AASD
APPLETON, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — It’s been six years since Appleton issued its last ticket for truancy. That wait will last a bit longer.
On Wednesday, the city voted to delay any enforcement of fines for truancy in the school district, despite rising absences in the student body. AASD is the largest district in the state without truancy tickets.
“There’s still a lot of work to be done around putting together what this would ultimately look like,” said Appleton Area School District Superintendent Greg Hartjes.
He assumed office after the city stopped issuing tickets in 2019.
Appleton would focus on students missing 50 or more school days. It’s a high total, but one surpassed by 293 high school students in the 2023-24 school year.
“Ultimately, we get to the point where with some students — they aren’t answering our calls, they don’t answer our knocks when we’re visiting their homes,” said Hartjes, who has served as superintendent since 2022. “We need some type of support from the city there. It doesn’t necessarily have to be fines, but we feel we need some type of support from the city to support students struggling with attendance.”
According to the district, 23.7% of high schoolers missed 10% or more of the school year in 2023-24, a decrease from the previous two years but a significant increase over pre-pandemic levels. The 2023-24 school year also saw 40.2% of high school students at least part of five days unexcused in a semester. The absences left 811 graduates no longer on track to graduate.
AASD does have programs working to solve the issue, like TRAC — the Truancy Reduction and Assessment Center — in partnership with the Boys & Girls Club. But the programs are still pretty new.
“We’re already pursuing truancy enforcement with tickets,” said Jax Anderson, the mother of a student in AASD. “Have we given enough time for these programs to work?”
The city plans to revisit the issue in late August or September, after gathering community input through listening sessions.
Comments