On the city council agenda for Tuesday night is an intergovernmental agreement to help District 150 fight truancy. Here is some background from the “Request for Council Action”:

District 150 is in the process of organizing a major effort to curtail truancy in the District. They are give positive reinforcement to school attendance and impress upon the parents and students thaer e trying to importance of school attendance.

The attached Intergovernmental Agreement designates all City Police Officers as Truant Officers empowered to question, pick up and deliver to the Truancy Assessment Center any student enrolled in grades 1 through 12 of the School District who is absent without valid cause. The Intergovernmental Agreement also makes clear the School Security Force is authorized to write City Ordinance Tickets for daytime curfew and truancy violations.

So, my question is, is this a passive responsibility (if the police happen to run into a child absent from school without cause, he can pick him up) or an active one (police will be sent out looking for truants)? That probably ought to be clarified. Nevertheless, it’s nice to see the city and school district working together. Ardis made better cooperation between the city and district one of his goals during his election campaign, and it’s good to see some movement on that front. I don’t know if Ardis was directly involved in this idea or not, though.

This is a much better strategy to cut down on truancy than letting the kids get out of final exams if they show up to school every day. Why reward children for doing what they’re supposed to be doing in the first place? Attendance is and should be an expectation, not extra credit.

The Journal Star had an article on this, too, a few days ago.