Education Minister Susan Close to bring legislation giving teeth to prosecute parents of chronic truants

PARENTS of chronic truants would be fined for allowing their children to repeatedly miss school without explanation and schools made more accountable for absenteeism under a crackdown.

Education Minister Susan Close wants to update the law to introduce the option of an out-of-court fine and is likely to bring legislation to Parliament to by the end of the year to enable the fine.

• Parents put on notice as public schools struggle to deal with challenges

PARENTS of chronic truants would be fined for allowing their children to repeatedly miss school without explanation and schools made more accountable for absenteeism under a crackdown revealed by Education Minister Susan Close.

Authorities can take parents of serial truants to court but there has never been a successful prosecution.

Dr Close wants to update the law to introduce the option of an out-of-court fine and is likely to bring legislation to Parliament to by the end of the year to enable the fine.

Schools will also have to explain their attendance rates and record-keeping will be improved to better identify children who are frequently absent.

The attendance rate across SA schools was 90.7 per cent last year.

Missing 10 days out of a school term is classified as “chronic non-attendance” and can trigger prosecution of a parent but so far no case has proceeded to court.

Dr Close said she did not think educators had “the full range of tools in our toolkit” needed to tackle chronic truancy.

“I can see that often it would have a negative long-term effect on children if what we’re doing is ... effectively criminalising their parents,” she said of a fine.

“The other side is we do need that stick, in my view. The fact that we have been unable to take a prosecution for some time is known and I think we need to do something about that.

“We are identifying cases where it is unarguable that there should be a prosecution.

“Another is to improve the work done within our department on the evidence gathering and documentation in order to make that prosecution more likely to succeed.”

What the fine would be and how it would be triggered would be determined during the drafting of reforms to the Education Act.

The new plan outlined by Dr Close also includes:

ADDING attendance rates to the list of performance measures evaluated during reviews of every public school.

IDENTIFYING all schools where attendance rates are dropping or for indigenous students is below 80 per cent.

GIVING some school staff similar powers to child protection workers to enable them to require meetings between the families of absent children and welfare authorities.

Schools are not required to report chronic absence to the department but each is expected to follow up and monitor cases to assess the need for further intervention.

A new Absence Alert program enables schools to generate reports on students who are absent between five and nine consecutive days or 10 or more days.

Dr Close said schools which were improving attendance rates would be assessed to provide successful models for others.

“There is evidence of just how far you fall behind if you don’t regularly attend and for the full day,” she said. “One of the features of a vulnerable family is that attendance at school becomes sporadic.”

SA Primary Principals Association president Pam Kent has previously estimated most schools — there are more than 500 public schools in SA — would have at least half a dozen chronic truants.

Opposition education spokesman John Gardner said the Government had “a responsibility ... to use every method possible to get these children to be attending school”.

“We’ve legislated for the Government to have significant powers in this area,” Mr Gardner said.

“The Minister needs to explain why the Government has failed to effectively use those powers.”

How this school turned it around

By Martina Simos

TWELVE months ago Playford International College had an attendance rate of 70 per cent which was, according to principal Rob Knight “not good enough”. But now on any given day the attendance rate is up to 90 per cent.

Recent data analysis on the school’s sign-in, sign-out system — which recorded when students were late to school or left early — showed only 38 students were being recorded on average.

Last year the average was 102.

NEW BEGINNING: Playford International College principal Rob Knight with students Blake Clark, Teonnie Caddies and Katelyn Dunbar. The three students are among those at the school who have improved their attendance records this year. Picture: Calum Robertson

“My staff undertook some really heavy lifting last year and they committed themselves to wanting to go down a new direction, they created a vision for the way they wanted kids to learn in the future and they’ve created a whole brand new curriculum which is really a first,’’ Mr Knight said.

Last year, Teonnie Caddies attended school once a week but now, thanks to her aunty and the school’s counsellor, the 14-year-old has a different attitude.

“I didn't want to come to school. I was away just about every single day,’’ she said.

“I’ve actually come to school this whole term. I’m actually the most proud I’ve ever been of myself.’’

Fellow student, Blake Clark, 16 attended his previous school twice a week on average last year and missed most of the fourth term.

He started at Playford International College a few weeks ago.

“I feel comfy here,’’ he said. “I come to school every day unless I am crook.’’

In 2014 one student from Playford International College was accepted to university but last year 24 students got their SACE and a university offer.