GISD tackles truancy before problems arise

Curtailing truancy checks two key boxes for school districts: Get students to class. Get them there on time.
“The more they’re at school the more they’re going to learn,” Gladewater ISD Supt. Rae Ann Patty says.
Parents, take note: At all grades levels, students are marked ‘Absent’ if they’re late to class by 20 minutes or more. For the entire school year, GISD will accept no more than three parent notes to excuse absences. After 10 unexcused absences, the district will file truancy.
Patty’s goal is to help parents get a handle on their students’ absences well before it gets to that point.
She took the reins at the district in late 2024, so this month marks her first back-to-school at GISD. It was important to get everyone on the same page with truancy right from ‘Go.’
“Truancy is not something you can start in the middle of the year,” she said, so an essential, initial step was to compare notes with Gregg County Justice of the Peace Precinct 3 Bruce Dalme and Gladewater Mayor Brandy Flanagan: “I wanted to make sure the changes I was making and the things we were discussing were going to be the same they needed as well.”
Flanagan is grateful Patty is targeting truancy issues before they become problems for students and parents.
“Those are the kind of leaders that we want in this town,” Flanagan said. She’s invited the superintendent to participate in the next Mayor’s Town Hall set for Oct. 7. “This is to continue to work together in all these aspects so we can continue to move things forward as quick as we possibly can.
“Let’s get behind her and really support her.”
It’s a priority to help parents with any barriers preventing them from getting a student to school and on-time, Patty said, be it a moody vehicle or other factors. GISD personnel will be monitoring attendance closely to ensure parents are kept up-to-date on attendance and have resources available to address it (i.e. the nearest bus route if that’s all it takes). Notifications will be sent after three, six and 10 unexcused absences.
“We need to have communication with the parents,” Patty said. As unexcused absences accrue, the district will rely on agreements with parents to get the child to school then advance to conferences: “Once we do all those things, we will turn it over to truancy. We all have to operate within the legal system.”
When the truancy process reaches Dalmer, district personnel will do what they can to help parents comply with the judge’s ruling.
For example, “If he offers community service to a parent we will work with the parent in the school system to get some of their community service hours,” Patty said, whether it’s pointing them toward band boosters, PTA or time as a bus monitor.
The goal, though, is to address the challenges before triggering consequences.
“Every school district has truancy issues,” Patty said. “I wanted to be on top of it.”