With 66 Wisconsin public school districts holding rates of 20% or more students chronically absent and another 74 districts falling between 15 and 20%, districts across the state are hunting for ways to get students back in the schools on a consistent basis.

Pierce County in particular is putting on a Truancy Summit on Jan. 24 to bring together representatives from each of the county’s school districts, the county judge, a district attorney and more to address truancy. Chronic absenteeism refers to unexcused and excused absences amounting to 10% of school days while truancy simply refers to unexcused absences. Both numbers have become top concerns throughout the nation, and Pierce County is eyeing a solution.

“Basically, just talking about the collaboration of truancy,” Pierce County Human Services Juvenile Justice Worker Joy Lynn George said. “What gaps do we have in the county, what are some of the strengths, what are some different programming that we’re doing on the county side as well as what schools are doing.”

George said while the shift to online work and schooling eased the challenges of the pandemic, it skyrocketed truancy and chronic absenteeism.

“Truancy has been such a hot topic through the years in the youth justice world,” George said. “Truancy cases are some of the hardest kiddos to be able to work with and address some of the needs that they have.”

George said whether it is caring for a younger sibling, doing household chores, mental health or any other reason for frequently missing school, the stakeholders meeting at the summit want to find ways to help get the students back in the schools.

“I don’t also want this to be a one-and-done. I wanted to be able to have these collaboratives every year or a couple times a year,” George said.

There is hope that with a successful summit, strategies to combat the issues can be spread beyond Pierce County to neighboring areas.

The summit will also feature  guest speaker Allen Godfrey, executive director of the Carey Group.

“Carey Group is composed of practitioners with years of experience in federal, state, and local government, as well as in the not-for-profit and private sectors. As former executives, managers, and direct services staff, we understand the promise of the future and the difficulties of the present. Our purpose is to assist criminal and juvenile justice and behavioral health systems in the achievement of their goals by offering professional consulting services, staff training, tools, and more,” their website states.

“To be able to have him come in as an objective, outsourced, outside of the county and outside of the schools, to be able to come in and facilitate this dialogue, I think it’s going to be great,” George said.