KAPA‘A — Carol Lopez, mother of second-grader Brandon at Kapa’a Elementary School, was not surprised Monday when the school nurse phoned to tell her to pick up her sick son. Mrs. Lopez had sent him to school sick, she says,
KAPA‘A — Carol Lopez, mother of second-grader Brandon at Kapa’a Elementary School, was not surprised Monday when the school nurse phoned to tell her to pick up her sick son.
Mrs. Lopez had sent him to school sick, she says, because the new Elementary School Attendance Program had forced her to send him against her better judgment.
“If my son is sick, and the illness does not justify a trip to the doctor’s office, what can I do?” she said in a phone interview Wednesday. “I’m irritated that they have taken my choice away.”
The island-wide changes are not meant to be punitive at all, said Daniel Hamada, head of the state Department of Education for Kaua‘i in a phone interview Wednesday.
He says that the changes were put in place to provide a consistent, island-wide program to help students get to school and to be there on time.
“It’s a new policy attempt to support parents” to provide early intervention for students and families to prevent future crises, said Dora Hong, principal of Kapa‘a Elementary School.
Some parents disagree. “I feel it’s way too strict,” said Jen Rutt, mother of a child at Kapa‘a Elementary. “We parents should be able to write our kids a note.”
The new procedure, which went into effect at the beginning of the school year for all Kaua‘i public elementary schools: Hanalei, Kilauea, Kapa‘a, King Kaumuali‘i, Wilcox, Koloa, Kalaheo, ‘Ele‘ele, Waimea Canyon and Kekaha, is as follows:
- Parents and students may have nine unexcused absences and/ or tardies before they will be forced to attend a parent conference with the principal and the child’s teacher;
- After a combination of 10 unexcused absences and tardies, parents will be required to attend three parenting-support sessions with the National Guard;
- After another unexcused absence or tardy, or if the parent does not attend the support sessions, they will be required to attend a Kaua‘i Police Department four-hour class on a Saturday.
- After 13 tardies and unexcused absences, or if the parent does not attend the class, a Family Court session will be required. If the tardiness and absences still do not stop, a Family Court petition will be filed on educational neglect.
An excused absence, according to Hamada, is a sickness or injury. A note from a doctor or dentist must accompany the child when he returns to school.
As for another problem, such as a death in the family, “If there are unusual circumstances, parents need to contact us,” Hong said. “I’ll need to look at every case individually, and if it’s an unusual case, we’ll look at it” to see if an exception can be made, she said.
“Ten unexcused days is very hard to hit,” said Hamada. “Only a small percentage of parents will be affected in the long term.”
Hong said that the proof that the program is working can already be seen in the first few weeks of school. In previous years, an average day would see between 90 and 120 absences and tardies at Kapa‘a Elementary. On Wednesday, Aug. 27, there were 37, and, she said that was relatively high for this year.
“It’s a big difference,” she said, as “parents are now accountable for the children’s attendance.”
But some parents are worried that the new program takes some of their parental judgment away. “It’s threatening to the parents and children,” Rutt said. “It puts a lot of pressure on us” that is unnecessary, she said.
“They don’t care about kids,” Lopez said. “It’s just about the numbers.”
Helping students to learn is the point of ESAP, said Karen Liu, principal of King Kaumuali‘i School. “It is my belief that student learning is closely tied to children being present in the classroom, on time, every day,” she wrote in the April 2003 edition of King Kaumuali‘i School Newsletter, available online. “Helping our children become responsible citizens is a responsibility we all share.”
ESAP, although just started on Kaua‘i, has worked on O‘ahu, Hamada said. And last year, “We made sure that as many parents as possible could hear about this” and prepare, he said. “We ask the parents to give this time to work.”
ESAP was started on O‘ahu as a response to the state’s Mandatory School Attendance Law (302A 1130-1136), which gave the Board of Education the primary responsibility for student attendance. It also mandated that all children over 6 years old must be in school, and that it is the parents’ responsibility to make sure the child is in school.
And if the child fails to “meet the requirements for regular attendance and punctuality,” the parent can be called before a judge and can be charged with educational neglect, a charge which can carry a $1,000 fine or 30 days in jail.
ESAP is to “help families comply with the law,” said Hong. “The parenting classes are to help them. In the past, there were no immediate steps, just the law.”
“ESAP puts the decision-making at the school level,” where parents and teachers have a relationship, Hamada said.
However, that is exactly what, Lopez says, ESAP does not do. “I have a relationship with my son’s teacher. What I don’t like is the thumb on the back of my head from the district,” she said.
Staff Writer Tom Finnegan may be reached at 245-3681, ext. 226.
