Nebraska Family Forum

We are collecting stories about how our community has been impacted the new school attendance law in Nebraska. Your experience with the law, big or small, is a story that will help lawmakers change their minds about the wisdom of this invasive new law. We are collecting every truancy story and open letter, about how Nebraska families and our community are being affected by the new school attendance law, for publication at our blog. This is one of the most powerful things we are doing right now to put persuade our public officials that this law is unwise.

If you are a parent whose child has been affected by this law in any way, have concerns that you might be affected in the future, or are a parent of grown children who would have been adversely affected had the law been current when they attended school, we need your story.

If you are a medical professional, school social worker, teacher, community leader, or concerned citizen who has strong feelings about the law we need your "open letter". We will continue to build our collection throughout the year so that when we put forward repeal and revision of this law we will have a compelling case for why it needs to be done. Email them to .

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The Ballosingh Family
Choosing between family and school

Nebraska’s new “truancy” law has caused me a great deal of anxiety over talking my son out of school for any reason. After the legislature changed the states truancy law from a law about truancy in the classic sense to in essence a “school attendance” law, an excused absence became irrelevant.

Millard school district Superintendent commented on the new “attendance law” at a school board meeting and told parents that because the law makes no distinction between the reasons for an absence that the district no longer pays deference to previously excused absences under the policy like personal illness (even without a doctor’s note), appointments, a funeral, wedding, or graduation, etc. He said, “Changes in our policies are to line up with the State law”. “Are to line up”, tells me that the law has effectively eliminated the concept of excused absences and regardless of the reason I give my school for my son’s absence it could cause me and my son to answer to a judge.

My stress over this law intensified when my mother became very ill while visiting my sister in New York and was hospitalized with seizures of unknown causes. My sister needed my help to care for my mother and I had to take my son with me to New York because his dad works 12 hour days and I have no other family here in Nebraska. Though my son is on the honor roll and up until then had NO history of absences I was still worried. It was the things I can’t predict that concern me. What would I do if my mother became ill again and it required more time away from school?

My anxiety over the trip was compounded when I found out that the Millard school district had revised their attendance policies and would not allow my son to take his work with him. The policy designed to discourage planned absences, makes it more likely that my son will fall behind in school when he misses school. Not only will my son be required to make up his work after he returns but he will have twice the work load keeping up on current work at the same time. The state law and my school district have put my family in an impossible situation where I am forced to choose between my only parent and my only child.

I see these scenarios playing out in my friends around me and I wonder how we got to this place in Nebraska of all places. A dear friend of mine was also in an impossible situation. My friend, a single mom with no family here in Nebraska (Sudanese placed resident), works for the Douglas County Health Department. When her state job required all of the staff in her department across the state to attend a three day mandatory training in Kearney, she had no choice but to drive her children to Minnesota (where her nearest family member lives) the Friday before, drive back to Kearney to attend the training for the first three days of the work week and then drive back to MN to pick up her children. In total her children lost 6 1/2 “unexcused” days of school and as a result she has been “referred” to the GOALS team. She is dealing with social workers who are investigating her. They scrutinize how long she leaves her children unattended from when school is out to when she gets home from work. Unfortunately for her she does not have the resources and is trying to be as compliant as possible.

How did we get to this place? Why have Nebraska lawmakers created a law that inspires school districts to go so far to “improve attendance” that they actually make it harder for kids to be responsible students when they need to be absent from school? Is it responsible for lawmakers pass a law that requires the state scrutiny of a hard working single mom doing her best for her kids simply because her kids miss some school? We are on the wrong track with this law and I hope that it’s not too late to turn it around. I risk entanglement with CPS and juvenile court when I exercise my parental authority to judge what is in the best interest of my son and family when school attendance is involved. The loss of this freedom is directly linked to the law passed in Lincoln and in order to recover what I have lost it is absolutely necessary that lawmakers restore the distinction between excused and unexcused absences.

Dawn Ballosingh

Millard School District
Omaha, NE
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The Bates Family
Academic achievement without perfect attendance

I am the mother of three school age children that are enrolled in Millard Schools in Omaha, Nebraska. Both my husband and I are VERY concerned about the “school attendance” law passed in 2010 and the expansion of it in 2011. From what I have read, the intent of the law is to improve “educational outcomes” by implementing policies that shoot for near perfect attendance.

My 7th grade daughter is a straight A student, 2 years ahead in Math and in honors English. Earlier this year she took the ACT (special invite from Duke University) and scored a 28, which is amazing. This is a higher score than most 11th graders, let alone a 12 year old 7th grader. In no way are my 3 children falling behind in any subject. All three of my children are very good students.

The fear of being prosecuted or coming under scrutiny from Dept. of Family Service has caused me and my friends to change the way we parent our children. I believe it is in the best interest of children to allow their parents to be parents and make decisions for the family unit.

There have been times when I have determined that my children would benefit more from an enrichment opportunity within the community or as a result of travel then they would be harmed by the school they would miss to seize the opportunity. Education and becoming a well rounded individual just doesn’t come from sitting in a class room taking tests and doing work sheets. I believe that a child’s education is enriched by having hands on experiences, like museums, cultural events, speaking and spending time with their elders, learning from them, traveling and having family time. The best educational experiences in life are rarely “provided” by public schools.

My family took some additional days at spring break last year to travel. We visited with distant family, attended a family wedding, witnessed the birth of a new nephew, participated in a religious conference where my children were exposed to uplifting messages, visited a art museum, hiked in a national park, and took a tour of a humanitarian center to learn how we can better serve in our community to help those in need. These were experiences were well worth a few days out of the classroom and will help them become upstanding citizens and add depth to their education.

I think public school is the best way to educate my children. Generally it offers quality scholastic and social learning opportunities. I hope to continue to participate with our public schools. However because of this law home schooling may become our only option.

I do not believe I have been an irresponsible parent or neglectful of my children’s education. My children’s academic standing should be adequate proof of it. If my children miss school, we (both me and my student) gather the missed work from the teacher and get it turned in within a day or so of returning to school. If necessary, they go in before school or stay after to make up anything that they miss. My children don't skip school, they aren't EVER truant. If they are out of school, they do have permission from me, their parent.

Why should I feel anxiety over winter coming and the possibility of my children missing too much school for the common cold? Why should my children miss family reunions, Thanksgiving or Christmas with grandma because of this law? Where did common sense go?

I am very sad that we are becoming a country where the micro-managing of our everyday lives by government is becoming acceptable. Nebraska’s new attendance law has gone too far and usurped the natural rights of parents in our state. Please restore what we have lost.

Christine Bates
Millard School District
Omaha, Nebraska
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The Brandquist Family
In court for being tardy

My son, Andrew, had excessive “tardies” last year which converted to absences over time. Eight weeks of this was due to having mono (which was not diagnosed until December and was at the end of its duration). The school had said they were going to take off (or record differently) tardies during those months. I had numerous conversations/emails/meetings with the principal, asst principal, counselors, and the on-site representative in charge of sending cases to juvenile court.

On my own, I had reached out the school counselor and the school social worker, but I was told there was nothing they could do as Andrew did not fit the criteria for any additional services. I had also been in contact Boystown numerous times to discuss strategies at home to correct what had now become a habit of over-sleeping. We disciplined our son with grounding, losing all outside school privileges, removing the door of his bedroom, and taking his driving privileges away other than for school purposes – all to no avail.

I understand that kids like mine need help, that services outside my home might help him overcome his challenges, but how does ending up in court help? My school never offered me any help. At the mandatory meeting held in August, “truant” kids were brought forward one by one for review at which time some kids were given little cards that had to be signed by each teacher every day. I was simply told that they “did not know what to do” for Andrew and they would decide later. No later ever came. The next thing we knew, we were summoned to court.

I can understand getting juvenile court involved in a kids life when they are deliberately skipping school, leaving or not showing up the entire day, committing crimes or other problems, and being completely uncooperative with school authorities and their parents. But my son is a smart kid, in marching band and never in any kind of trouble at school. He is not a juvenile delinquent. While I understand his tardies are a problem, it is a problem I am actively working to solve with little help from my school. All in all, he ended the year with 23 total absences and passed the 11th grade.

At our first court hearing we sat patiently as it was explained to us that Andrew was not being charged with a crime. This was confusing, as we were given a detailed description of his rights and a lesson on what happens “if his case goes to trial”. For a person not being charged with a crime, it certainly felt like they were reading his rights and preparing him for “trial”. They asked our son some basic questions about the cause of his tardies but we, his mom and dad, were never asked questions. It was decided that our son should meet with a Probation officer. WHAT? I was floored! I thought this was not a criminal trial, why would he need probation to “help” with his habit?

My husband questioned them about the August meeting, and why we were never contacted. He was told that they were overwhelmed with cases and people were working nights and weekends with limited resources. NO KIDDING-just one more reason why this plan makes no sense. Even the judge admitted that there was no real process in place, especially for such cases like our son’s. I couldn’t help but think ---“So, why not dismiss the case?”

I was so frustrated that every time I asked for help, direction, or suggestions the response was “ there is nothing we can do”. This plan sits on a foundational idea that the courts are “problem solvers” but still they have no answers for us. I am appalled that they would decide on Probation for a kid who over-slept?? What a complete waste of time and taxpayers money.

When we went back to court I was so proud of my son! He represented himself very well. He confidently corrected the county attorney when he said he missed 53 days of school. Besides the tardies he only missed 6 full days of school. He made a point of his academic achievements, commented on his GPA, class rank, and told the court that he was only 3 credit hours from graduation. He told them that he holds down 2 jobs, is in the school varsity band, and holds a section leadership role in band. He said, "I think probation and random UA's which the county attorney is requesting is unreasonable".

The judge then made some very odd comments. She said my son must be very angry about being in court. She then began searching for some explanation for his good grades and other academic successes in spite of his habitual tardies. She postulated out loud that my son must be a really good test taker or his teachers must really like him for him to pull off good grades last year with ALL those absences. I couldn’t believe the arrogance.

They simply can't believe there are good students out there whose attendance record is less than exemplary. They can't think outside the box, and the courts have NO experience with the wide range of students that are now "truant" under the law, kids who would have never seen the inside of the court house before they changed the definition of truancy.

My son didn't let them go down that path. He simply smiled and said, "No, I'm not angry at all." The county attorney then took damaging information they had gathered at his probation meeting a few weeks prior and began to grill him. He simply answered the questions truthfully. I think they were simply frustrated that this 17 year old was not going to let them make him out to be something he simply is not. We were very pleased when his case was dropped. What a waste! My son got some kind of education out of it, but not the kind you’d hope for.

Melissa Oehm-Brandquist
Omaha Public Schools
Omaha, NE

The Buss Family
A Grandmother's Story

As a mother and grandmother I hope that my perspective will be respected by state lawmakers. I have read stories in the news and comments from state officials who emphasize that 20 days is a lot of missed school. They seem to be saying that no student should ever miss 20 days of school for any reason, and that if students miss that much school they must be “at-risk” and in need of state interventions.

First, I want to point out the obvious. A student who misses 20 days of school in one year is present in class 90% of the time. This is an ‘A’ in attendance. Good students have a wide range of attendance. For some children they will never be absent 20 days in one year. The Governor has publically stated that he never missed school as a kid, that a lot of absences for him would be no more than a couple. It is understandable that someone with the Governor’s attendance record may find it hard to be compassionate for kids who are absent more often, but it is not hard for even good students to have 10+ absences on a regular basis.

At the beginning of the 2010-2011 school year, our grandson who was in first grade was suffering from sinus headaches at least once a week to the point where he was forced to miss school because the infections made him ill. Our daughter took him to the doctor several times and was given antibiotics which would work for a short period of time and then the infection was back; in fact, it never really cleared up.

He missed approximately 5-10 days of school within the first two months of school. The doctors finally decided that surgery was required in order to clear up the infection. After the surgery, he had to be out of school for a week. So now we are looking at 10-15 days missing from school.

It is not at all unlikely that my innocent grandson will meet the twenty day threshold under the law and fall under the jurisdiction of the county attorney and fall into the supervision of state authorities. This is unacceptable! Neither the state nor the schools should have any authority to decide what is best for a sick child. That is a parent’s responsibility. The state of Nebraska is overstepping their boundaries with this law.

My grandson story is a perfect illustration of how a perfectly innocent child void of any wrong doing can easily reach the 20 day threshold. Though it was not the intent of the legislature to entangle sick kids with law enforcement, it is none the less what has occurred as county attorneys are required by law to review these cases and provide “oversight”. This makes the average law-abiding Nebraskan very nervous and rightly so.

Jean Buss
Lincoln Public Schools
Lincoln NE
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The Call Family
Nothing excessive about it

I have four children attending Millard Public Schools. I am concerned greatly about the implications of Nebraska’s school attendance law and the policies it has inspired. I recently received a letter from the Douglas County Attorney because of this law. All of my children are doing well in school and are actively participating in being good citizens in their classes. They are not behind in anyway.

My third grade daughter’s teacher has told me that she is a wonderful student that enriches the overall feeling in the classroom. My oldest son is being recognized as a Rotary Honor Roll student at the Qwest Center at the end of this month. Our second son was selected to participate in the Blair Honor Band. Our kindergartner is doing the normal things kindergartners do but and is trusted by her teacher to take other students to the office if they need assistance.

Of course, as a responsible parent who tries to teach my children to love school, it concerns me that I am being questioned about the decisions I am making regarding my children’s reasons for being absent. The reason for this year’s absences include the following: Our grandparents and cousins came to Omaha for a long weekend to have a family reunion in September after not seeing each other for a year and a half. I felt it was important for my children to spend time with their family. My older boys did not join us because the demand on them to miss school is heavier.

Another day, I took my daughter to her school field trip instead of going with her class because I was not allowed to bring her baby sister along. At the time, her baby sister was nursing and so I could not leave her with someone. Most parents go on this field trip and I thought it unreasonable that school policy should prevent me from going with my daughter just because I have a nursing baby. Even though, we attended an educational class at Vala’s, arrived there before her class and stayed later, and talked to her teacher during the day she was still marked absent.

In February, our great-grandmother passed away, and her funeral was in Idaho which meant that our children missed two and half days for that. Unfortunately, one of my kids got sick with the stomach flu the night we got home. In addition she had 5 sick days earlier in the year. There have been days, where I know that my kids are not feeling the best, but I have sent them anyway especially because I am concerned about the implications of the new school attendance law and will not risk my family becoming involved with the county attorney.

While I understand that the bill is written to help those who are truant, the net is being caste way too wide. The law defines my children as being “excessively absent”, but I don’t believe there is anything excessive about their attendance records. I believe that for a person to be truly well rounded, there are more experiences to be had than just what is going on in a classroom. Sickness is not something we can control completely. I want to be able to make good responsible decisions about our children without feeling that I am a bad parent for making that choice. I would love to take advantage of opportunities to send my children with their dad to work on “Take your Child to Work” day with about being worried that I will be reported to the District County Attorney.

Please understand that we are one of those Nebraskan families that are working hard for a bright future. I encourage you to amend the law and find a better way to help at risk kids.

The Call Family
Millard Public Schools
Omaha, Nebraska
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The Chambers Family
In bed sick at school

When our oldest daughter was 11 she starting having debilitating headaches and I took her to the doctor over and over again only to receive the same diagnosis, allergies that caused terrible sinus infections. Her allergies would lead to sinus problems that would in return cause horrific headaches and weakness. When she started to develop ear infections, we took her to see an ENT who was concerned. He said kids this age don't usually develop chronic ear infections. He ordered a CAT scan of her head and found what he said was the worst case he had ever seen on Nasal polyps. Surgery would need to be done immediately to remove them. After the surgery the doctor said he had stopped counting after 100 polyps. Recovery time took awhile but she was eventually back to school and feeling quite better.

Unfortunately, that didn't last long. After a month or so her allergies returned in full force as well as the sinus problems. Cystic fibrosis testing was done but did not provide us with any answers. We spent the next 2 years taking her specialist after specialist. We went to ENT's, Pulmonologist, Allergist, even chiropractors. As you can imagine our daughter missed school often during these years, but the Millard schools did a fantastic job of working with us. Our daughter did well in school and we were happy with the arrangements we had made for her.

School was one of her favorite things, she is involved in band, student council, numerous after school activities. When she was Healthy she was full of life throwing herself into any afterschool club she could. When she was sick she would lay in bed in a dark room all day sleeping battling her headaches. On April of 2010 we received a letter from the Sarpy county attorney saying we would need to appear in court regarding her absences.

Being caught up in the juvenile court system has been a nightmare for our family, especially for our beautiful sweet daughter. Our daughter has always been a happy, sweet and shy kid but a lot of fun. The day we sat with her court appointed attorney and were told that the judge had decided to put our daughter on probation was devastating. My little girl turned to me and began to cry. She said, “Mom, what did I do wrong!”

My daughter is a naturally obedient child. She wants to know that she is being good, doing the right thing. This process is breaking her. I have watched in horror as my daughter’s innocence and carefree nature has been stripped away. This has changed her personality. That they had made her feel like a criminal and she has begun to doubt herself wondering it maybe she was a bad kid.

She was interviewed by a probation officer to get “her side of things” and we were made to stay in the waiting room even at our protest. We found out later that our daughter was made to urinate in a cup for a drug test during the meeting. I was enraged! We weren't even told this was going to happen. I feel violated!

Some state officials have said that the schools hold most of the power, that upon their recommendation these cases are handled. I don’t believe them. My school has been nothing but concerned about what is happening to us. My principal has tried to protect us. In my experience there is nothing anyone can do once you fall into the system. It just has to play out and if your child continues to be absent it makes it harder to get out of the system.

I cannot prevent my daughter’s illnesses and I cannot cure them. In an attempt to keep my daughter from having continued attendance issues, my principal is having me send her to school sick and they are keeping her daughter in a sick room. When she is sick but has no fever she stays in her IEP's teacher's room. It is a smaller room that stays quiet most of the day. She works on her homework and takes little naps, she even eats lunch there. This way they can count her present, but she can rest. I am sick about it, why shouldn’t my sick daughter be able to be home with me in her own bed. What is wrong with this picture?

We have given up everything normal and natural about our lives, we have given up our privacy. We now send our daughter to school sick to be cared for by a school nurse instead of her stay-at-home mother. We are sharing our daughter’s complete medical history with any school or state official who wants to see it. I even had my school social worker come with me to one of my daughter’s doctor’s appointments in hopes that her testimony might help us.

It’s sickening to me that I feel compelled to do these things, but I just want this to end. I want my daughter to get back to the way she was before this awful law turned our lives upside down! I keep thinking that if I just cooperate they will let us go and leave us alone, but I don’t know anymore. I have very hateful feelings towards the people who wrote this law, and those who passed it, and especially those who continue to defend it.

I’ve heard several state officials and lawmakers refer to the law as a “work in progress”, and one senator said that though “he acknowledged there have been problems in a few cases” he believes the positive aspects of the law outweigh those. I literally want to cry. I can’t believe that they believe that my family is an acceptable casualty in their plans, that my innocent daughter is a guinea pig in their experiment and that doesn’t bother them.

There is nothing they can do now to give my daughters innocence back, to restore her carefree childhood! They have done their damage in my home and it is no comfort to me that my story may in some way spare others. I don’t mean to sound harsh, of course I would never wish this on anyone, and I hope that other children will not have to suffer as my little girl has, but the reality is they have injured my daughter and she is my primary concern.

The way I see it, some do-good government officials passed a law designed to take out of the hands of parents, principals, and even doctors the discretion over school attendance in an attempt to provide legal oversight in all cases in an attempt to “prevent” delinquent behavior among certain groups of children. In the process they have usurped that natural rights of parents, thrown innocent children into the juvenile justice system, and disrupted the healthy and happy childhoods of children like my daughter. Their error is intolerable and unforgivable.

Jennifer Chambers
Millard Public Schools
Omaha, NE
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The Cook Family
A Trip to Pearl Harbor: Learning outside the Classroom

In 1991, I was a high school freshman. That year, I deliberately missed 10 days of school for a cause other than illness. Under the new Nebraska truancy law, this absence would have been classified as an unexcused “family vacation.” My parents and I would have been dragged into the GOALS system to have our personal family choices analyzed by a government official.

Perhaps we wouldn’t have been prosecuted, or informed that we would be “monitored” by others with only our best interests at heart, but perhaps we would have been. In any case, living under the threat of such action is not consistent with living in a free society, and it also completely lacks common sense, as my story illustrates.

1991 was the year that marked the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Pearl Harbor survivors from all around the country were gathering in Hawaii to commemorate the event with many days’ worth of ceremonies and events. My Grandpa had been a boatswain’s mate on the USS St. Louis on that fateful day, so my family made plans to travel with him and my Grandma to Hawaii to be part of it all.

We spent a whole year saving money and planning our 10 days. We kids each took jobs - babysitting, paper routes, whatever we could get. We had to earn enough to pay half our airfare and all our spending cash. We mapped out our schedule and all the events and sites we would visit, packing every day with so much education; it was like months of reading books. We still give my mother a hard time about that fact that we spent ten days in Hawaii, and only three hours at the beach! At 14 years old, I thought that wasn’t quite fair!

So, what did we do on this unexcused family vacation?

We learned about the agricultural industry of our country’s island state with a visit to the Dole Pineapple Fields and Factory. We experienced the exotic botanical wealth of the islands and learned about part of the ancient Hawaiian lifestyle and culture of bravery as we watched cliff divers at Waimea Falls.

We spent an entire day at the incredible Polynesian Cultural Center, where we experienced Samoan, Tongan, Hawaiian, Fijian, Tahitian, and Maori culture first-hand, weaving our own palm leaf tiaras, watching hula dancers, musicians, and islanders who shimmied up a coconut tree bare-footed. We experienced the culinary traditions of the Hawaiian Islands as we ate a full luau meal, and then broadened our understanding of dance and the way it is used in different cultures as we watched a spectacular showcase of the cultural dances of the Pacific islands.

We experienced first-hand the ecology of a natural reef as we spent that notorious three hours of beach time snorkeling at Hanauma Bay. A visit to Sea Life Park gave me my first experience with dolphins, orcas and an array of other sea animals. We learned about nautical physics and experienced how generations past had traveled when we spent a couple of hours sailing on one of the oldest working wooden sailing ships in the world. We learned about aeronautic physics and topography in a glider that soared above the tree-laden cliffs that plunge to the sea along the coast of Oahu.

And then there was the historical education. Along with hundreds of Pearl Harbor survivors, we attended a ceremony on the bank of the Harbor itself, with the Arizona Memorial as backdrop, where the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Colin Powell, spoke about the meaning of what happened on December 7. We went and stood at that sacred memorial ourselves, learning through the unmistakable spirit of the place, what no textbook could teach.

On December 7, we boarded a bus at 5:00 a.m. to reach the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in time for the sunrise ceremony where President George Bush, the keynote dignitary and speaker, graciously thanked the veterans on behalf of a nation, and remembered all those veterans from throughout the Pacific theater who were buried there in that holy ground.

As we attended these ceremonies, we heard the veterans themselves talk about that day. Where else could you get so many first-hand stories of such a significant part of our nation’s history? Wouldn’t any teacher be pleased if their student could take part in such an opportunity? My teachers were pleased. They sent me off on my two-week absence with my homework, and had me tell about it when I returned.

Coincidentally, we couldn’t have planned this trip for the summer, because Pearl Harbor was bombed December 7, and the commemoration events fell around that day.

The Governor keeps saying that “kids can’t learn if they’re not in school.” But in my case – and I think he would agree that this is true not only for me, but for many other families like mine in countless variations of the same story – I couldn’t have learned those things if I had been in school.

Autumn Cook
Millard Public Schools
Formerly of Omaha, NE
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The Dingle Family
When school is the problem

I hope that my story will illustrate what is wrong with this law, and assuming that “attendance” issues are the fault of the family and not the school. My son is attending MSHS (Millard South High School). I'm a single mom whose son gets great grades, and stays out of trouble.

While at school another student burst my son’s eardrum in an irresponsible prank game called the “clap game”. Because of the incident he missed a few days of school. The school has done nothing about this "clap" game! It makes sense to me that his absence shouldn't count as “truant” days; after all, it happened on their watch!

I read a story recently about what causes truancy (or attendance issues) and the author said, "Most truancy programs -- both the innovative and the ordinary -- have two factors in common: They identify the family as the primary source of a student's truancy problem and operate on the assumption that the sole effective solution to truancy lies outside the school."

Our state’s plan to address school attendance makes the assumption that Nebraska's failing students, fail because they miss too much school and that their families are the primary cause of their "truancy". This story and other studies I have read contradict this assumption. According to a survey reported in Student Truancy, "students most often cited boredom and loss of interest in school, irrelevant courses, suspensions, problems with peers, and bad relationships with teachers as the major factors in their decision to skip school." Other studies indicate that habitual truants are struggling academically, do not have friends who attend school regularly, see no reason for attending school, and report feeling socially isolated in school. Most commonly, from the student's perspective, the immediate cause of truancy lies within the school.

I believe in the most “problem” areas of our city is far more likely that the school is the problem, the cause, of excessive absenteeism. I'm not saying that in some cases the family contributes, but there are many families who are stuck in failing schools because of circumstance and the fact that their kids haven't given up on the whole thing is largely because they have excellent parents who push them forward against extraordinary odds.

Despite the belief among most educators that family problems cause chronic truancy, the fact is that schools are responsible to provide a safe quality educational environment that motivates and engages the student, and the school can be expected to deal with many of the issues that cause truancy -- even in the face of indifferent or ineffective parenting.

This law just has this single mom running scared. I'm terrified. What if he gets pneumonia or injures himself? Then what? I'm so scared I'll lose my greatest gift! My son. I just don't understand. I'm a single mom doing her best! I have a wonderful son! Why should these kinds of absences count as "truant" behavior?

Liz Dingle
Millard Public Schools
Omaha, NE
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The Folchert Family
Local interpretation of the law

Our daughter is a Kindergarten student who has missed 5 days of school and according to our new school district policy she is defined as being “excessively absent”. The Millard school district rewrote their attendance policy as a result of the new school attendance law written in Lincoln in 2010 and expanded in 2011. As a result there is little distinction between excused and unexcused absences and a child is consider “excessively absent” when they have missed five days of school in one year regardless of the reason.

I have always informed the school of her absences and the reasons for those absences. Four absences were due to illness, 3 of which were consecutive days due to a very bad cold and cough. I did not take her to the doctor because there was nothing he could do - she just needed rest and fluids. The fifth absence was due to a visit to her grandparents in North Platte, who she does not often see.

When I received the "form" letter, there was a statement about "keeping the school informed" and I felt confused because I had done that every time. Initially I thought the school had made a mistake in thinking I hadn't been in communication with them, and then I realized it was a form letter. I can't totally recall the letter, but I thought there was something that implied medical absences might need to be verified by a doctor, which raised my level of concern, thinking I now had to pay for a doctor's visit for every illness, even a cold.

As I more closely followed this new law in an attempt to understand why it was written and passed, it was portrayed as a law designed to prevent “failure in school” and the problems that stem from that. The way I see it there are a number of factors that put a child at risk for failure in school and life, and attending school 98% of the time is simply not the most important factor.

School attendance is important and some kids miss far too much school, but missing between five and just over 20 absences is unlikely to derail the life success of most Nebraskan youth. Letters and notifications from the County Attorney are not going to solve this problem for chronic truants who are truly at risk, and is a condescending meddling annoyance to the majority of us.

The posture our school district has taken since the passage of the law has raise the level of concern for parents like me - but I'm not the parent the schools most need to reach. My daughter is a good student and I'm involved in her education. I take care to make sure that she attends school, is well rested and well nourished. I read to her every night. I inform the school when she won't be there.

I realize that legislators are likely to say this is the school districts fault and that the law does not require them to handle things this way, but when I’ve questioned our district about it they tell me that their actions are in direct response to the law and that they are just covering their basis so that if and when students are referred to the county attorney parents do not hold them responsible.

Shiloh Folchert
Millard Public Schools
Omaha, NE
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The Gdowski Story
The intended target

Written by: Stephanie Morgan, Nebraska Family Forum Moderator

We know that Nebraska’s new “truancy” law is making victims of ordinary kids and their families and that even kids with excused absences and good academic records are caught up in a net that is cast too wide. But what about kids who really struggle in school and have lost interest in their education? Is the law helping them? After all, they are the kids that law was intended to help; it was passed with the intent of saving these kids from academic failure, dropping out of school, and worse.

Melissa Gdowski shared the story of her daughter’s struggles with school attendance that ended this week when her 16 year old daughter dropped out of school to avoid any more dealings with truancy court. Melissa’s daughter was the quiet kid. She listened to teachers, followed the rules, and never had a detention. Her teachers loved her. Despite these indications of school success, she never really liked school.

Melissa was a stay-at-home mom until her husband was injured on the job. Then she had to take a full time job, working 70-80 hours per week to support her family. Her daughter was only five years old when hard times hit. When Melissa’s daughter was thirteen, her father died of cancer. Melissa sold everything--tractors, trucks, cattle, their dogs and cats-- and moved to town.

By the ninth grade her daughter wouldn’t go to school for weeks at a time. Melissa was diligent in helping her daughter to adjust to life and engage in school, she understood the tragedies her young daughter had suffered and had her in counseling continually after her dad died. Melissa tried everything to get her daughter to school. She enlisted friends and family to wake her up and take her to school. Melissa recalled her oldest son picking her daughter up and “carrying her to the car to go to school”. She even asked a school counselor to come to the house to take her to school.

Melissa felt she had exhausted all her options when last year the school hired a "teacher" who worked with the students who struggled to attend and their families. At first she was happy to work with the specialist. “It was a relief. I actually thought that she understood how hard I was trying to get her to go to school. I thought she saw how frustrated I was. I thought I was doing the right thing.” Melissa said. This is why she was shocked when she got a letter from the county attorney in the mail summoning her daughter to court. To add insult to injury, Melissa was shocked to find out that the school had reported to the county attorney that she was uncooperative, never sent notes, and was a negligent parent for not “making” her daughter go to school. The judge at least had some common sense and gave her a continuance telling her daughter, “Go to school, that’s all we want.”

That semester her daughter did so much better. She missed only 3 days! Melissa was so encouraged she said, “I was so happy and relieved. She was actually proud of herself.” At their next court date she took her daughter’s attendance record feeling hopeful that the county attorney would be as pleased as she was. Dismayed by what happened next, Melissa said, “The county attorney had a blow up.” The attorney scolded her saying, “Didn’t the judge tell you not to miss any days at all... So you are just blowing off the judge?” Melissa was shocked. Her daughter had gone from missing 40 days in 1st semester to 3 days 2nd semester and it didn’t satisfy the county attorney.

They held her daughter in contempt of court and the county attorney recommended juvenile detention. Melissa was horrified that her quiet, congenial girl who had never had a school detention was going to have to serve time in juvenile detention. She couldn’t believe they were going to put her daughter there, with kids who were real criminals, kids who had broken probation or were in there for drunk driving or worse.

Once again the juvenile judge utilized better judgment and ordered community service and a continuance, but unfortunately the whole experience was a huge blow to their confidence in the system and as the next court day approached fear took hold. Melissa’s daughter had missed some days and the thought of her daughter ending up in juvenile detention this go around was terrifying for both of them. Neither Melissa or her daughter were willing to test their luck a third time, and so with only 2 math classes left to graduate, her daughter left school for good.

“I cried for 2 days. This was not what I wanted for her. I am hoping she will go back to school someday.” Melissa said. “I so wanted her to graduate, but the pressure and stress of a possible truancy charge again, well that is what will keep her from going back.”

Douglas County Juvenile Court Judge, Liz Crnkovich, told the World Herald in February that “Confrontation doesn't translate into problem-solving and helping these kids change,” and yet Crnkovich has been a driving force behind the “confrontational” approach our state is taking to address truancy, juvenile delinquency, and crime. I agree with her statement, confrontation doesn’t help kids change, as is apparent in Melissa’s story, but there are certainly more innovative approaches to habitual truancy then the one she helped construct in our state.

Crnkovich and team modeled Nebraska’s truancy program after the Jefferson County Truancy Diversion Project in Kentucky. The “acclaimed” program used as a model for judicially driven “truancy diversion”, has hardly produced the success one would expect for a “model” approach. Since it began in 1997, Jefferson County attendance rates have only risen 1% and graduation rates actually dropped by 1%. Despite the program, Jefferson County continues to be #1 in juvenile crime – both violent and nonviolent. NAEP test results for Jefferson County students continue to be well below the national average. In 2009 23% of 8th graders were proficient in math and 26% proficient in reading.

Melissa’s story adds force to the argument that Nebraska is addressing school attendance from the wrong side of the equation. Our judicial approach assumes that family is the primary source of a student's attendance problem and operates on the assumption that the sole effective solution to truancy lies outside the school. It is based on this false assumption that State officials believe that providing a legal mechanism by which the state can “intervene” into the homes of students with attendance “problems”, they can “mitigate and leading to academic failure.

In reality when lawyers and judges scrutinize, monitor, and prosecute the families who struggle they do more harm than good. Father Steven Boes, of Boys Town, testified at the hearings of LB800 (the new truancy law) in 2010 and asked officials in the room to remember that, “there's always at least one person in a family that wants what is best for their children and is willing to ask for and receive the help they need to help their child.” He continued, “I'm asking you to join Boys Town in proclaiming that not only are there no bad boys as Father Flanagan taught, but there are no bad families.”

In Melissa’s case this was certainly true, she had done everything for her daughter that she could do on her end of the equation. She had her daughter in counseling to handle the hardships of her dad’s death, she followed the recommendations of doctors, and she sought help from her family, friends, and the school. In the end Melissa’s daughter was just not interested in school. Perhaps there was something more that could have been done on the school’s end of the equation. I wonder listening to her story if the education system had stifled her love of learning and failed to engage her interest.

Studies show that students who fail to attend school most often "cited boredom and loss of interest in school, and irrelevant courses as the major factors in their decision to stop attending." Most commonly, from the student's perspective, the immediate cause of "truancy" lies within the school. Despite the belief among most educators that family problems cause habitual truancy, in fact schools can deal with many of the issues that cause truancy -- even in the face of indifferent or ineffective parenting.

We will continue to fail Nebraska’s kids if we continue to focus our energies in the wrong direction. Even if the confrontational approach to school attendance resulted in perfect attendance for every student, it does nothing to address the quality of education that is delivered to our kids. Melissa’s daughter struggled with attendance primarily because of lack of interest and motivation. Her mother said, “She always hated school”. So the real question is, how do you “make” a kid love school? It won’t happen by force, you can’t force a student to love school in a court room. There is some hope that you can lead, inspire, and motivate them in the school room. What Nebraska needs is true education reform and a lot of creativity and innovation in the classroom. It’s time to stop forcing attendance and instead inspire it.
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The Gross Family
The impact on Special Ed

As a parent, I claim the right to participate and manage the education of my children, but since moving to Nebraska this power has been seriously limited, if not non-existent.

I am the mother of two dyslexic children, both with health issues, one of them serious. In my case, I tangled with my principal as I advocated for my dyslexic son's legal rights in his educational placement. In doing so, I was labeled as an uncooperative parent and opened myself up to Nebraska's new invasive "truancy" law.

What may appear to be my non-compliance or defiance with a school district is merely my advocacy to provide my child the Free and Appropriate Education to which he is entitled under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). My professional training and experience in special education gives me a unique perspective, and the reality is that the school district has been negligent in abiding by the laws that govern special education and quick to apply the "truancy" law as a hammer to compel cooperation when it suits them. We have felt threatened by Elkhorn Public Schools, and even Nebraska law enforcement because of their actions, but we will defend our family. We will advocate for our Rights.

Our story begins when, to be closer to family and have a more positive educational experience for our entire family, we moved to a small Nebraska town from Texas. Two years later, we moved to Omaha to enroll in Elkhorn Public Schools (EPS). Elkhorn came highly recommended for our two special education kids. While we looked for a house in the Elkhorn district, our son was enrolled as a Temporary Non-Resident student at Elkhorn South High School. Our younger child, on the other hand, was enrolled in a private school.

At our first meeting in August to discuss our son's education plan, we requested the reading program which had been recommended in the recently performed independent evaluation, with a history of scientific research in dyslexia remediation. We also discussed our son's verification of "Other Health Impaired" due to chronic illnesses. Independent experts in the field had informed us of the need to have "excessive absences" as an accommodation in his Individualized Education Plan (IEP), as well as establish an Individualized Health Plan. EPS was provided copies of both at the time of enrollment with physician signatures.

Being a parent who is also a professional with almost 30 years of experience, many of those years in the field of Special Education, as well as possessing a Master's degree as a Dyslexia Specialist, I sought an "Independent Educational Evaluation" (IEE) by a Pediatric Neuropsychologist. We based our request for our son's educational placement with Elkhorn South on the IEE. As parents, however, we also based it on an extensive evaluation from Texas Scottish Rite Center for Dyslexia (same recommendation), evaluations from previous Pediatric Neuropsychologists (same recommendation), tests, public school evaluations, homework, class work, readability of texts, etc. Our request was based on our years of experience in public and private schools with our son, scholarly research, reading programs which have worked and haven't worked, and information provided from EPS, including progress our son has and hasn't made.

To our knowledge, EPS based their decision on the fact they only offer one type of reading program, which, by the way, is absent of important components necessary for students with dyslexia. These components cannot be implemented by untrained staff as "strategies," nor can this type of programming be performed by district staff merely by reading a manual.

I was informed a week or so later that the district had no intention of providing the reading service we requested and agreed upon in our meeting. We removed our son from the district's reading program, which had been a compromise we reached to obtain the recommended services from the IEE. The district's program does not meet his particular needs, and without meeting our sons identified needs, his overall reading progress will reach a ceiling and he will not reach his literacy potential. The district responded by subdividing another class of his into a smaller class for "reading fluency and comprehension." This class was supervised by a Para-professional who "worked in the office," and contained four other students who it seemed, were low functioning. This class met in a completely separate room with a separate "teacher". We immediately found this placement not only inappropriate, but harmful to our child.

I requested information from the principal, but it was not forthcoming. As parents, we decided until we received it, it was in the best interest of our son to keep him out of the class that day. We had already begun getting him the reading remediation the district had refused and the time would be well spent. Hopefully the requested information would be obtained, or other options could be explored.

Instead, I was threatened with truancy.

As parents, with no educational options or alternatives offered, it's difficult to view any email in which a principal responds by saying "attendance is non-negotiable," and using the word "truancy," as anything but a threat. EPS claims they were just "informing" us about the "truancy law." To even offer "information" on truancy in a situation where it is presented as the only alternative to a problematic situation is in and of itself a threat.

What followed next is almost unspeakable. Within 12 hours of being threatened by the ESHS principal with "truancy" prosecution, I received a phone call from the Assistant Superintendent at EPS telling me our youngest child, who had never been enrolled in the Elkhorn district and was attending a private school, was truant.

That's right. My child attending a NDE accredited private school was truant.

Despite the fact that my youngest child had been in school the entire time, Steve Baker and his staff made a referral to the Douglas County District Attorney's office for truancy against my youngest child who was neither living in his district nor had ever been enrolled in any of his schools. The referral went through County Attorney's Office and on to Child Protective Services.

I grew up in Nebraska. I brought my children back because we thought the Midwest values of family and freedom still existed. We thought coming home to Nebraska would be the best thing for our kids. We believed when we were told that Elkhorn schools would reflect those values in their professional ethics and values, and model those for our children. After all, this is where we learned them.

But I guess we were wrong.

Aside from the disappointment of not finding the positive educational experience and community for which we had prayed, we find a truancy law that not only violates district policy, but State and Federal regulations for students in Special Education. There isn't even an appeal process before a referral is made to the County Attorney for Special Ed students. It is a violation of a student's Civil Rights under the Federal Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA). Try to find a Special Ed attorney in Nebraska who doesn't work for a school district though.

As a parent of 2 dyslexic children with serious health issues, and a cancer survivor myself, I have fought to live, I have fought to keep my children alive, and I have had to fight to obtain an education for them. Because of that, my relationship with my children is sacred and hallowed ground. The law is diminished by the inappropriate application of the law by individuals in positions of power and authority. To go after my children because of a problem they have with me is outrageous, but that is the abuse this law allows.

Carrie Gross
Elkhorn Public Schools
Elkhorn, NE
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The Hall Family
Branded an unfit parent

Written by: Stephanie Morgan, Nebraska Family Forum Moderator

Lucy Hall, whose daughter attends Clark Middle School in Lincoln, entered a truancy diversion program under threat of prosecution. She has lived the worst nightmare of every parent. She has been treated as an unfit parent because her honor roll student suffers from severe fall allergies that cause her to miss school often during that season. Under threat from a judge that her child could be removed from her home, she has been required to entertain a social worker from Omni Behavioral Health weekly – in her home – among other demeaning, court-mandated interventions to “rehabilitate” her daughter, who is loved by her teachers and peers and has not had a behavioral issue at school in her life.

She was told the program would end at the conclusion of the school year but instead required she meet throughout the summer with other “truant” teens, some of which are truly troubled youth, in order that she develop bonds with other students who suffer from excessive absenteeism.

The state mandated interventions, the condescending attitudes of the social workers, lawyers, and judges, and the humiliation her daughter has suffered are intolerable. Lucy sought legal counsel because of the threatening tactics of those tasked with “helping” her daughter to recover from her excessive absenteeism. After going public with her story, which took a great deal of courage, she felt even more vulnerable and her family began discussing a move back to Missouri in order to protect themselves and their daughter.

One day in the middle of this nightmare, I inquired after her well being and received these emotional words from this discouraged mother, “I have been in a sort of fog the past few days. My mind has just been swimming with so many things to say that I don’t know how to begin! I am angry.....I am sad.....I am heartbroken and really very beaten down at this point. I am discouraged at how very few people know about what is going on or even care about it…It saddens me how few are interested in standing up for what is right.”

In the end, the Hall family decided to see it through and tolerate the “truancy diversion” program. In order to be released from the program and to ensure that they never again fall into the system, they have been sending their daughter to school with migraines. It is difficult for their daughter to function at school when she is sick but she is fully aware of the alternative and will do just about anything to avoid it. She continues to get good grades and hopes to be able to finish high school without incident.
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The Holmes Family
No room for excellence

My daughter, Grace, attended Millard North High School when she was in 9th grade. She was a 4.0 student, a member of the Nebraska Olympic Development Program (she played soccer), and selected as one of the top 100 players in the country at 14. She traveled with her regional Olympic Development team to Costa Rica, Holland and attended several national events in the states.

All these events meant absences from school. She continued to maintain a 4.0 average through the entire academic year. Her Honors English teacher at Millard North threatened to fail her due to absences. At the time she had a 98% in the class.

Her absences were due to her pursuit of excellence in her sport and her efforts to represent Nebraska in the US and Internationally. For this her school rewarded her by threatening to fail her under a district policy that makes it possible for the school district to place any student in “failing status” when they accrue six non-school related absences in one semester. She was constantly hassled by her teachers and school administrators despite her perfect GPA.

I went round and round with the Millard administrators. The Superintendent threatened to report me and our daughter to the Douglas County Attorney’s office due to the number of absences. I reiterate, she was a straight 'A' student enrolled in honors classes and the IB program and their behavior was asinine.

At the end of her 9th grade school year, I said enough and enrolled her in a more cooperative school district. That was the end of her academic career at Millard North. Nebraska’s new attendance law would certainly have landed our daughter in court and the risks to our family would have put her athletic career in jeopardy. Punitive approaches to school attendance do not support exceptional children such as my daughter and send a clear message that NO Olympic level athletes will graduate from Nebraska public schools. The law has made the Millard school district even more rigid in their approach to individual family situations. They now do these things with the full backing of the state legislature and the Governor.

Laura McCormick Holmes
Millard Public Schools
Omaha, NE
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The Horton Family
Best case for limited government

My daughter Hailey has had health issues for most of her life. When she was young, she would get recurrent bouts of severe tonsillitis and strep throat. Any parent who has had a child with a severe case of strep knows that it can be a protracted illness one time her tonsils were so swollen they were closing off her air way in her throat and we had to take her to the emergency room.

Her tonsils were finally removed when an excellent ENT physician and we were hopeful that this would also result in less bouts of illness. Unfortunately, it was not the end of her struggle. When Hailey started 5th grade she started to frequently suffer from sinus and upper respiratory infections combined with sever debilitating headaches. We worked with the building principal of the Elkhorn elementary school and she was able to keep up with her school work and maintain excellent grades.

Our battle at the time was with the medical community. They couldn’t find a cause for her illness and their suspicion began to fall on us. I cannot even begin to explain how it feels to have an ill child, one you can’t seem to do anything to help, and then to be confronted with the implication that you are somehow abusing your child. The “please wait out here Mr. Horton, we would like to talk to Hailey alone” statement still burns to this day.

In 6th grade Hailey was hospitalized after a severe upper respiratory infection turned into a nasty case of pneumonia. It was during this stay, purely by chance, she was evaluated by a pediatric infectious disease doctor from Children’s hospital that just happened to be on the floor for another patient. Within 20 minutes of talking to us they were convinced that our daughter had an immunological issue.

This was subsequently confirmed with simple blood tests. We were relieved that we knew what was causing Hailey’s illnesses, but were heartbroken to hear that it was chronic and that there are no treatment options for her. I have heard the lines “…should be able to live a relatively normal life” in movies and television shows, but I can tell you that they really are not comforting words. No parent has aspirations of a “relatively normal life” for their children. They want their children to live extraordinary lives.

Hailey’s immune deficiency causes severe and persistent illness and requires prolonged regimens of antibiotics to help fight the infections that can last well over a month and a half when the normal regimen is 3 days to two weeks. Even after completing these, she is often not noticeably better. It is the migraine like headaches that are the most debilitating. Light, sound, and movement can bring about such pain that it causes her to be ill, or nearly pass out.

When Hailey moving into junior high, where the course work would be far more demanding, we were concerned with how her health issues would affect her school work. We worked with the Elkhorn Ridge Middle school staff and Hailey was accepted to the school’s Special Education department under what is called a 504 (other medical reasons) placement. This was done expressly to deal with potential “truancy” issues. 7th grade went by pretty much normally for Hailey with her missing well over 30 days. Hailey completed 7th grade with A’s and B’s as she always does and we looked forward to 8th grade.

When Hailey started high school she had a placement review for her special education plan. We were very satisfied with the arrangements that were put in place for her. They would work with us in any way they could, and we were to communicate every absence and keep them apprised of her overall health issues. This was done and there were no issues at all. The school modified her schedule to alternating days to assist her in staying caught up, worked with us when she was hospitalized late in December for a few days. The school year ended with Hailey getting her usual good grades.

Who would have guessed that 2010 would become such a dramatic year in our lives.

Things proceeded as they had the year before. Everything seemed in order and was going along fine. I called every day that Hailey was out ill or that I was picking her up early because she wasn’t able to finish the day. I assumed everything would be as smooth as the previous year. It was this assumption that everything was OK that made my reaction to the letter that we were being turned over to the County Attorney so demonstrative.

I was incensed that the school would do this. We had done everything we were supposed to do and now they were turning us over to the authorities?! I fired off a very heated email to the building principal and it was his calm response that set me on the correct path in fighting this legislation. He informed me, and provided the actual verbiage from the bill, that the school’s hands were tied.

The language of the legislation made no provision for excused absences. He explained that no health issue was exempted from this legislation. Not even a student battling terminal cancer would be exempted. My level of frustration, anger, disillusionment, and sorrow for families facing far worse than us, was indescribable.

It was then I realized that my fight wasn’t with the school, but with the County attorney’s office. I contacted the news media. I told them about this upcoming mass truancy meeting that was being held at the county court house, my daughter’s story, and my belief that this law was absolute government over-reach into the area of parent’s rights. I initially was only contacted by Jon Athens, a news reporter for KPTM television (local fox affiliate). It was his story on Hailey’s situation that brought the new truancy law to the public’s attention.

On the day of the hearing, I and Hailey were at the court house prepared with our stack of medical documentation to present our arguments to the county attorney. We were interviewed again by Mr. Athens and two other local television stations. We were nervously optimistic, if not frustrated by having to be there. What we experienced in the jury assembly room that afternoon, was the best case for limited government I have ever witnessed. My daughter was so disgusted that she wanted to storm out on several occasions.

While the 100 or so families were waiting for the proceedings to begin, we were provided a very juvenile and condescending civics lesson by Judge Elizabeth Crnkovich. A civics lesson where she asked the assembly if we knew what the separation of powers was and if we could name the three branches of government. She proceeded to explain as if we were 6 years old what compulsory education was and how important education is for every individual and society as a whole.

She proceeded to introduce the assembled team. There was the county attorney supervising the proceeding, a representative from OPS, a person from Child Protective Services, a translator for Spanish speakers, and a volunteer from Douglas County Legal Aid Society. The last being there just in case anyone felt that they needed legal representation. I was most puzzled by this person’s presence, but it soon became clear. Judge Crnkovich’s condescension and my growing sense of unease aside, what was most chilling was when the county attorney in charge of the proceedings explained how the process would work.

The children were broken up into groups based on the reasoning for the absences provided by the schools. Each group would receive a public explanation of the actions the county attorney’s office would take in our case. The parents would then be asked to sign paperwork accepting the county attorney’s recommendations. She stated that we didn’t have to agree with the recommendations, but if we didn't the county attorney’s office would be free to take further actions.

While I was mentally coming to grips with the true meaning of this, Judge Crnkovich proceeded to explain what these further actions would be. We were told that the county attorney’s office would be free to pursue additional legal action that could extend as far as the removal of our children from our home. Isn’t this an example of the coercive methods of totalitarian states? This explained why the public defender was there!

My next shock occurred when 12 names were called and the group was assembled at the front of the room. This group was asked to sign a release allowing for an immediate onsite drug test. If they refused, they would be detained by local members of law enforcement while their disposition could be arranged. I sat there with my daughter dumbstruck. I thought to myself, …sure come to court to explain why your son or daughter is absent, oh and by the way sir or maam, we believe your child is on drugs and we demand that you give up your personal liberties or face immediate criminal proceedings! I really started to wonder about this proceeding. I even mentioned to Mr. Athens who was observing for his story that I am starting to wonder if I should have brought an attorney.

The next group was around 25-30 OPS students who were being recommended for diversion placement. The details of the diversion plan were not expressed to the whole group. But I sat in growing dismay as that group was escorted out of the room with the OPS representative.

While this was going on, Mr. Athens took the opportunity to ask Judge Crnkovish some questions he had about Hailey’s case. It was obvious by the Judge's response that she was very aggravated. When asked if she thought this particular piece of legislation had gone too far by entangling families like ours, her reply was that it wasn’t her place to comment on the legislation. Though she defended the intent by saying that truancy is a real problem and there are parents out there that will allow their children to miss school for no good reason. It took a great degree of self control not to earn myself a contempt citation and to keep my daughter from saying something we both would regret! Before the discussion could continue, Hailey’s name was called.

We went to the front of the room and I placed my sizable pile of medical records on the ledge between the panel and us. We were told that the county attorney’s office was aware of Hailey’s health issues as the cause of her absences and that we should not be called back for further action. Just as I started to sigh in relief, the following was stated, “We will continue to monitor her, however”. I was yet again dumbfounded! What is there to monitor I thought. She has a chronic illness! With as much control as I could muster, I asked in a clipped voice, “And what happens WHEN she is sick again?” The attorney replied, “We will make that assessment when it happens”.

I stood there for a few moments considering my options when the words of Judge Crnkovich came back to me, “…up to and including the removal of the child from the home.” I reluctantly signed the paper picked up the pile of medical records that I wasn’t allowed to present and escorted my daughter out of the room. We expressed dissatisfaction to the news media and left the building. As we were walking back to the car, my daughter broke down and screamed, “Just take me out of school and home school me! I am so done with this!” She then perceptively asked me, “We will have to deal with this next year won’t we?” Unfortunately, the answer appears to be yes.

The next turn in this story occurred when we heard about LB 463 which would expand the truancy law making it tougher and providing significant resources to the county attorney's office to enforce the law. The new additions to the law mandated that the school districts of the learning community write a plan in partnership with the county attorney's office for how to deal with students like Hailey. I was asked by the media if I was hopeful that this would take care of the issue for Hailey and I prophetically said that I unfortunately did not have much hope that this plan would provide any protection for my family.

Last month I watched with doubt when the Governor, Senator Ashford, Dr. Breed, and the impacted superintendents had their press conference. I still hear the words, “common sense will prevail”. The following day, I contacted my daughter’s building principle to get specifics on the school district's plan for kids like Hailey. I was told that the procedures wouldn’t be any different this year than last. Reports to the authorities would go out at 10 and 20 days respectively, per the law. The school would include their recommendations, just like last year.

I was told that the difference would be that the school would intervene earlier to work on ways to get the students in the classroom. They would be asking my for permission to contact my daughter’s health care providers directly in order to determine what they could do to assist the child in getting back to the classroom. I sadly, but politely informed the principal that it looks like my fight isn’t over yet.

So far this year, Hailey has already missed one day of school. In fact, she became ill before the school year started and was seen prior to the first day of school by one of her doctors so I could start building my documentation. Since then, she has been seen a total of 3 different times, by three doctors, had numerous blood work and tests done, all while continuing to go to school sick because of this law that was designed to address the issue of truancy.

In addition to this, not only is my daughter going to school ill, but other parents are doing the same. This poses a very difficult situation for my daughter who is unable to fight off whatever illness that her school mates are spreading around. Although they may get better in a few days, it takes Hailey weeks or months.

Webster’s online dictionary defines Truant:

Tru·ant

Noun
1.A student who stays away from school without permission.

Adjective

3.Absent from school without permission

Neither of these definitions applies to my daughter nor many of the children caught up in this legislation and yet they are being called "truant". I implore the state legislature, the various county attorney’s offices, the department of child protective services, the juvenile courts, Governor Heineman, and every parent of school age students, please join me in recognizing that there is an important distinction between excused and unexcused absences that protects families like mine from unwarranted state supervision and scrutiny.

If lawmakers restore the important distinction between excused and unexcused absences students like my daughter Hailey will be protected by her school administrators who are fully aware of her case and have the documentation of her health condition. There is no need for our family to receive further investigation by law enforcement.

Mike Horton
Elkhorn Public Schools
Elkhorn, NE
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The House Family
No leeway under the law

My daughter is in 4th grade attending a fantastic Millard Public School. She is getting a quality education despite her struggles with ADHD. Nebraska’s school attendance law has some unique concerns for my family. I know that it is important to send my child to school. However, there are times when my husband is gone for long periods of time and over holidays like Thanksgiving. Sometimes I allow my daughter to stay home with her dad because these days are cherished family times.

These days are rare, but there is practically no leeway for choices like this under the new law. I now fear legal actions when I make this choices or any other choice like planned absences for family travel and special events. I am honest law abiding mother who makes decisions that are in the best interest of my child and I believe this law oversteps my rights as a parent.

The intentions of the law – to improve school attendance and reach out to the at-risk children – are respectable, however the law goes too far and essentially eliminates parental authority of hardworking honest parents doing their very best to give their children what they need. Parents do need to be responsible and get their children to school, yet it is still the responsibility of the parents to keep their children out of school when necessary and when it benefits their education as a whole person. I feel that the truancy laws need to remain a case by case scenario. Not every child who misses 10 or even 20 days is truant from school. Truancy needs to be handle one case at a time. I want to keep my freedoms to use my parental authority.

BilliJo House
Millard School District
Omaha, Nebraska
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The Jones Family
A cattle drive, when you need a lasso

My daughter, who is an ‘A’ student, just had a Petition filed against her by the Sarpy County Attorney for missing 5 days this year (after missing 20 last year). Now I have to take her to court next month, which means more school missed for her and work for me. Doesn't that defeat the purpose?

I’m sure that my frustration is not unique. The new law is like using having a cattle drive to catch a couple cows when all you really need is a lasso. This is what happens when you task local and state authorities with doing the job of parents, which is making everyday judgments about what constitutes a legitimate absence.

Thousands are now gathered into the system and sorted through the courts. Court appointed attorneys are swamped, even more than usual, which makes them pretty useless. A friend of mine has on her 6th court date, their public defender has done nothing, and they have spent countless hours and money compiling all their records and information to defend themselves.

This school attendance law is absolutely ridiculous! That is the only way to describe it. There has to be a better way to reach children who are truly truant!

Dawn Renard Jones
Papillion School District
Papillion, NE
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The Lampman Family
On deaths door is no excuse

Written by: Stephanie Morgan, Nebraska Family Forum Moderator

Sometimes in life there are things that lead to school absences that are unrelated to a childhood illness, a routine long weekend, or a common personal day. No law can write an exception for every case, which is why it is a bad policy to move decisions related to school attendance from parents and principals to lawyers and judges. This next story is one of those cases that should never see an attorney’s desk. It is so gut-wrenching that when it first came to my attention, I made the decision not to request any more of this family than was absolutely necessary to make an important point. I have not asked them to go public out of respect for the very difficult situation they find themselves in. Here is the Lampman family story in the words of the mother:

My name is Renee Lampman I have stage 4 lung cancer. I was diagnosed in September and we felt it was important to take the kids to Disney since I was given a short time to live. We could not take them over fall break because it conflicted with my chemo. We took them for 4 school days and I thought they were excused. Then my 7 year old Ryan, who is in 1st grade and does not even receive “grades” just S or NS, has had the flu multiple times this winter. One time he coughed until he vomited for three days. Another time he had a fever for three days.

We got a letter recently that he can’t miss any more days (he is at 10) without having a doctor’s note to reenter school. Well I refuse to get such a note. My children are on a health care policy with my husband that is not even close to the deductable to have these visits covered by insurance. I have started sending him sick if needed and will only let him be sent home by the nurse’s decision. I refuse to pay to get a doctor’s note. It is costly and insulting.

I should be trusted to know if my child is sick. Unless he is failing I should not have to justify his absences. As you can imagine I have enough stress with terminal cancer, 4 children and a full time job. This policy causes problems for many to police a few. Enough already!

The Lampman Family
Omaha Public Schools
Omaha, NE
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The Lau Family
A waste of tax payer dollars

This truancy bill, as it is written, is a huge waste of money that could be going to educate our kids! I have 4 children in Millard Schools. Each of my children are straight A students (except for an occasional B). They have each received at least 2 letters about attendance. Just for my family that is 8 letters. I calculated a estimated cost per letter at $4-8 dollars when you include printing, mailing, and personnel costs. If each student in the district receives just one letter a year the district is spending 220K on the low end every year for just this one part of the plan.

The school districts insist that the letters are meant to “cover their basis” and “inform parents”, but they play another role in the plan to “improve attendance”. Truancy programs across the nation who used regular letters to parents found that the letters were by themselves effective in increasing attendance rates. There is one simple reason for this affect, the letters intimidate parents like me, and they warn parents not to miss anymore school or face the county attorney. It makes ordinary parents feel like they’ve done something wrong, like they’re on the naughty list. These letters are a crucial first step to shifting our paradigm and changing the culture of parenting and the traditional relationship between schools and parents. Why should I feel like a bad parent for keeping my children home when they are sick, for doctor appointments, or family time (occasionally)?

The costs of this law escalate further when you add in the personal time spend filling out assessment forms for the GOALS initiative in the Learning Community, increased burdens on school social workers and school attendance personnel. The Omaha Learning Community has already diverted 340K to the Douglas County Attorney’s office to hire attorneys and other personnel to handle the skyrocketing of “truancy cases”. The county attorney handled 250 truancy cases in 2009 to 3400 cases in 2010. This type of increase does not come without a substantial price tag!

In a World Herald article county attorney’s said “Oversight of all cases is needed to verify that students who are reported sick were actually ill and to ensure that children are not missing school for inappropriate reasons. That oversight might mean some involvement with the legal system.” Translation: parents lie and cannot be trusted therefore the government must “ensure” that reasons for missing school are legitimate.

Writers and proponents of this law have stated that the intended target of the law is “at-risk” youth but I wonder with this type of broad oversight in all cases whether the needs of these children are being met. Are these children coming to school more or getting the help they and their families need? It seems a worthy concern to help a certain group of students, but the law is poorly written and affects many students who are not at risk, and it costs a great deal of money that could be spent on truly "at-risk students."

Tiffany Lau
Millard Public Schools
Omaha, NE
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The Magee Family
Law thwarts success in life

Hi, my name is Sue Magee and I have 4 kids, 3 of whom have graduated from Millard South High School, and one who is currently a student there. I, too, have tremendous concerns about the impact of Nebraska’s school attendance law on families in Nebraska. My 3 oldest kids would have all been classified as "at risk" under these laws, so here are their stories:

With 6 people in our family, we weren't lucky enough to escape passing illnesses around to one another, so all of my kids missed more school than most just because of colds, coughs, sore throats, stomach viruses, etc. Despite this my children were good students. My daughter was an excellent student. She graduated in the top 10 of her class of 500, was on superior honor role all 4 years, took numerous AP classes, was named the top vocal music student her senior year, and received various other honors and awards. She went on to college and to graduate school, and is currently working as a school psychologist.

While she was in middle school, she was given the opportunity to travel to Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji with her grandparents. The trip was planned for her to go over Christmas vacation, but, because it was a 3-week tour, she ended up missing a week of school. We, as her parents, knew that she was a good enough student that she would be conscientious about making up the class work she missed, so we made the decision to allow her to go on the trip. It was an incredible learning experience, and it instilled in her a love of travel and exploring other cultures. She has since travelled to South Africa, Japan, the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, numerous countries in Western Europe and even got a summer job in London while she was in college. The trip to Australia put her over 10 days of absences. If Nebraska school attendance law and the GOAL initiative had been in effect then she would have been labeled "at risk" and we would have been dealing with state authorities. What an unnecessary stress that would have been on our family, and what a waste of everyone's time turning her over to juvenile justice.

Then when my daughter went on to high school, she sang for the Bel Canto choir, which was the top children’s choir in the state of Nebraska. The choir director was Z. Randall Stroope (the composer Millard commissioned to write the song in tribute to Vicki Kaspar.) This choir was invited to sing at Regional and National Choir Directors Conventions, an honor reserved for only a select few children’s choirs in the country. So several times during the school year, my daughter would miss school to travel with Dr. Stroope and the choir to Denver, Chicago, Minneapolis, Phoenix, and various other locations throughout the country.

We, as her parents, knew she was very capable of making up the work she missed, so we encouraged her to go on these trips. We wanted her to have the performing experience, and the experience of working under an internationally recognized composer/choir director. These trips with the choir put her over 10 days of absences that year and with some sick days she would have been near the 20 day threshold. What a horrible position to put families in, choosing between risking entanglement with law enforcement and passing on a once in a life time opportunity. My daughter would tell you that being a part of that choir had the biggest impact on her work ethic and desire to strive for perfection than any other thing in her life.

My son did not excel at academics like his sister, but he was blessed with athletic ability. He started running in 5th grade, and joined the Omaha Racers Running Club. In addition to competing on his middle school and high school track and cross-country teams, he competed with the Racers in the Jr. Olympic events. After several years of dedicated hard work and training, he was able to qualify to compete in the Jr. Olympic Regionals for cross country, and at those meets, he qualified to go to the Jr. Olympic Nationals. So 2 different years we had him miss school to go to places like Madison, WI, Minneapolis, MN, and Providence, RI to be one of the runners representing the state of Nebraska in the Jr. Olympics. Should we have denied our son these opportunities just because he wasn’t a natural student? Would skipping these events have made him a better student?

We, as his parents, wanted him to have the opportunities to compete on a regional and national level, and we helped him to make up the work he had missed. When he did the Jr. Olympic Nationals in Rhode Island, we took 2 extra days and drove to Boston, where we hired a retired history teacher to take us on a historical tour of the Boston area, and my son was able to see the places he had been reading about at school as they studied the Revolutionary War. He missed more than 10 days of school those 2 years, but those experiences had a big impact on the course his life would take. After high school, he moved to Colorado to work with a triathlon coach, and after a couple of years of training and competing in triathlons, he was invited to join the USA Team at the World Competition in Budapest, Hungary. He is currently working with a coach in Boulder, CO, concentrating on competitive cycling, and will most likely become a professional cyclist in the near future.

My children would not be the people they are today if we had had to parent under this invasive law. I am afraid that this law will have generational impacts upon the family culture of our state. What a shame it would have been if we had felt that, due to a law such as this, we could not let my son miss school, for what turned out to be some of the most important experiences of his life.

Sue Magee
Millard Public Schools
Papillion, NE
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The Meyers Family
The principal decides

Under Nebraska’s school attendance law children have been pressured to enter diversion programs at the recommendation of school administrators under threat of legal action. These kids and their parents have been made to feel like delinquents and criminals, but Senator Ashford, the author of the law, continues to assert that “no kids with excused absences will be prosecuted”. Is this supposed to be comforting? Should good people doing their best for their families feel relieved that their child has simply been labeled a delinquent and been diverted into a “truancy program” instead of be prosecuted?

When my daughter was turned in by her principal to the county attorney for “truancy” despite documented illness I made a decision not to cooperate with “truancy diversion”. My daughter, Beth missed 21 days of school this year, the result of an unusual number of illnesses among which were influenza A, tonsillitis, strep throat, and a concussion. 19 of those 21 absences were covered by doctor’s note. She is not a “truant” and we have done nothing wrong!

I made sure that every sick day was documented by a doctor and in the end the principal decided it was not “legitimate”. So much good that did! If I can’t decide if my child is too sick to go to school – and now the Doctor can’t – who can?! Her “excused absences” meant nothing when my principal recommended to the court they pursue my family. My principal is now the parent and doctor. That may sound crazy and hard to believe but even the county attorney told me the principal is the one who decided, and that there is no way to avoid going to court. Unfortunately, my daughter is now paying the price, probably because I confronted the Principal and attendance officer at the beginning of the year. I feel that I have been singled out as a trouble-maker when I have only tried to protect my child.

I really thought I had prepared myself for the teenage years, but I would have never guessed my child would be put on probation for being sick. This is taking a toll on our family. All these court dates are not good for a child who has done nothing wrong, or for that matter any kid!! I haven't even asked her what she thinks of all of this. What would I say about our justice system; at this point the whole thing is insane."

Meyer Family
Lincoln Public Schools
Lincoln, NE
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The Morgan Family
God, Family, Country…and then everything else

In a meeting I had with Superintendent Lutz (Millard School Superintendent), he told me that when he was a kid school was the first priority, that a family vacation was never more important than school because his parents knew “school comes first!” I said, “When I was a kid it was God, Family, Country… and then everything else.” For my family that worked, we didn’t throw off our education. In fact, education was always emphasized in my home growing up, but we understood that it was family first and there were times in life when family trumped school.

My husband and I have from time to time removed our son from school for reasons other than illness, but because of the value we place on education we have always calculated his absences to have the least educational impact. Our son is responsible for catching up on work missed and we see that he keeps up on his school work when he is away sick. He is an excellent student who is well loved by his teachers. Last semester he was awarded the citizenship award at his school, the highest award the teachers give to students at Millard North Middle. He is a self-motivated, helpful, and trustworthy boy; active in boy scouts and church and we are so proud of the young man he is becoming.

My son missed 16 days of school in 2010/2011 and it would have been more if I had not become aware of a new school attendance law passed unanimously in the Nebraska state legislature that put every student and their families under the jurisdiction of the courts after 20 absences regardless of the reason. On its face that statement might lend support to the law, to prove that "excessive absenteeism" is the fault of parents who irresponsibly choose to remove their children from school. It is true that I would have removed my son for planned absences beyond the 20 day threshold had the law not made it very risky to do so, but before you judge let me explain why.

My husband was deployed in Iraq last year and it was a VERY hard year for our family and especially my 12 year old son. My son didn’t miss 20 days of school, but he would if I had followed my mother best judgment and taken my son out for a full two weeks to be with his dad when he came home half way through his deployment for R&R. Instead I ignored my best judgment and my sons needs and allowed him only a few days with his father. I was angry and hurt that this law pushed me to ignore what was best for my son in order to keep our family out of trouble with the law. Even if my son wasn't an A/B student (and he is) being with his father would have still been more important at this time in his life.

I believe that most parents make decisions in the best interest of their kids, as we would have done if we had kept him home longer to spend time with his father. It was a year of great sadness for our family and our son seriously missed his father. There was one day this school year when I kept my son home because he was emotionally ill, he had suffered a serious panic attack because of the grief he'd carried around. It was the right thing to do and I would do it again, but this type of absence from school is no longer considered justified under the new stricter attendance policies and the tough school attendance law. I ask you is it the business of the county attorney when I make a decision like this in the best interest of my child?

This new law and the expansion of it under the GOALS Initiative is a serious affront to our parental authority and our family life. It has continued to affect the way we parent. It pushes me to send my son to school sick, to spread his illness to others. It pushes me to cancel important family plans that have in the past added to the quality of my son’s life and well being. When you add up hundreds of decisions like this, certainly there will be a sharp increase in school attendance, but this is more a reflection of a drastic change in good old-fashioned common sense parenting than what is in the best interest of the children.

I thought this year would be an easy one for us to keep absences down, now that my husband is home from Iraq, but life is unpredictable and already the anxiety of this law is affecting my parenting once again. Last year my husband and I sacrificed precious time together when my husband was home for a two week break for R&R and when he returned home from a year and a half deployment in Iraq. Instead of removing our son from school for some good quality family time, we took him out for only a couple days so that we would not exceed the 20 day threshold that would have landed us before the county attorney. Our sacrifice was not in the best interest of our son or the family, it was not made because of concern for our son's academic life which is strong, but rather it was made to avoid any possible entanglement with law enforcement under Nebraska's new truancy law.

I was sick and angry over the way this law impacted my family life last year, not because I was hauled into court and prosecuted, but because I sacrificed my child's emotional well being to keep us out of the court house. This will probably surprise some of you who think of me as a tenacious warrior who doesn't back down, but it is a serious thing to consider that standing on your principles will constitute "civil disobedience" and could result in legal action against you and your child. It is a huge risk that very few parents are willing to make which is the reason the law has caused a sharp rise in attendance rates in the first year.

Already my son has been absent six times for common illnesses and we are not half way through the year. I thought last year was a bad season for colds and flues but this year is shaping up to be worse. Some of my friends are convinced that this is because more parents are sending their kids to school sick because of the truancy law. I remained pretty calm about the absences, confident that we wouldn't reach the 20 days this year if I just avoid any days off for travel. That was until a few weeks ago when my mother-in-law became very ill. We began discussing planned absences that our family may need in order to visit and care for grandma.

When I got my son's last report card, I was again reminded of the major shift in thinking that has taken place because of this law. Attendance is now the first thing on the report card, it sits in its place of prominence and importance above the grades. It is reported in a detailed chart that counts every hour of school missed. This report indicated that my son had been absent 6 days so far this year. That means via our school district policy he is an excessively absent student! Below the attendance summary was the Grade report. My excessively absent student has 9 A's and 2 B's. I wonder which they care about more, his attendance record or his grades?

So my calm confidence that this year would be different and worry free has melted away and I feel the concern setting in over this law once again. To take the burden off of my mother-in-law and provide the traditional family thanksgiving we traveled to Iowa a day early so that I could cook the meal in advance. We removed our son from school the day before Thanksgiving, adding one more absence to our sons "count".

This absence is considered an unexcused absence under our school districts new tougher attendance policy, changed in 2011 in order to "comply" with the law. The only "justifiable" reason for travel is to attend a family funeral or wedding. So in this case, to be of service to an ill grandmother will be unexcused despite the fact that he has my permission and I communicated the reason for his absence to the school. He can be excused from school to attend his grandmother’s funeral, but not to be with her while she is still living. Where is the sense in that?

While in Iowa my family caught an ugly cold, chest congestion and scary cough, not to mention the fatigue and general "under the weather" feelings that accompany this kind of viral sickness. I was sick myself on Thanksgiving and the several days following, but my son and my toddler caught the illness just as we returned home. Monday my son was supposed to return to school after his long break but was too sick to go, I hoped that he would be better in order to return on Tuesday, but I knew from my own experience with the cold that it was unlikely. So, I began to feel anxious about the situation. He had 7 absences at this point, one more would be 8, and three or four months of flu season ahead.

To compound the problem, my mother in law faces a life threatening surgery that in the best case will be followed by many months of difficult recovery. She will need my assistance and making arrangements for me to have some weeks available for her care and still insure that my son doesn't miss any school is going to be extremely tricky.

With the uncertainty that faces us, my husband and I were very nervous to keep our son home from school despite his obvious symptoms and need to recover. We were contemplating sending him to school ill, not because of failing grades or concern for his academic well being, but instead because this "school attendance" law that has the potential of landing our family in court.

I have for months written about the pit falls of this law, the negative effects it will have on family life, parenting, and the well being of children, but when it hits home, when it becomes personal, it is a disturbing feeling. I am sick with this feeling that I am "breaking the law" when I do what is best for my family. I am sick when I even think of turning away from my motherly instincts to care for my sick son in order to "comply" with the law. I wonder if I am engaging in "civil disobedience" when I pull my son from school to travel during this time of family need. I ask myself if I am being responsible risking entanglement with law enforcement and the heart ache of intrusive interventions into our family life.

My husband and I spent an evening discussing what we should do, what is right. In the end, we decide after a night of coughing, to let our son sleep to take another sick day. Under the school districts new attendance policy if a child stays home three consecutive days in a row the parents must get a doctor’s note or the absences will be counted "unexcused". So when Wednesday came and I knew he could have used another day to recuperate after another sleepless night of coughing I sent him to school anyway, this time to avoid the cost of going to the doctor (knowing full well there was nothing they could do for him) to get a doctor’s note.

I certainly hope that we won't reach the 20 day threshold, I certainly hope the our school social worker will judge wisely and not choose to "intervene" before the 20 day mark, that she won't refer us to the GOALS team, but there is no guarantee. It is a risk. Just being a parent, just caring for my family based on our best judgment is a risk. It has become risky to be a parent in Nebraska, to raise a family here, and I find myself among those who have contemplated moving to a state that still honors a parent’s right to excuse their child from school.

Stephanie Morgan
Millard Public Schools
Millard, Nebraska
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The Oliverius Family
Sick kids in the juvenile court

Our oldest daughter, 17, has been sick on and off for several years now. After many doctor visits and acid reflux medications, we switched her to a different doctor. They asked for blood tests right away. We were informed that her liver enzymes were extremely high and she had a bacterial infection in her blood called H pylori. We then went down the long, long path of scans and ultrasounds to find out that she had chronic appendicitis and also needed her gall bladder removed. We were informed after the surgery that they needed to keep her for another procedure after finding that her bile duct was badly scared and misshaped. They performed an upper endoscopy to try and straighten the bile duct. When this was done, they were suspecting Ulcerative Colitis, Crohns and/or a liver disease called Primary Sclerosing Cholangitis, which would place her on the transplant list. They also scheduled an appointment for a colonoscopy.

One month later and about 10 days of school missed, she had her colonoscopy done and more blood tests. One week later she had an official diagnosis of Ulcerative Colitis or IBD. Thankfully, her blood tests returned showing no liver disease. (I’m still counting my blessings on that one!!) They started her on several meds, including stronger pain meds and nothing seemed to be working. They doubled the meds and through this we realized that she is also lactose and gluten intolerant. We were up to about 20 days missed at this point.

Ulcerative Colitis is a horrible chronic illness that is a lifelong, process of elimination. Foods, meds, lifestyle…..everything. I have seen my daughter hooked up to morphine that wasn’t beginning to touch the pain she was in. Yet 2 weeks later she had a teacher yell at her and say that he was “sick of doing everything for her and she was faking and milking the whole thing.” As if all of this wasn’t enough, we were informed by the school’s counselor that they had, “turned us into the county attorney,” and that we “would have to go to court because of her poor attendance.” Now, because this is a public forum, I won’t say what came out of my mouth after that.

This is my daughter’s senior year, a year that they could take away from her. Hasn’t the pain and horrible effects of this illness taken enough? These are the people that are supposed to be a support line for our children. How are they to do their jobs with laws like this in place? I have never been so sad, mad and completely irritated in my entire life. Unfortunately we are being forced to choose between her health and her education. We have, and will always, chose her health. We have no choice. How does the “good life” state not see that?

Tina Oliverius
Raymond Central Public Schools
Valparaiso, Nebraska
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The Radloff Family
Interfering with good parenting

Written by: Stephanie Morgan, Nebraska Family Forum Moderator

Kori Radloff has a daughter who attends school in Elkhorn and is a talented figure skater. Her daughter overcomes significant challenges daily in order to excel in developing her talents as she has been diagnosed as bipolar and is hearing impaired. Despite her school absences (which at this point in the school year only total 13.5 days) she is an honor roll student. At a recent meeting with the school principal, Kori was told that her family would not be permitted to take any planned absences next year or else the principal would file with the county attorney. This action is made possible after only five absences in one quarter, under the new truancy law. So for the Radloff family this means no vacations, no skating competitions, and no taking her out for opportunities like when she was picked to be in the ‘Nutcracker.'

This mother has already gone to extraordinary lengths to protect her family and has begun sending her child to school sick. Of the 13.5 days her daughter missed this year the school sent her home sick 6 of those days, but even these days count toward a future intervention by the county attorney should it come to that.

When I inquired after this mother’s welfare, hoping she was holding up with all the pressure of going public with her family’s story, this was her emotional reply, “I am just sick to my stomach. I've started to write something several times and just can't quite find the right words, and the emotions just get to be too much for me. It's almost like something out of a dark science-fiction big brother movie and I just can't believe that rational people don't see how this is all REALLY bad.”

“The more that comes out about the parents that were put in jail, the sadder I am, too. My daughter is only in 2nd grade, but I can tell you that having a mentally ill child is incredibly challenging. You do the very best that you can, you constantly doubt yourself, but you fight like mad because on the good days, you can see how it really makes a difference. The stigma that goes with mental illness is really awful and for a judge to trivialize their situation is really sad -- and just feeds the stigma. All our doctors and therapists tell us that our daughter is doing better than almost all the bipolar kids they have ever seen, and it just devastates me to think of what might happen if we find ourselves in a courtroom. We work so hard to manage her mental illness, to give her as normal a life as possible and to help her truly realize her potential. She's an amazing kid with a great self-esteem -- I don't even want to think what would happen if the state tries to intervene with all we've done for the past several years.”

The Radloff Family Story: In the words of her mother

The experience we've had this year is a pretty good example of why the truancy bill doesn't work well.

My daughter is a very bright child who gets good grades. She is a competitive figure skater and participates in dance, musical theater and Girl Scouts. We are a highly-involved family that tries to provide a wide range of educational opportunities for our children outside of school. For example, this year, my daughter was selected to dance in Ballet Nebraska's "Nutcracker" ballet in December. This once-in-a-lifetime experience opportunity gave her the chance to perform alongside professional dancers from around the world. In order to participate in this, we had to pull her out of school for 1 ½ days. We felt that the cultural experience of performing in a professional ballet exceeded any lesson she would have learned in the classroom those days. Another year, she was selected to skate with Nancy Kerrigan for a special food bank promotion; this required us to pull her out of school for ½ a day. Again, this was an opportunity that will impact her for a lifetime -- I cannot say the same for whatever lesson occurred in the classroom that afternoon. As I will explain below, my daughter has a number of challenges in her life and these positive experiences are a tremendous boost to her self-esteem.

We try to minimize days taken away from school because we know that our daughter tends to get sick often. She had RSV when she was 3 weeks old, and as a result, she has recurrent intermittent asthma -- basically, when she gets hit with an ordinary cold or flu, it attacks her lungs and makes it nearly impossible for her to breathe. She will typically be forced to do breathing treatments every 2 hours for a week or more. We try to keep her going to school as much as possible during these times, but often the school sends her home because her coughing and wheezing is distracting in the classroom. (She has missed 10 days so far this year -- of these days, 8 ½ were sick days. Of those days, 5 ½ days were times when the school sent her home.) I don't want to send her to school when I know that she should probably be home in bed, but I don't feel that I have a choice. I also don't feel that I should be penalized when the school chooses to send her home, but under the new truancy bill, it seems that there would be no designation for times when the school said that she could not be there. An absence is an absence in the eyes of this law.

This and other family challenges are why we are struggling with the new truancy law. I can't imagine what our lives will look like if LB 463 passes and put even more force behind this law. My husband and I are seriously considering either pulling our daughter from the public school system and homeschooling her or maybe even moving across the river to Iowa. Neither is a preferred choice, but if LB 463 passes and makes the situation worse, I'm not sure we have a lot of other options.

Kori Radloff
Elkhorn Public Schools
Elkhorn, NE
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The Slingwine Family
In the best interest of my kids

We have not been pulled before a social worker or been sent a letter from the county attorney, yet, but I know it will happen. My husband and I took our 2 girls out of school for 6 days to attend a family wedding (destination) out of the country. This was a wedding that had been planned for 18 months, we wrote letters (not emails) to the schools to inform them of the dates and reasons why my girls would not be in school. I was following district policy. As I expected, when we returned home we had 2 letters from the girls schools informing us that they would be referred to the county attorney at the 10 day mark.

This has resulted in many discussions in our home between the girls, my husband and I, into the probability of home-schooling. We have decided that we will begin homeschooling my youngest daughter in Jan. because of this law. I have lived in Nebraska most of my life, except for my military service and I always thought Nebraska had a top rated educational system. In my eyes it has deteriorated so much that I feel if we don't stop and get it back on track then it will be lost.

Everything I have done in my life since having children (I have 4, my oldest 2 are in college) has been about what’s best for MY children. I was a stay -at-home mom because my husband and I decided that was what was best for OUR children. I volunteered in the schools because of MY children. We took our kids out of the country for a family wedding because it was the best thing for OUR children. They learned so much in seeing a different part of the world then they would have seen in a classroom or by reading a textbook. They had a lesson on Geography, History, political climate in another country, zoology and even a lesson on the power of lobbyists in America and what happens here can effect another countries economy.

Our kids have gone to Nebraska specifically Millard Public Schools for 14 years, but we are ready to home school because I can't afford to have a criminal record because I was only doing what was right for MY children. I have tried to appeal to the Governors "common sense" that he talks so highly of, but I think I must have read the wrong definition. This law IS going after ALL parents, no matter the reason for the absence and I have trouble finding the common sense in that.

Anne Slingwine
Millard Public Schools
Omaha, NE
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The Smith Family
Getting a diagnosis takes time

The Governor has asked us to trust in the “Good-old Nebraska common sense" of state officials as they implement Nebraska’s school attendance law. I ask you to trust in the common sense of Nebraskan parents. I have a daughter who has had a myriad of health symptoms for years but no overall diagnosis yet. My pediatrician keeps telling me diseases progress over time (and she believes my daughter is developing a chronic inflammatory disease).

We have been to the pediatrician, the cardiologist, the rheumatologist, the gastroenterologist, the ENT, the optomolgist, and the dermatologist. Right now she has been diagnosed with psoriasis. She is also experiencing chronic stomach pain and is undergoing treatment. Her symptoms and reactions to medicine have been unique and make things more difficult for the doctors.

She needs to undergo more testing this year. I am concerned for our family because she has already missed two days of school for being sick. (She gets sick more often and her sicknesses last longer than the average child)With the necessity of undergoing more testing and visiting more specialists, which in my experience is very difficult to schedule around school, she will most likely miss more days.

We have scheduled her first battery of tests over her fall break so that she won’t have to miss school for them. I feel bad that she will be recovering from invasive tests while the rest of her siblings are enjoying their time off from school.

You say you're not going after families like mine, to trust in the government. If you give the power to go after families like mine, eventually that power will be used and in my opinion already has been. I worry that if we reach the 20 days, will I be told that she is not sick, but needs a psyche evaluation. Or that she is under too much stress at home because she has 4 siblings (even though she complains that homework cuts into her family time).

What will the state impose upon my family in the name of "helping us"? I am upset that I already have to worry about the number of days she's missing from school. I don't like getting the intimidating letter from the school telling me she's been "excessively absent". It's hard enough to fight for my daughter's health without the added stress of the "state" coming after me because my daughter is sick. Please take this to heart and remember Nebraska common sense. Trust in us the parents.

Kristen Smith
Millard Public Schools
Omaha, NE
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The Smotherman Family
Mother knows best

The new truancy law has prompted school districts to consider missing school five days in one year as “excessive” no matter the reason for the absence. The law created a new class of delinquent behavior, “excessive absenteeism”, eliminated the classic definition of truancy (to be absent without permission), and has mandated policies that significantly intrude upon parental authority.

The result has been that students and their parents are made to feel like criminals and treated like delinquents long before a crime has been committed, and even in cases when the criminal statute has been broken it has resulted in a miscarriage of justice for children and families with special circumstance that under the old law would have been handled discreetly at the local school level and now is drug out in court and truancy diversion programs under the supervision of state social workers, lawyers, and judges.

I believe that the law in its entirety should be repealed and that we need to go back to the drawing board. With school districts defining five absences in one year as “excessive”, and the state mandating a series of intrusive “interventions” at that point, we have created the total supervision of school absences by the state squeezing out parental discretion entirely.

I see many dangerous consequences of this law for Nebraska families. What is "excessive" to one administrator may seem natural to another. Or worse, one family may get a pass, because the principal knows that family, but another will be referred to the horror that is CPS and juvenile court? Dangerous waters.

I know that for some kids the flu can knock them out for an entire week. There are many illnesses and conditions that may cause this - Mono for one. And not all of them are immediately diagnosed. Even with this year’s amendment that requires that the county attorney have a plan to deal with absences related to illness, this does not relieve families with sick children from coming under the jurisdiction of the court.

The point is this: Families and children should not be treated as suspects, much less criminals, for living our lives as responsibly as we are each able. Stop trying to make public education some sort of extension of a police state.

I also disagree that this law and the district policies will prevent drop outs. I think it will increase them, and here is why: families will feel pressured into either taking their children out of school in favor of homeschooling or to allow their children to leave high school early for a GED, rather than allow them to become part of the juvenile justice system and CPS. It's backward. It's harmful. It's un-American.

To add weight to view point I want to share with you the wonderful accomplishments of one of our daughters, who has had the opportunity to travel to New York and this year to Haiti as part of her personal development, education, and - very important to our family - volunteerism.

My daughter, Sydney, attends Lincoln High School. She skipped the 8th grade and entered the IB program. In Sydney's freshman year, she missed the first entire week of school so she could participate in a unique opportunity in New York. She had been chosen as one of a few children to attend a week-long intensive performing arts workshop. She developed in unbelievable ways during that week, and she will never forget her experience. She was provided with foreseen homework by her teachers, who actually CARE about keeping their students caught up in their classrooms.

She was nominated and will be recognized as one of this year's YWCA "25 Under 25" "sassy women" who have made a difference. Guess where she was her first week of school this year? In Haiti, as part of a volunteer youth service trip to help build sustainable housing for 40 Haitian families who were displaced by the earthquake. Who knows what is best for Sydney – our legislators and state bureaucrats – or do we, as Sydney's parents?

She is an outstanding student who has been blessed to participate in extraordinary enrichment activities during her education, but had this new law been in place when she was younger, we may have been sufficiently discouraged to parent in her best interest. When Sydney was in 7th grade she suffered from a difficult-to-diagnose condition that made her miss much of the school year. She had daily migraine headaches that were unexplained and unrelenting, even with regular pain medications. She felt so weak and tired that she would fall asleep everywhere. She couldn't even carry her violin or backpack.

After months of horrendous tests that had to be done to rule out many possible serious problems, the referrals finally made their way to a renowned neurologist at Children's Hospital in Omaha. After several tests and the information collected over months to rule out other possibilities, this specialist diagnosed her with something that has more recently been identified as "Persistent Daily Headache Syndrome."

The doctor said the incidence of this in youth is on the rise, and the symptoms can be extremely debilitating. She was given the best known treatment for this condition, and voila! She began recovering almost immediately! We were so thankful it was something that could finally be treated.

I have often thought about our experience as I have come acquainted with families in similar situations who under this law have had their privacy invaded, have been humiliated, scrutinized by state authorities, and in some cases even prosecuted. We are also thankful that we didn't have to contend with being held up as suspects by school administrators or state officials. It is unjust and despicable to put families through some sort of inquiry or investigation, just because some think it’s okay to strip parents of trust and authority with regard to our own families.

Parents do not derive their rights from the state; they have natural rights to the education and care of their children from the moment of their birth. We are our children's parents, and we know what's best. My daughter is no more a criminal than many other children who will be unjustly drug through the court system because of similar situations during their MANY school-aged years. And for the record, Sydney kept up with her homework at home, and did so well, she was able to skip the 8th grade and go right into high school. She is an excellent student who takes great pride in her own education and has great plans for her future. Thank heavens she doesn't also have a record of delinquency to follow her for the rest of her life.

Melanie Williams-Smotherman
Lincoln Public Schools
Omaha, NE
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The Stacy Family
Schools work for us

I wish to voice my frustration over the new school attendance law. First of all, I realize there are problems with truancy at some schools. It's an age-old problem. I can understand the frustrations of the schools to some degree, but these policies go too far!

Our family received a letter earlier this year concerning my ninth-grade daughter – who goes to Millard North – for having excessive absences. She has missed about seven full days of school this year. Every day she missed was because she was sick! She is a straight-A student! We should never have received a letter threatening us with an investigation by school officials for excused absences! Honestly, the tone was insulting, making us feel as if we were doing something wrong.

If I appropriately excuse my daughter from school it should not draw the inappropriate scrutiny of school officials. The law got rid of every reference to “truancy” and replaced it with “excessive absenteeism.” (The distinction is between having the right to excuse your child and not having that right.) The net has been cast to wide, and will cause too many good families to suffer.

As a supposedly free country, we must be careful to preserve the freedom that we have all enjoyed for so long. Laws that take away the freedom of all to help reform a few should be avoided!! We also need to remember taxpayers hire schools to teach our children. Schools work for us, not the other way around. We the parents must have our right to decide what is best for our children honored, in order to maintain (or maybe rebuild) a strong society. I know this was a well-meaning law, but I urge you to reconsider LB 800, and strongly urge you not to pass the truancy provisions of LB 463.

Becky Stacey, mother of five
Millard Public Schools
Omaha, NE
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The Summers Family
Not about education

Here’s a story about how Nebraska’s school attendance law has affected my family. My story in no way measures up to the monumental damage that has been done to other families. But this is not about degrees of humiliation and suffering. It is about the fact that seemingly sane lawmakers passed a law to "improve school attendance" that has absolutely nothing to do with the welfare and education of Nebraska’s children and their families, and everything to do with the strict bureaucratic regulation of the education industry.

My children are aged 10 and 6, and have had a wonderful time in the public school system. They both began in Montessori pre-schools, have benefitted from having fun, active, and nerdy parents, and, for the most part, have been lucky in their draw of decent neighborhood schools and teachers. 2010 was our best year ever. Both teachers at Saddlebrook Elementary in West Omaha were fantastic, fostered a love of learning, were nurturing and encouraging, and all was bliss.

My daughter learned and laughed her way through kindergarten, and my son enjoyed his gifted and talented program and a first-rate science club. My son tested so high in his national reading comprehension test that it might have been at 9th grade level, but the test didn’t go that high. His math scores were equally impressive, and despite being tired a lot, my daughter handled the academic demands of full-day kindergarten. We looked hopefully forward to 2011, when Saddlebrook would add on grade 5 to allow students who had siblings to remain at the same school while the new middle school is built to take pressure off the overcrowded Buffet Middle School. We felt blessed and somewhat pampered.

And then, my son missed two days of school in a row, my daughter one, because of a nasty virus typical of the sort everyone gets at the beginning of school. Our teachers seemed inordinately frantic about my children’s absences. Strangely intense emails appeared. When my son came back to school, his teacher gave everyone a speech about how children were subject to laws as well as adults and told a story about a child in Millard who had to go to court because she missed so much school, and “SHE HAD CANCER.” My son came home upset and said his teacher was angry that he had missed two days. I told him not to be silly. Then he related her comments. I went to see her. She laughed it off nervously and explained that that had been part of a social studies lesson, so it wasn’t that at all. I said, “If you have trouble with my children’s absences, you need to speak to me.”

Then we were late a few times, and some very rude comments were made to us in front of my children by some secretaries. When my son was sick again, and coughing up phlegm, I sent him to school, since they seemed to want him at school sick. One day, he was so pale, coughing his head off, and was sent to the office; the secretaries were conferring, again with him in the room. My son said he had coughed so much the night before, he had thrown up. “Then your mother made a bad decision to send you!” said the secretary. Nice.

Oddly enough, my son began losing interest in school and we were hearing that he wasn’t doing his work.

Then the school social worker decided to wade in. She called my ten year-old son in, and told him that for him and his little sister, last year had been “the worst year ever!” This was a huge surprise to my son, and to us, who had the opposite opinion. But of course, she was not referring to their academic success, or their learning experiences, but to their absences and tardies. Again, the social worker says to the 10 year-old: “Your sister was the most tardy child in the whole school last year, except for one other child, and “SHE HAD CANCER.” Now my son is crying, and after hearing about this nonsense, we were wondering why an adult would hold a 10 year-old responsible for his sibling’s absences. And here’s the interesting part, (no not that two school workers just happened to unload the word “cancer” which seemed beyond coincidence) the fact was that not one single person in that school the entire year called me or talked to me about these horrible absences. I was not invisible either, being in one classroom or the other almost every week volunteering, working to raise money, helping in the science club, but no one ever thought to let me know it was a terrible year.

Oh, we got a letter from OPS central at 12 days’ absence, but I called and talked to them, offered up my children’s grades and test scores, and asked if they would like to hear about our in-home French language studies. No, they would not. And then the lady said something I have heard again and again since, from other people on this forum. She said “This policy isn’t targeted at you.” I was shocked. Gross! Then who was it targeted at? Was it affecting them, too? Or was this an ineffectual, badly designed policy, like an overloaded thirty-aught-six shotgun, spraying buckshot willy nilly at people up and downrange? Even back in 2010, they were identifying truancy problems, but not until this year did the state mandate that problem absentees be identified and “dealt with” early on in the year. And that is what happened at Saddlebrook. We were “dealt with,” through my ten year-old son.

My husband talked to the principal, and he agreed some of the comments by his staff were out of order and promised to look into it. But of course, we realized by then, that this school was probably doing what they were told, which was to tow a hard line on absences, to pull 100% attendance (as if that were good for any student) and then they would be given their little carrots and treats, in who knows what form. Awards? Kudos? More staffing dollars? Grants? It boggles the mind.

Now that I have met people who really have had cancer and been affected by LB800, I am absolutely sickened by the way this state is treating its families and attacking them at their most vulnerable point: their children. It’s disgusting in the extreme to think of children bullied by authority, being interrogated, shipped to the county attorney and treated like criminals, and all in the name of education. It smacks of totalitarianism. Wait, we are in Nebraska, right? This isn’t China. Yet.

Most lawmakers that backed this bill probably think we have a thing or two to learn from China, and its mandatory 11 hour days and high suicide rates. Dave Heineman, Nebraska’s governor, has said, “If a child is not in school, he is not learning.” But let’s use our own heads for a change. How then could my children possibly blow the curve when they were nearly criminal in their absences?

Believe me, I knew exactly how many hours were required by state law to make up a year’s kindergarten curriculum, and with full-time days, my daughter had that down in spades after the first several months. When she was five and tired, I let her stay home because I could. And she had a wonderful year and learned. So is that right? Are children learning when they are out of school? I suppose it depends on where they are and whom they are with. But the fact that the state equates absent children who are performing well, being conscientious about their work, and causing no trouble whatsoever, and children whose parents are negligent. And the state praises and rewards parents who are punctual and faithful to that good ol’ 18th century, punch-card, warm body in the chair, factory model of education, either because they both must work and make liberal use of before-during-and-after-care or because they don’t know there is anything better.

I am lucky. I work at home, and can care for my children and teach them. And that is what I intend to do. My son is not in a gifted and talented program this year, because of a teacher who doesn’t agree that academic performance should be the measure of, well, academic performance, and because of her negative attitude towards her students, we decided we will no longer allow our son to be influenced by her. My daughter is now reading and horribly bored in class, and both she and my son are ready for some real learning challenges. I intend to provide them with those. As of yesterday, I filed my exempt papers with the state of Nebraska, and will arrange for tutoring, teaching, and enrichment for both children, in and out of my home. It wasn’t my first choice, but the schools and the state have made it clear that learning comes a distant second to attendance.

So let us look one more time at that statement: “If a child is not in school, he is not learning.” The governor has said, in a personal and very kindly answered letter to me, that he “supports Senator Ashford (the author of Nebraska's new invasive school attendance law) and his efforts to end truancy.” End truancy? With these guerilla tactics and hard-line litigating of a problem that should be community work, rather than work paid to over-priced attorneys, I ask what they think the result will be? More truancy, I should imagine. But let’s give their argument its day in court, as it were. State and Federal officials are so fond of quoting statistics that show us lagging woefully behind all the other developed nations in Math and Science and basic Reading skills, and they repeatedly use these world-wide comparisons to keep the legislation rolling and the school-rooms stuffed. So, guided by these oft quoted statistics, let’s look at who in the world is doing well. And the winner is: Finland! rates a whopping first place in education, and blowing everyone out of the water in practically every category, has students who start formal schooling at age 6-7, and spend as little as 4 hours per day in schools. Listening? That’s 760 hours per year, compared to our State’s compulsory 1032 hours. But how can this be? I wonder why we never hear this portion of the statistics quoted by our Governor or Federal Education Secretary.

Asked about the excessive hours Asian students spend in school, Dr. Pasi Sahlberg, of Finland's Education Department told Justin Snider of the Hechinger Report (December 9, 2010): "There’s no evidence globally that doing more of the same [instructionally] will improve results. An equally relevant argument would be, let’s try to do less. Increasing time comes from the old industrial mindset. The important thing is ensuring school is a place where students can discover who they are and what they can do. It’s not about the amount of teaching and learning."

And now you have a clue about what Nebraska's school attendance law and the other new policies on compulsory education truly might be about. They might be about pushing a broken and disproven education philosophy. They might be about funneling taxpayer money into the county attorney’s office and the juvenile justice system. They might be about social engineering and litigating away the problems of at-risk youth and their families. They might be about padding statistics and bureaucrats bolstering their own percentile accomplishment ratings. And they might be about passing laws to take away parent’s rights to guide their children’s lives and educations. But there is one thing they are certainly not about. They are not about educating children.

Anne Summers
Omaha Public Schools
Omaha, NE
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The Vosik Family
A child’s ability to learn

My name is Brenda Vosik. I am the mother of two boys, the stepmother of two more boys, and the grandmother of one girl. I was and still am intimately involved with raising all five of these children, whose ages range from 27 years to 12 months. I even home educated two of them for four years. Does that make me an expert in education or in raising children? I think so; I’ve got a lot of experience under my belt.

I’ve certainly got enough experience to recognize that the unequivocal statement in the GOALS team’s Memorandum of Understanding, that “school attendance is the single most important element to the student’s ability to learn and be successful in school and life” is simply not true.

A child’s ability to learn does not stem from whether or not he is sitting at a desk for 7 hours a day. Much more important factors include a loving home, good discipline, supportive parents, sound moral character, and the enrichment that comes from a good healthy balance between academics and other worthwhile pursuits. Even details such as a good night’s sleep, a nourishing breakfast, a safe trip to school and freedom from bullying while AT school have more to do with a child’s ability to learn than perfect attendance does. All of you who have been asked to sign this Memorandum of Understanding have some experience in child and family law, so you know this is true.

I will give an example from my own family. I took my children at ages 6 and 10 to Jamestown, Williamsburg and Yorktown, Virginia, the area known as the cradle of the American Revolution. They didn’t sit at a school desk for two weeks. When we returned, an 8th grade friend of ours, a straight 'A' student who HAD been sitting at her school desk for those two weeks, asked about our trip. When I mentioned that we’d visited Yorktown, she said, “Oh…I just took a test over Yorktown yesterday.” I asked her, “Oh really? What happened at Yorktown?” She stared at me blankly for a minute before saying, “I don’t remember, but I got an A on the test!” My 6-year-old then told her that Yorktown is where the British surrendered to George Washington in 1781, and the French Navy was there helping the colonists, and the British fifers played “The World Turned Upside Down” after they surrendered. How can it be that he knew what she didn’t, when she was the one that spent the previous two weeks sitting in a classroom?

So when I read the statement that the single most important thing to my son’s ability to learn is sitting at a school desk, I know for a fact it’s not true. With your collective experience, you also know it’s not true, and I ask that you think carefully before you sign a document saying you believe it is.

Brenda Vosik
Millard Public Schools
Omaha, NE
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Dr. Lisa Whitcomb
A pediatrician’s perspective

I am a pediatrician in west Omaha. Although I agree with the purpose of the new truancy law, I am a little concerned about the way it is executed, and about the repercussions. I see many very good parents concerned and frightened by threatening letters sent from the school districts. I see parents sending their children to school ill because they're afraid they have missed too many days of school. This is concerning both for the child and their classmates that might be getting exposed to infectious diseases. I also see parents bringing children into my office just to get a note to excuse them from school for mild illnesses that would have otherwise have been managed at home.

My primary concern is that I have seen good parents taken to court over what seem to me to be legitimate absences. I have one patient in particular who has been taken to court twice. Mom has also been threatened with CPS for the absences of her child, who has recurrent illnesses and does well in school despite his absences. This family has spent a lot of money, time, and emotional energy on a case that was ultimately dismissed. I have another family who has a severely handicapped child who was also threatened with going to court for multiple absences.

I have written several letters for this child explaining his illness, despite the fact that it is the school which sends him home the majority of the time. Once again, this mom feels very threatened by the situation. Again, I agree with the importance of kids being in school. I see the current enforcement of the truancy laws as consuming excess money, time and emotional energy.

Dr. Lisa Whitcomb
Methodist Physicians Clinic
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The Crystal Young Family
Nebraska’s finest citizens

My daughter received a warning about being truant after missing six days at the beginning of April. We arranged for her to go on a cruise with her sister, because we felt the opportunity for these siblings to spend time together before the oldest graduates from Millard West this spring was in their best interest. We strongly value building and strengthening family bonds through opportunities such as this. It was also an incredible educational opportunity, as they visited Belize, Honduras, and Mexico; in addition, they received the education that comes just by virtue of the travel. She returned and demonstrated academic responsibility, quickly catching up in most of her classes.

After four days back in school, she got sick with the cold the rest of our family had been battling for 2-3 weeks. She has missed additional school. This school attendance law leaves no room for any “life education,” which limits the benefits of parental judgment. My daughter does not smoke, drink, or engage in premarital sex; she was just inducted in to NHS, and received an important award which she worked on for four years from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Yet she is “excessively absent” and guilty of delinquent behavior because of Nebraska’s law.

It is a great disappointment that Nebraska would forgo the trust of its finest citizens. I would urge this body to amend 463 to repeal the effects of LB 800 without further entrenching the truancy code to harm Nebraska families.

Crystal J. Young, mother of ten
Gretna Public Schools
Gretna, NE
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The Sheri Young Family
To compel "perfect attendance"

I've been thinking about Club Volleyball 2012, and the travel schedule our Volleyball Club is proposing and how this will impact my family. We have always been able to manage this in the past, travelling as a team/family to these events. Getting the homework in advance to do on the drive, good luck notes from teachers! All at the same time as maintaining a 4.0 Freshman Year and Superior and Distinguished Honor Roll all three years of middle school, and President’s Award! How can this be possible when she wasn’t in her seat in her classroom?

Nebraska's new "truancy law" designed to compel "perfect attendance" and remove parental discretion over school absences has serious impacts on talented, driven, and focused student athletes. School districts in the Omaha Learning Community have brought their district attendance policies "in-line" with the state mandated "Superintendent's Plan for Improving Attendance" and as part of this agenda have seriously limited the responsible judgments of principals and parents that in past years made it possible for students like mine to excel in "out-side" activities.

All over the nation, talented volleyball players are competing in the USA Volleyball Junior Qualifiers, competing for a spot at Nationals to be held next summer in Columbus, Ohio. Does this mean Nebraska Volleyball players will not be able to compete at these events, or will be limited now? It is absurd. Colleges from around the country come to these events to recruit top talent, and exceptional students.

Tournaments are 3 days, Friday through Sunday or Saturday through Monday, and you have to allow for travel and some time to do your homework. I guess the state of Nebraska is saying that outside activities are unacceptable, even when they could help pay for your college education. I unfortunately can’t afford to fly everywhere in the middle of the night. So the choice is don’t be involved in these extracurricular activities which can develop All American Athletes and provide funding for college, because you won’t be sitting in your chair in a classroom.

How can sitting in a chair in a classroom be a better growth opportunity then traveling and competing with a team of other exceptional athletes and students and quality families? Sitting beside the boy or girl who has no life outside of school, maybe they play video games all night and get D’s! But they are equal if they are both in their chair? Really? Please help the fool who believes this to be true. The fool who thinks one size fits all!

Look around, this great nation is made up of diversity, families, people who succeed on their own talents. And are all of the teachers in the great state of Nebraska really that exceptional that my child is better off in a classroom with them then with me? Square Peg Round Hole!

Shari Young

Millard Public Schools

Omaha, NE