WEYBURN — Out-going education director Gwen Keith spent some time recently as the attendance officer for Holy Family school division, she reported at her last board meeting before her retirement.
“I’m spending a lot of time as attendance officer. This has been very very challenging. We’ve had some interesting complexities,” she said, noting it didn’t involve a large number of students, but some issues were very difficult to resolve.
“We’re challenged with students not going to school, and we want to get them to school,” said Keith.
“The expectation is that students are to go to school. We try everything we can, talking to the parents, the teachers, and the school counsellors are bending over backwards to try and provide support and incentives,” she added.
Keith noted the division monitors attendance from the division office, and if it doesn’t work, then they try to have a face-to-face meeting with the parents, along with counsellors.
One situation has gone through numerous layers and has gone all the way to the Children’s Advocate for the province to try and help a family get their child into school.
Keith said it hasn’t involved a massive number of students. Superintendent Chad Fingler noted the provincial law is for children between the ages of seven and 15 are to be educated in school or home-schooled.
Asked how much of a school year would be considered truancy, Fingler said the number they use is 10 per cent more of any given school day.
The process begins with the teacher contacting the parents, then the school counsellors will get involved. If there is still no success, ministries such as Health, Justice and Social Services may get involved, and the matter may go to the HUB committee, which includes many of those ministries.
“We have a pretty good response generally,” said Fingler.
“Then we get into accommodations for mental health or medical concerns. It gets pretty messy sometimes,” added Terry Jordens.
“Sometimes parents cooperate, sometimes they don’t. They’ll do lots of things to keep us away,” said Keith. “I have to commend the dedication of the counsellors. They try to support and advocate for the family for sure.”
Where it may get complicated is if the family moves out of the school district without informing Holy Family. Fingler noted that the last school a student was registered in is responsible for the whereabouts of that student until they know where that student and their family has gone.
