MARYSVILLE – After 20 years, the BECCA Bill, which deals with student truancy in schools, is taking a 180-degree turn, becoming kinder, gentler.
“Being punitive is ineffective in getting kids to school,” Ray Houser told the Marysville School Board recently.
The bill was passed in 1995 after Rebecca Hedman, a 13-year-old runaway, was hit in the back of the head six times with a bat by a 35-year-old man she had charged $50 for sex. Her body was dumped along an embankment of the Spokane River.
The law allowed parents to commit children to counseling centers against their will and put runaways in detention.
Houser, executive director of assessment and student services for the MSD, said that didn’t work because it mixed criminals with truants, who would then go bad. The student went to court earlier in the process in an attempt to force the student to go to school.
He said the process now is solution based.
“Instead of looking at the child and saying, ‘What’s wrong with you?’ we ask, “What happened to keep you out of school?”
With the new look law, called House Bill 2429, the goal is to keep students in school by finding what the problem is and working to fix it.
A letter or phone call is made right away if there is an unexcused absence. Parent conferences kick in if there are five absences in a month, even if they are excused. A Truancy Reduction Agreement is signed. It must involve a school representative and parent, along with the student. It includes a follow-up date two weeks later.
If truancies continue, meetings continue and officials look deeper into the roadblocks, including mental health.
There are a number of steps that take place before the student would go before a Community Truancy Board. Courts would get involved after that.
Houser said three years ago probably 500 students made it to court, but with this new process he said he would be surprised if 10 get that far.
“I like the shift,” he said.
The main problem with the change is workload for teachers and other school personnel. After two months of school, 498 students already had enough absences to require intervention.
In a briefing paper to the school board, Houser wrote that truancy has a negative impact on society. It leads to poor scholastic achievement, poor grades, increased dropout rates and lower graduation rates. That leads to higher unemployment, lower wages, reduced tax revenue and an increase in public assistance.
With House Bill 2429 passed by the legislature, the goal is to find the underlying cause of the truant behavior and work collaboratively to develop internal motivation to graduate from school.
He continues saying a Community Truancy Board is being trained, with 20 community members prepared already.
With the law, schools are required to tell students and parents about the benefits of going to school, the consequences of absenteeism, resources available to help and the truancy law.
Truancy Reduction Agreement
•Do you value education?
•Career objective.
•I believe that going to school and getting an education is important to my future goals for the following reasons.
•I have identified the following causes to my lack of regular attendance at school.
•I feel that if I take the following steps I can overcome these barriers.
Community Truancy Boards
•The goal of the boards are to connect the community to the youth.
•It can provide collaborative venue to address underlying causes of behavior.
•It can help identify interventions.
•It supports students and families in scholastic achievements while avoiding court involvement.
BECCA Bill Goals
Similar to HB2429
•Keep youth in school, increase attendance and graduation rates, involve the community, engage youth and families, keep youth out of detention and in their communities, and utilize an assessment tool and refer to interventions that are proved to be effective.
