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[article provided by JH. Thanks!]

February 9, 2000

Tulalips, school district getting tough on truancy
By ERIC STEVICK Herald Writer
 

MARYSVILLE -- The Tulalip Tribes and Marysville School District are nearing
an agreement aimed at reducing truancy and improving student achievement
among tribal children.
  Adults could be required to take parent training or to do community
service work if they are found guilty of not sending their child to school.
They could even be required to attend school with their child for a week.
  "There are some pretty good options to get them (parents) involved," said
Stan Jones Sr., vice chairman of the tribal board of directors.
  Truancy sanctions for students could range from mandatory before- or
after-school tutoring and summer school to a curfew, adult escort to and
from school, and home arrest and detention, according to draft documents
that explain the proposed agreement.
  The program, initiated by the tribes, would empower tribe-appointed family
advocates to enforce strict attendance policies and tap into school and
social services to keep students in the classroom. The advocates could also
intercede when students have discipline problems or are struggling
academically.
The agreement with the school district would be an extension of a tribal
truancy ordinance.
  The truancy legislation shows how much the tribes want to see their
children succeed in school, Superintendent Richard Eisenhauer said. It is
one of several strategies the tribes and district have been pursuing in
recent years.
  "Student achievement won't happen if you are not in school," Eisenhauer
said. "First things first. You have to get students to school."
  Tribal member Sheryl Fryberg was a student in the Marysville School
District and a mother who had children in the district long before she
became its Indian education coordinator. She believes the program will make
a big difference because it allows the tribes to intervene and work with
families.
  It will take working with families, not just individual students, to curb
the tribes' high dropout rate, she said.
"Hopefully, it will be a tool for the parents to use," Fryberg said. "Some
of them feel kind of powerless.
"We have been finding we have been losing our kids earlier and earlier," she
said, adding some leave after elementary school.
  Under the proposed agreement, the family advocate would be called by the
school if a student has three unexcused absences within a month or seven in
a school year. The advocates would also have the authority to take students
they believed to be truant to their parents or the school the student
attends.
  The tribal ordinance sets escalating levels of intervention and penalties
that can be enforced by the tribal court. Parents, for instance, could be
fined $25 a day if they don't comply with a court order.
Dale Jones, another tribal member concerned about the dropout rate, is the
Indian education parent coordinator at Tulalip Elementary School, where a
daughter attends.
  "I think this was needed a long time ago," Jones said. "I think it will be
a step in the right direction."
Cherie Farris, another tribal member who serves as administrator of the
Tulalip Option School and Tulalip Learning Center on the reservation,
believes the new policy will be a safety net to reach children before they
get into serious trouble.
"It is really meant to catch them," she said.
  Farris, a mother of eight, has a third-grader and fourth-grader at Tulalip
Elementary. The policy should indirectly help them and other students, she
said.
  "I think as a parent my child can't learn in a classroom of 20 other
children if there are some serious problems going on in the classroom," she
said. "I want to see the kids needing help to get it because my child is
going to learn more."
 

You can call Herald Writer Eric Stevick at 425-339-3446
or send e-mail to stevick@heraldnet.com
Copyright © 2000 The Daily Herald Co., Everett, Wash.
 

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