Top officials at Tulsa Public Schools have asked city councilors to hold off on approving a controversial ordinance that would impose fines on truant students and their families.
Superintendent Deborah Gist, school board President Suzanne Schreiber and Vice President Cindy Decker this week penned a letter opposing the school truancy ordinance.
Sponsored by Councilor Karen Gilbert, the ordinance would subject parents and children who violate the ordinance to fines ranging from $25 to $250. Violators would be able to have their fines lifted by attending a therapeutic court, where they would work with social service groups to identify and address factors causing truancy.
The ordinance would apply to Tulsa, Jenks and Union schools that are within the Tulsa city limits.
The TPS letter acknowledges the urgency of the truancy issue, noting that 11,000 students in the district were chronically absent during the 2017-18 school year.
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Additionally, officials say black students reportedly are 1.25 times more likely to be chronically absent than white students. The chronic absenteeism rate for economically disadvantaged students is 31 percent, compared to 17 percent of nondisadvantaged students.
“We have much work to do on behalf of all of our students, and while we welcome support from the City of Tulsa, this ordinance will disproportionately target both our economically disadvantaged families and our families of color,” the letter states.
Even with the therapeutic court option, district officials believe the ordinance creates a “new entry point” into the criminal justice system for vulnerable children and families.
The letter also notes that many TPS students come from single-parent families and homes where one or more family members may be struggling with mental illness. For many families, $250 can be the difference between paying rent and being evicted.
A financial penalty would worsen family instability and create conditions where students are more likely to miss school, according to officials.
”An ordinance that has the potential to increase negative interactions between young people and law enforcement could be a tragedy in the making,” the letter states. “... We all know that our beloved city has a long way to go to begin to unravel and resolve centuries of systemic racism, and an ordinance that reinforces racial and socioeconomic disparities is a step in the wrong direction.”
The letter ends with a request for city councilors to put the ordinance on hold and take more time to work with local school districts, community organizations and other stakeholders. The goal, it says, would be to develop a shared approach using “restorative practices and leveraging positive relationships” to support families and students.
Gilbert denied that the ordinance targets a particular race, saying that its entire purpose is to work with families that are having difficulties getting to school.
“It bothers me that TPS is not in favor of this when they have a 24 percent chronic absenteeism rate, and to me that’s not OK,” the city councilor said.
District data show the chronic absenteeism rate for the 2017-18 school year was 28 percent, while it was 24 percent two years earlier.
Gilbert has maintained that its purpose is to be more rehabilitative than punitive, with the fines being only a last resort.
Her original draft included jail time for parents and guardians of truant children as well as fines of up to $500 a day. Public complaints eventually led to Gilbert removing jail time from the ordinance and reducing the fines.
She also led a task force to advise on the development of the ordinance and offer recommendations to the council.
“We as a city just want to make sure we do all we can to offer wrap-around services with social agencies that have been on the task force and are 100 percent behind this as well,” Gilbert said. ”We want to find solutions on how to make sure that kids are in school and making sure they’re in their seats at their desk so that they have a successful outcome.”
A Union official offered an alternative viewpoint to TPS, saying his district is pleased the council wants to do something meaningful to address truancy.
“State law is largely punitive toward parents of truant students,” according to a statement from Todd Nelson, senior executive director of research, design and assessment. “With the introduction of a therapeutic court, this ordinance provides an additional mechanism for the community to intervene in supportive ways to assist school districts who are already taking many measures to address the truancy problem.”
The Jenks district, which has about five school sites inside the Tulsa city limits, also supports the ordinance, a spokesman said.
City councilors debated the ordinance for about an hour Wednesday during a public works meeting attended by employees from the three districts.
In the meeting, Gilbert said the current state statute against truancy is more punitive than the proposed city ordinance. Her proposal would move cases from state court to municipal court and allow children to avoid financial penalty by receiving therapeutic intervention.
Councilor Vanessa Hall-Harper also echoed concerns that the municipal penalties would disproportionately affect minority students.
“This is clearly not the best approach,” Hall-Harper said. “I don’t think we have examples of best practices. ... I would like to see other (national) programs that have worked that we can then turn around and duplicate.”
Meanwhile, Councilor Blake Ewing said he’s received many public complaints about this just being another way to introduce children into the court system or disproportionately apply a law that would affect poor or minority families more than it would others.
But Ewing said the ordinance appears to have been designed to prevent children from entering the district court system.
“It sounds, potentially, way less likely to create a disparity between poor and minority students and what happens to them,” he said. “It seems that, instead, it creates opportunities to provide support and care. At least that’s what I believe it was designed to do.”
The City Council will discuss the issue again in two weeks.
