Why one Baltimore boy was absent 30 out of 50 school days: A day in truancy court

BALTIMORE — By November of 2023, 15-year-old Montez had missed 30 of the first 50 days of the school year in Baltimore.

There were several reasons for the absences, according to his mom, Tamika. The Baltimore Sun is not publishing her last name, or her son’s, out of respect for his privacy and concerns Tamika has for their safety.

One big factor, she said, was the morning Montez was robbed while walking to school. Three older teenagers took his book bag and hoodie and left him with only one of his shoes. That left him feeling “depressed” and not wanting to go to school, Tamika said. He also suffers from headaches, and he’s sometimes too tired to get up in the morning after staying up all night on his phone, she said.

Tamika has been criminally charged with failure to send her three children to school. She was among 28 people scheduled for truancy hearings Nov. 19 in the District Court of Maryland for Baltimore City. Truancy court is considered a last resort for schools trying to get kids back in the classroom after chronic, unexcused absences.

Although the court process is designed to hold parents accountable and ensure they come up with a plan to get their kids to school — and can lead to improved outcomes — some say the court can’t fix the socioeconomic factors underlying school truancy.

Tamika has been traveling to court hearings in Northwest Baltimore every month for more than a year — nearly an hourlong commute via public transportation from her house in Belair-Edison.

“I’m tired. I’m drained. I’m frustrated. And I’ve got to keep coming out here,” she said while sitting on a bench outside the courtroom, awaiting her scheduled appearance. “I’ve got other things to worry about than coming out here.”

More than 8,000 students missed at least 60 days of school in the 2022-2023 school year. The Baltimore City school system received more than 1,000 referrals for truancy court last year, but not all referrals end up getting prosecuted, according to Stacy Place Tosé, chief of Baltimore City Public Schools.

The reasons for truancy can include parents working long hours who are unaware their kids aren’t showing up to school. Other factors that have persisted for years include homelessness, a lack of transportation, kids getting sick, danger in schools and during commutes, or simply preferring to be somewhere other than the classroom.

The city school system considers students truant if they miss 20% of school days, or about 3.5 days per month, without a legal reason. Charges can be filed against the parent if a student misses 15 days and the school has “made every effort” to help the child get to school. Parents can be arrested if they fail to appear in court.

“The goal isn’t to seek prosecution, as it often has additional negative impacts on the student and family,” the school system’s media relations team told The Sun in an email. “We want students back in school. That said, we take a wide variety of steps before we arrive at that final step.”

The steps include reaching out to students through community school coordinators, mentors, and community groups, performing home visits, and sending repeated notifications.

Parents face three days in jail per count or a $50 fine per day of unlawful absence. Charges can be dismissed if a child’s attendance improves.

Parents are charged and held legally responsible for their children’s truancy. But in some cases, parents are doing all they can to get their children to school, and the children just don’t want to go.

A Spanish-speaking mother and her four kids appeared at the front of the courtroom on Nov. 19. One of the kids, a teenager, has been absent from school this year for 50 days, and the school is proposing he be administratively removed from its roster. The absences are because he’s been at home and doesn’t want to go to school.

“I understand not wanting to do something. There are a lot of things I don’t want to do,” Maryland District Court Judge Michel Lambert said to the boy. “But in Maryland, you have to go to school. Your mom is being charged with a crime. Do you want her to go to jail?”

“No,” the boy said.

If he were 18, Lambert said his activities would be his own business. “You may feel grown, but you’re not grown under the law,” she told him.

“What are you doing at your house?” she asked.

He explained that he wants to be a mechanic and watches how-to videos on YouTube. Lambert told him YouTube is not a substitute for going to school.

“Anyone can go on YouTube and make a video … I could make a video about science or math even though I have no business in science or math, and I can tell you I know all about it,” she said. “You aren’t ever going to repair my car if you learned that off of YouTube; I can tell you that right now.”

“You’ve got to go back to school. That’s the bottom line.”

The teen, wearing a black hoodie, looked at the judge while chewing a piece of gum. His mom held a squirming infant in her arms while a female translator delivered the judge’s words to her in Spanish.

Lambert asked the mom to visit the BCPS Re-Engagement Center, where kids who have been absent or are returning from incarceration can get assistance finding school placement, modified instructional programming and other support.

“I will try, but if he doesn’t go, then I will miss a day of work,” the mom said, speaking through the translator.

The judge asked her to visit the Re-Engagement Center, even if her son doesn’t come with her, to show she’s making her best effort. “I know this is not a situation where you just don’t care,” the judge said.

A school representative said they can help him find trade school opportunities. They scheduled an appointment at the Re-Engagement Center, and the boy’s mom was given her next court date. They exited the room.

Occasionally, there’s a bright spot in court.

“Your case is dismissed. Congratulations,” Judge Lambert said to a mother on Nov. 19, after it was reported that her child’s attendance record had improved.

“Great job. Keep it up,” said Assistant State’s Attorney Amethyst Spivak.

But aside from some improvements, parents reflect a truancy court filled with stories of suffering, frustration and trauma.

One mom, Kimberly Jones, told The Sun her daughter missed more than 100 days of school while grieving the murders of her uncle, cousin and boyfriend. The latter two occurred within the past year and a half.

Another mom said her son doesn’t feel safe after seeing guns in the backpacks of other kids at school and one time being robbed of his book bag and phone. She declined to give her name because of fear her son would face backlash.

One mom, Octavia Smith, said she works 16-hour shifts as a manager at Pizza Hut and can’t be around in the morning to ensure her three kids make it to school on time while she drives 25 minutes from home to drop off her 1-year-old daughter at day care before work.

One boy missed school several days for surgery and missed several more days due to bullying, according to his mom, Caitlyn Naill. Their family is currently facing eviction because of the recent death of Naill’s mother, who was paying their rent.

“This whole thing is dumb,” Naill’s uncle, Richard Naill, said of the truancy court process. “People have money problems, medical problems, and they have to drive here … These people should be getting people on carjackings and murders, not this.”

Tamika, the mom who said her son Montez was robbed on his way to school, also has a 10-year-old child daughter, London, who had missed even more school this year than her brother: 36 days. Her school is four or five blocks away — too far and unsafe for a young child to walk, Tamika said. But Tamika doesn’t have a car, and she’s not able to take London herself because of her headaches, which sometimes leave her bedridden.

“The struggle is real out here,” Tamika said. “They are hurting our kids. Half of them are getting robbed and bullied. The other half are getting killed by other kids.”

Baltimore’s truancy court is designed to hold parents accountable, and attendance sometimes improves. But critics say a punitive system is not the best solution to truancy.

For example, sometimes a family may miss their court date due to a lack of transportation or because they’d risk losing their job if they didn’t go to work, resulting in a warrant that could lead to the parent serving jail time, said Michele Hong, deputy director of the University of Baltimore’s Center for Families, Children and the Courts.

“It’s hard for me to imagine how that helps attendance,” she said. “Now a child doesn’t have a parent. The parent is in jail, and the child now is fending for themselves or siblings trying to get to school.”

The university program works with truant students to help them find ways to get to school, whether they need a battery-operated alarm clock or assistance with housing, mental health care, or job skills. The program doesn’t take active truancy cases.

“While in our program, ideally, schools will not file against our families so that we can work with them,” she said.

Hong said she’d much rather provide a family with services than fine them.

Baltimore City’s truancy court is slow to take punitive measures, often allowing parents several months of opportunities to show improvement in their child’s attendance and to have the criminal charge expunged from their record.

The court spends a lot of time “trying to give parents chances,” said Devorah Zonenberg, a Highlandtown Elementary and Middle School social worker who attended court for one of the hearings in early December.

But at the end of the day, it is the parent’s responsibility to ensure their child is going to school, she said.

“Whenever we have an attendance conference, I always ask, ‘What is the plan?’” she said. “There always needs to be a consistent plan in place, whether you have two jobs or whatever it is.”

When asked whether truancy court is effective, Zonenberg noted that it “helps keep the pressure on the parents to resolve issues.”

“It’s a long process, and it doesn’t always yield the results we want,” she said. “Usually, there’s some improvement in attendance, but it’s still a struggle and still spotty.”