(Washington, DC) – Robert J. Spagnoletti, Attorney General for the District of Columbia, announced that on July 8, 2004, his office will participate in a series of hearings held by the Family Court of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. The hearings, to be held on the recently-created Truancy Calendar, are the culmination of a collaborative effort between the Family Court, the Office of the Attorney General, the Board of Education, the Child and Family Services Agency, the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency and the District of Columbia Public Schools, to help curb the District’s truancy problem.
Under DC law, truant youth, as well as parents and caretakers, can be brought before a judge as a result of chronic truancy. However, rather than penalizing youth or parents, efforts by the agencies involved focus on addressing the underlying causes of the truancy. Potential benefits of this collaboration may include stronger rules regarding the reporting of truancy information and the investigation of more families for education neglect. According to Attorney General Robert Spagnoletti, “Working closely with our partners in the Family Court, the Public Schools and the Court Services and Offender Supervision Agency (“CSOSA”), among others, we have seen some real successes in addressing the problems that confront families and lead to truancy.”
Under District law, parents, guardians and caretakers who reside in the District, whether permanently or temporarily, are required to enroll children between the ages of 5 and 17 in school. Parents, guardians and caretakers can be criminally prosecuted under the District’s Compulsory School Attendance Act if they fail to ensure that the children under their custody or control are attending school regularly. Additionally, District law permits the Office of the Attorney General to charge juveniles, who are of compulsory school attendance age, as habitual truants, more commonly known as Persons in Need of Supervision.
Although the compulsory school attendance laws enable Spagnoletti’s office to seek imprisonment of parents or guardians who fail to ensure that children are enrolled in and regularly attend school, “our goal is to address the cause of the problem,” said Spagnoletti. In May of 2003, Spagnoletti’s office, with the assistance of CSOSA, began a new deferred sentencing program. The program provides that a defendant enter a guilty plea and defer sentencing for one full school year. While awaiting sentencing, the defendant agrees to comply with various release conditions including that the child will have no unexcused absences. If the defendant complies with the conditions of supervision, the case is dismissed prior to sentencing, resulting in no record of a conviction. However, if a defendant fails to comply, he or she may be subject to fines and/or imprisonment as provided by District law.
According to Spagnoletti, “Working closely with the Family Court, the Public Schools and CSOSA, this program has been successful in giving parents and caretakers the assistance they need to address the underlying cause of the truancy.” To date, most of the defendants who have reached the end of the program have done so successfully, thus, resulting in the dismissal of their cases. Lee F. Satterfield, Presiding Judge of the Family Court echoes this sentiment. “We share a common goal to do all we can to ensure that children remain in school and believe that the current collaborative efforts among all of the interested agencies will benefit DC children and families in the long run.”
“The greatest accomplishment through this program has been that these children, who were previously chronically truant, are now in school,” said Spagnoletti. “A year later we may not be able to measure the effect of that, but the long term effect for that child will be monumental.”
According to Spagnoletti, “too often our children are left disadvantaged early-on as a result of parents or other caretakers who fail to ensure that children are enrolled in and attending school on a daily basis.” Spagnoletti, whose office is also responsible for the prosecution of juvenile offenders, emphasized that “many of the children and teenagers that we see in the juvenile justice system have a long and disturbing history of truancy that dates back to as early as five or six years of age.” By enforcing the District’s compulsory school attendance laws and providing services through the deferred sentencing program, Spagnoletti hopes that many of the children can be steered toward and remain on the right path early in life.
On July 8, 2004, the Family Court has scheduled approximately fifty hearings, beginning at 9:30 am, on cases at various stages. All hearings, other than those involving Persons in Need of Supervision, are open to the public and will be held at the Family Court of the DC Superior Court, 500 Indiana Avenue, NW, Courtroom JM-14.