If you have comments concerning this Bill, please contact Ms.

Vivian McCarter of the Committee on Human Services

by e-mail at vmccarter@dccouncil.us or by telephone at (202) 724-8191. Written comments may be mailed to the
Committee on Human Services, 1350 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Suite 117, Washington, D.C. 20004

BILL BRIEF: SAFE CHILDREN AND SAFE NEIGHBORHOOD EDUCATIONAL NEGLECT

MANDATORY REPORTING AMENDMENT ACT OF 2009 (BILL 18-0529)

Council Period: 18

Short Purpose: The Bill requires mandatory reporters to report a child between the ages of 5 and
13 to the Child and Family Services Agency if the child accumulates 10 days of
unexcused absences in a year.

Date Introduced: November 17, 2009

Co-Introducers: Tommy Wells, Phil Mendelson

Co-Sponsors: David Catania, MIchael Brown, Yvette Alexander, Mary Cheh, Murel Bowser,
Harry Thomas
Type(s) Introduced: Permanent
Referred to: Committe of the Whole, chaired by Vincent Gray

Primary Drafter(s): Committee on Human Services, chaired by Tommy Wells

Status of Bill: Bill is introduced; a public hearing date is TBA

BILL SUMMARY:

A time for action…

The cornerstone of a mighty city is the education of its children.

When children between the ages of 5 and 13 disappear from the educational system for 2 weeks,
intervention must be swift and effective. To be effective, it must be family-focused.

On November 17, 2009, Councilmembers Tommy Wells and Phil Mendelson co-introduced the “Safe
Children and Safe Neighborhood Educational Neglect Mandatory Reporting Amendment Act of
2009". The Bill requires mandatory reporters to report a child between the ages of 5 and 13 to the Child
and Family Services Agency (CFSA) if the child accumulates 10 days of unexcused absences in a year.
Ten days amounts to two weeks of disappearances from our schools.

Councilmembers Wells applauds the work of the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE),
the State Board of Education, and CFSA to provide comprehensive truancy regulations that will improve
attendance and ultimately graduation rates, while responding to individual needs, especially of teens.

The Safe Children and Safe Neighborhood Bill responds to an item in the OSSE regulations that double
the time that children, between ages 5 and 13, can be absent from our schools without involvement from
CFSA. Under the OSSE regulations, as adopted August 26, 2009, children between ages 5 and 13 may
miss a full month of school before CFSA is notified of any concern. During that time, local education
agencies are to apply interventions that treat the child’s absenteeism as an individual problem.
Policy concerns…

Prevailing research plainly shows that the absenteeism of children under age 13 results from a
breakdown in family responsibility. It most likely does not result from individual choice, as the State
Board of Education regulations presume. Accordingly, unexcused elementary school absenteeism must
be treated with direct services to the child’s family.

The education of young children is too important to delay CFSA’s family-focused intervention until the
child has missed a full month of school. Delay creates a nearly insurmountable obstacle for children who
then bear responsibility for making up lost time in the classroom at an age when each learning day is
critical. Moreover, research has shown that absenteeism in elementary school is directly linked to
increased delinquency rates, increased juvenile crime in our neighborhoods, increased expense to cities,
and lost economic value to our communities.

Evidenced-based solutions…

The Council can expect the Safe Children and Safe Neighborhood Bill, once passed, to result in
significant, immediately measurable attendance improvements that may last for up to 3 years after CFSA
involvement with the family.

CFSA involvement in elementary school absenteeism has already proven itself effective in DC schools.
Under former Truancy Regulation 2103.11, as amended by Final Rulemaking published at 53 DCR 8462
(October 20, 2006), elementary and secondary students attending D.C. Public School with 10 or more
unexcused absences were referred to CFSA for suspected educational neglect. Within 2 years of being
implemented, this regulation resulted in attendance improvement rates for elementary school children of
at least 50%.

Outside research also shows that early child protection intervention is highly effective. In Minnesota, for
example, where mandatory reporting is required after only 7 days of unexcused absences in one year,
1
students within a similar age range experienced improved attendance rates of over 70%. Those same
students maintained improved attendance rates for up to three years following contact with the child
2
protection agency.

Imposing the mandatory reporting requirement elevates the importance of elementary school
absenteeism both for our community and for the government agencies that serve our children. The
requirement also ensures CFSA’s involvement as the agency best-equipped to intervene with a family-
based model that will keep our children safe.

Hope for our future…

If we have learned nothing from the Jacks-Fogle family tragedy, we have at least learned that the
disappearance of young children from classrooms deserves prompt and diligent follow-up.

The Safe Children and Safe Neighborhood Bill represents a critical opportunity to support parents early,
as opposed to imposing penalty-like consequences after the fact. It ensures vital family-based support for
a city striving to prepare productive members of society at a level on par with other states. And,
evidence shows that our city can expect other benefits too – such as less delinquency and less
neighborhood crime, not to mention greater economic capacity for our communities.

1
Anita Larson, Timothy Zuel, Mira Swanson, Are Attendance Gains Sustained? A follow-up on the Educational and
child welfare outcomes of students with child welfare involvement for educational neglect Center for Advanced
Studies in Child Welfare (2009) at 1.
2
Id.