The D.C. Council today is expected to reject emergency legislation aimed at curbing truancy and delinquency because it could violate students’ privacy rights and usurp the superintendent’s authority.
The Attendance and School Safety Act of 2004 would require police to notify the superintendent when a student is charged with offenses such as homicide, assault, drug possession, burglary or arson on or off school grounds.
It would also allow principals to remove students from school if they skip classes or commit crimes and pose “a threat to self or others in the school population.” Students removed would be placed in an alternative education program.
“I think people realize it’s a little knee-jerk,” D.C. Council member Adrian M. Fenty, Ward 4 Democrat, said of the legislation. “It’s on the right track, but you can’t introduce draconian measures into the schools.”
Council member Phil Mendelson said holding students accountable if they commit crimes is appealing, but school policy decisions should be left to the superintendent. “I’m not sure I’m comfortable with the city council putting that into law,” the at-large Democrat said.
The Washington Times reported Sunday that truancy is rampant in the District, with several high schools reporting 20 percent or more of their students were truant.
The Times reported that 5,790 of the 86,449 students in D.C. schools, or 6.7 percent, were truant during the 2001-02 school year, the only year for which complete data were available. At that time, 1,836 of the District’s 12,022 high school students, or 15.3 percent, were truant. Suburban jurisdictions reported much lower truancy rates.
Council member Vincent B. Orange, Ward 5 Democrat, has proposed the Attendance and School Safety Act in part to address truancy, but the legislation has not been voted out of the council’s Education Committee.
Similar legislation has twice been enacted on a temporary basis — most recently in 2001 — but it has been criticized because notifying school officials about students’ criminal histories violates the privacy rights of juveniles.
Meanwhile, the council is also scheduled to vote on Mayor Anthony A. Williams’ plan to assume governance of the city’s troubled system by requiring the superintendent to report to him and limiting the role of the school board to that of an advisory panel.
The mayor, who has vowed to resign if he cannot improve schools, yesterday was two votes shy of the seven votes needed to pass the bill on the 13-member council.
The city’s school system for years has been plagued by low standardized test scores, poorly maintained facilities and a declining student population. Mr. Williams’ initial attempts to take control of the schools resulted in the current hybrid school board of elected and appointed members.
The mayor’s spokesman, Tony Bullock, yesterday expressed hope of persuading the majority to adopt Mr. Williams’ plan. “I think we’re gaining here, but we have to have a couple of rabbits pop out of a couple hats,” he said.
Mr. Bullock also criticized school administrators for allowing truancy to flourish.
“The fact that there are huge truancy problems is not surprising,” Mr. Bullock said. “I think it’s just one more dysfunctional component of a poorly run operation. You have so many areas where the schools don’t seem to perform the most basic functions.”
He also suggested that truancy occurs more frequently than indicated by school system statistics.
City school officials, including Diane Powell, student-services director, did not know how many students have been truant over the past few years, The Times reported Sunday. Complete data were available only for the 2001-02 school year, although The Times requested data from the 1999-2000 school year through the 2002-03 school year.
What’s more, the District’s 2001-02 truancy records were complete only at the citywide level, not school by school as required by the federal 2002 No Child Left Behind Act. The records are also unreliable because they have a 25 percent error rate, according to D.C. school officials.
Mr. Fenty yesterday said the number of truants in the District is “unbelievable” and that the school system’s 25 percent error rate is “like guessing.”
“That basically means they have no idea what kids are in the school system,” he said.
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