‘It's not an education agency': Advocates slam school use of the court for student truancy
From 2022 through 2025, schools asked the courts to intervene in truancy cases 5,400 times.
In all, there was a 13 percent increase in districts using the court process from the 2022 to 2024 school years, according to a recent report from
The proceedings don't carry fines, come with criminal charges, or threaten parents with arrest, as is done in other states. But they do haul families into often bleak juvenile court scenes, where other minors face criminal offenses and parental rights are terminated.
Families might also be assigned a probation officer to help connect children and parents with support services.
Child advocates said the court system is not the proper avenue to deal with truancies. It's a mistake to push families into court to solve absenteeism, they said, and they worry bringing students before judges only pushes students, especially those who are high risk, into the criminal system.
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'It's not an education agency,' Francine Sherman, a clinical professor emerita at Boston College Law School, where she founded and led its Juvenile Rights Advocacy Program, said of the court system.
'The court simply doesn't have the tools to address this particular problem.'
School leaders agree courts are not their first choice to resolve truancy issues, and said they first try to help connect children and families with services such as education help and clinical mental health care.
But in extreme cases, schools may need the assistance of the courts to resolve truancy cases, said Mary Bourque, a former Chelsea superintendent who serves as the executive director of the Massachusetts Association of School Superintendents.
'This is about the parent and guardians, and making sure that the parent or guardian is getting [their child] to school,' she said. 'Sometimes you do need leverage with the parent or guardian.'
The court petitions, referred to as Child Requiring Assistance filings, are intended to to help connect families with services such as educational assistance and mental health programs. They can be filed by schools, police, or families.
Students are considered truant when they 'willfully fail' to attend school for more than eight days in a quarter. Under state law,
Conley said her B-average student had never been in trouble, yet she watched as her daughter suddenly stood before a judge, had to be represented by a lawyer, and was assigned a probation officer.
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'For her to have to go from never getting in trouble in school to that, it was traumatizing,' Conley said.
Experts and education advocates agree absenteeism harms students' abilities to learn. In Massachusetts, chronic absenteeism rates remain 50 percent higher than before the pandemic.
To appear before a judge for truancy, students often miss school to be brought to court.
Many of the cases involve children with special needs. The petitions also disproportionately involve Black and Latino students, the child advocate's office said in its report.
The danger, advocates argue, is that these court filings — which do not allege criminal behavior — can create issues for children such as post-traumatic stress disorder and negative emotional well-being,
'Not only is it traumatizing, it has clearly very adverse consequences for children,' said Jay Blitzman, a retired juvenile court judge who spent more than two decades on the bench before retiring in 2020. 'Going to courts to address these issues is not the preferred thing to do.'
From Blitzman's experience, 'many of the truancy cases' that came before him appeared to involve children who did not receive appropriate school services for their disabilities and special needs.
The state's Office of the Child Advocate, established by the Legislature to ensure children receive appropriate services, reviewed truancy court data
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Among those calling for reform is state Senator Robyn Kennedy, a Worcester Democrat, who filed legislation this year to change the current law.
The proposal includes measures such as barring children under age 12 from being involved with Child Requiring Assistance petitions, plus expanding the role of the state's existing network of family resource centers, including a requirement schools refer families to one of those centers before filing a petition with a court.
Bourque, with the state school superintendent association, said a better solution to districts filing court actions is for the state to expand the number of its
School administrators in some of the state's largest districts, including Boston, Worcester, Brockton, Lawrence, and Chelsea, said they typically pursue truancy cases only when other measures fail to connect children and families with support services. Such services include conducting special education evaluationsand mental health assessments, and sending letters to parents and guardians.
'In VERY rare occasions do we consider judicial intervention,' Chelsea Superintendent Almi Guajardo Abeyta said in an email. 'We do everything possible to avoid it.'
The 6,100-student district filed 123 Child Requiring Assistance petitions in truancy cases from 2022-2025, but was able to reduce its rate by 44 percent to 25 in the 2024-25 school year, progress Conley said more districts should be making.
In Chelsea, administrators attribute the decline in court filings to a focus on family engagement as a priority for the district, Abeyta said.
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The district has more than doubled its number of family liaisons, social workers, and counselors. And it has launched a Navigator program for students with chronic absenteeism or other needs, which pairs them with a teacher, social worker, or other district staff member, she said.
'We believe that parents are our partners and do our best to work with families,' she said.
Conley, whose daughter appeared in court, said the Acton-Boxborough district's decision to push the truancy case to court was a breach of trust.
The March 2024 court hearing ended with an 'informal assistance agreement' signed by her daughter, her probation officer, and the judge, according to a copy reviewed by the Globe.
The girl agreed to terms that required her to attend school, participate in tutoring, and cooperate with therapeutic services.
About two months after the hearing, the girl's school notified the girl's probation officer and attorney it had received enough information 'to drop the CRA,' according to a brief email viewed by the Globe sent by a school vice principal.
It was unclear what led to the decision. Peter Light, the district's superintendent, declined to answer Globe questions, citing student privacy laws.
Conley said her family has since moved from Massachusetts. Schools need to do more to provide services for children with disabilities, she said.
'If these kids were given the tools needed to properly learn, most of these cases could go away completely,' Conley said.
John Hilliard can be reached at
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