School attendance rates’ slow climb back from the COVID-19 pandemic should be concerning to everyone – including school officials and parents here in Warren County.

While we’re not sure that state Rep. Tracy Pennycuick’s proposal to change existing state law is the cure to the state’s flagging school attendance rates, we can’t fault Pennycuick from trying.

Pennycuick proposes reforming the mid-year transfers for truant students from school districts to cyber schools, requiring cyber charter schools to share real-time attendance and academic data with the school district sending the school to the cyber charter and making all students follow the same uniform truancy process, regardless of whether they attend school in person or virtually. Pennycuick also wants the state Department of Education to be required to track and publicly report truancy rates while promoting early intervention services that connect families with local resources. The bill will also aim to improve support for at-risk students, Pennycuick said, by requiring the state Departments of Education and Human Services to develop protocols to help identify students at risk of falling behind before they fall into chronic absenteeism. Lastly, Pennycuick proposes allowing cases to continue after the school year ends to monitor truant students in the new school year. Grading repeated habitual truancy as a third-degree misdemeanor will allow for court, probation, and Children and Youth Services (CYS) involvement in addressing the needs of habitually truant students.

We have seen a number of local court charges filed in relation to children not attending school, so it’s safe to say that the existing Act 138 guidelines aren’t working as state lawmakers intendended them to. According to the most recent state-level data available, only two Warren County School District schools are meeting the state’s attendance guidelines – Eisenhower Elementary School (84.8%) and Youngsville Elementary School (83.9%) Attendance rates at the rest of the Warren County School District’s schools in the 2022-23 school year were below the state’s standard.

We hope state lawmakers follow Pennycuick’s lead. Act 138 isn’t a bad bill, but it’s obvious that school attendance – or lack thereof – is a problem in Pennsylvania. A new approach is needed.