LB 800, passed by the legislature last year, requires all public districts and non-public school systems to submit a monthly report on the number of students with excessive absenteeism, suspensions, expulsions, and contacts with law enforcement officers. This information will be reported to the Nebraska Department of Education at the end of each month.
At the end of September, we have to report the number of students that were absent from school more then 2 days. That's right, over two days before September 30. Already we have three students that we will be reporting. In October we will report the number of students absent more than 4 days total. Two days are added each month. At the end of the school year we will report students that were gone more then 18 days.
For each student reported, we have to report the reasons students were absent. The four reasons are: suspension, expulsion, medical, or other. It is important that parents provide the school with a reason for why their student is not in school.
This data will be reported to the Truancy Intervention Task Force for study and evaluation. My guess is that the State will be getting tougher with parents who do not make sure their children are attending school.
It is also required that the county attorney be contacted when students have excessive absenteeism. The number of times law enforcement is contacted will also need to be reported.
