Montgomery County Grappling with More Kids Skipping Class

Steve Burns
WMAL.com

ROCKVILLE – (WMAL) New numbers show an increase of about 500 kids considered habitually truant in Montgomery County Public Schools over the last five years, and the schools’ along with the county’s responses are starting to see more criticism.

After MCPS’s Steve Neff termed the statistics a “slight increase” at a hearing on Monday, Councilmember Marc Elrich admonished him. “You downplay the significance…the increase is something like 1,600 kids to 2,100 kids. That’s a 500-person increase. That’s not just like things are bumping along.”

“All of us have got to think pretty seriously about how we put the budget in the context of the needs out there,” Elrich said. “The school system’s got to be either more honest or blunt, pick your words there, about what the needs are and what’s not being done.”

The toughest of tough cases, after failing to change through teacher intervention and other community involvement, end up in front of the Truancy Review Board, which is run by State’s Attorney John McCarthy.

“We were looking primarily at kids that were 10% or 20% of being not in class. We thought we didn’t want them to blossom into the habitually truant kids,” McCarthy said. “We have done so well with that cohort we are now being referred to kids that are 30%, 40% truant. We’re getting tougher cases.”

As a result, McCarthy has seen his success rate go down. He said kids have to achieve a 65% attendance rate to “graduate” the program, but they still have a positive impact on students who don’t reach that benchmark.

“The numbers have gone down a little but, because we’re taking tougher cases. We’re proud to the tougher cases. We’re still making differences in those kids lives, but we’re not graduating as many kids because they’re not getting to that 65%, but they’re virtually all improving.”

Elrich recommended more emphasis on intervention in elementary school years, as it would prevent the problem from getting worse down the road.

“I just don’t feel like the magnitude of the response from the school system equals the magnitude of the problem,” he said. “And I’ll just leave it at that.”