that OSSE made that transition at the beginning of the 2023-2024 school year, with its second truancy report having been released over the last couple of weeks and the third later in the spring.
The most recent report focused on August-November 2023. It showed a 6.4 percentage point year-to-date decrease in chronic absenteeism and 3 percentage point year-to-date decrease in chronic truancy. All grade levels, the report showed, experienced a decrease on both fronts.
Grant touted OSSE’s increased frequency — from annually to three times a year — as a step in the right direction. “The process involves school-level collection and data collection with parents,” she said in regard to why reports can’t be produced more frequently. “We want to align it with the right time of the year.”
Further Exploration of the UPLIFT Amendment Act: Courts and an Alternative School Setting
Other provisions of the UPLIFT Amendment Act require parents and guardians of young people charged with gun crimes and crimes of violence to participate in family group conferences and other rehabilitative services coordinated by D.C. Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services.
The bill limits diversion for youth who are charged with committing a dangerous crime while armed or having available a weapon. It also narrows consent decrees and deferred disposition agreements, meaning that youth charged with violent crimes would go before a judge.
“This [bill] isn’t requiring the courts to put them anywhere, but they should go before the court,” said Lindsey Appiah, deputy mayor for public safety and justice. “Commitment has sharply declined but we have a higher number of youth being arrested for carjacking,” she continued. “More young people are victims of homicide. Something’s going on with youth not under supervision. This is an effort for appropriate accountability.”
In response to principals’ concerns about their lack of latitude in disciplining violent students, the UPLIFT Amendment Act allows for suspensions of middle school students by redefining allowable suspensions and allowing the designee of a local education agency leader to dole out suspensions of more than 20 cumulative days.
Another element of the bill concerns alternative school placement for middle and high school students who are involved in violent incidents.
Per Ferebee, the placement would take place between 20 and 45 days. Between 10 and 20 students at a time would participate in “restorative practices and therapeutic response.”
These students, Ferebee said, still be enrolled in their schools and allowed the flexibility to return there, depending on their progress in the alternative school placement.
This pilot program, Ferebee noted, will receive $1.6 million in central office funds for an administrator, staff members, social workers, and school psychologists. He spoke about ongoing exploration of a centralized location in the District with separate entrances for middle school and high school students.
“It’s no more than 45 days to get to root causes and provide supports,” Ferebee told The Informer on Wednesday, shortly after Bowser presented her Fiscal Year 2025 budget proposal before the D.C. Council. ‘We see the need for support for our middle school-aged students,” he said. “The services are not in their home school and we can provide that in this environment.”
A Lawyer Questions Middle School Suspensions and Alternative School Settings
Danielle Robinette, senior policy attorney with Children’s Law Center, said that Bowser and the D.C. Council are moving in the right direction by involving DHS in addressing the underlying causes of truancy. The agency, she said, could take on the case management that school-level personnel say they don’t have the capacity to handle.
When it comes to court involvement in truancy, Robinette cautioned against a heavy handed approach. She told The Informer that adjudication of youth can create barriers to attendance and undermine efforts to reverse truancy and chronic absenteeism.
Robinette said the same logic applies when it comes to suspensions and an alternative school setting. She questioned whether these provisions of the UPLIFT Amendment Act weaken the Student Fair Access to School Act.
In 2018, the council passed that bill without Bowser’s approval. It restricts the number of cumulative and consecutive days of out-of-school suspension that students could receive.
Robinette said that changing course and placing middle school students alongside high school students could become problematic.
“There’s a difference between a 13-year-old and a 17-year-old,” Robinette told The Informer. “I would definitely be concerned about expanding suspensions for middle school students… Anytime a student is removed, it’s a significant disruption to their education. It’s a form of school pushout, regardless of age.”
