Truancy Courts in Texas Face Federal Scrutiny
For the first time in several years, 14-year-old Madison Patterson wrote an essay last month. She traced over every letter perfectly in dark blue ink on wide-ruled sheets.
"Dear judge, my dream is to go to college. I want to be the first in my family to go to college. That's why I won't skip class anymore."
Patterson showed off her work as she and her 9-year-old sister, along with more than 40 other children, waited to face Dallas County truancy court Judge John Sholden.
Accused of missing too much school, they were charged with misdemeanors that would be dropped only if they comply with Sholden's orders.
That courtroom scene is uncommon outside Texas. It and Wyoming are the only states that prosecute children in adult courts for truancy, a policy that now has drawn federal scrutiny.
Three advocacy groups filed a complaint last month with the U.S. Justice Department, alleging the system violates students' rights, partly because criminalizing truancy is akin to "cruel and unusual" punishment. A department spokeswoman said the complaint is being reviewed.
According to The Dallas Morning News, school districts that use Dallas County's truancy courts handed out nearly half of the state's citations during the 2011-12 school year. The complaint also targeted the Garland, Mesquite and Richardson school districts.
Sholden, in his first comments since the burst of attention on the courts, defended the program as a way to keep kids from dropping out.
"I've seen children change, and some, not so much," he said after hearings last month. "A lot of them come in mean, filled with anger."
But after court-ordered programs, such as counseling, they often leave "with confidence, knowing they can achieve something," he said.
Opponents of the truancy courts say errors in tallying absences, inflexible school policies and confusing rules have hurt students in the system.
"The punishment has to be proportional to the crime that has been committed," said Deborah Fowler, deputy director of Texas Appleseed, one of the complaining groups.
The origins of what is now Dallas County's truancy court system date to the mid-1990s, when the Legislature designated truancy as a Class C misdemeanor, meaning that children could be tried as adults for missing school.
By 2005, former District Attorney Bill Hill described the county's system of handling truancy as a patchwork network of prosecution that left the courts and schools disenchanted.
Hill said schools were frustrated that the county's 14 justices of the peace, who oversee a variety of criminal and civil matters, put varying priorities on truancy.
"All parties concerned with truancy took a 'why bother' approach to the issue," Hill said then.
A year after the Legislature transferred truancy cases to adult courts in 2001, Dallas County opened its first two truancy courts.
Today, there are five full-time truancy court judges, appointed by the Dallas County commissioners' court.
All of the truancy courts are run differently.
Sholden said his typical morning is spent presiding over the plea hearings of about 50 students in his Garland courtroom.
In the afternoons, he brings in students who have been ordered to attend programs and activities aimed at getting them back in class.
He often orders students to buy 500- to 1,000- piece jigsaw puzzle and then document their progress by taking pictures with their parents as they complete it.
"Sometimes, the issues start and can be fixed at home," he said. "Sometimes it's that quality time that they're missing. This activity makes them spend time together, talk to each other. A lot of great things come from it."
The judges' orders, issued before dismissing the truancy tickets, can vary from student to student. Some prefer they write essays or watch educational films.
"I want them to focus," Judge Rey Chavez said in an interview at his courtroom on Marsh Lane in Dallas. "If the student is not doing summer school, then I believe in community service. In some cases, even boot camp. It all depends on the student's progress, in school and at home."
Neither judge would comment on the federal complaint.
Many students show up with their parents, who are not allowed to speak on behalf of their children but may get questioned by the judges. In the courts, county constables act as bailiffs. Prosecutors from the district attorney's office are used only if the student pleads guilty.
Sholden said students are told when they first arrive they have a right to hire an attorney, bring in witnesses and have a jury trial.
The federal complaint says that students, including those with disabilities, are essentially left to fend for themselves against a judge—and sometimes a prosecutor.
Some parents whose children have been through the system say even they are unclear on the process.
"Most parents do not know nor do they have the time," said Nicole Pryor, who has two children referenced in the federal complaint.
But Dallas County Judge Clay Jenkins said the county isn't trying to intimidate anyone. Texas courts are not required to appoint and pay an attorney for defendants accused of misdemeanors.
"If it did, you'd get a lawyer for running a stop sign at the cost of the taxpayers," Jenkins said.
The recent Legislature passed a bill that would have required schools to take more steps to intervene in students' lives before they end up accused of truancy in court. But Gov. Rick Perry vetoed it.
Another grievance about the criminalization of truancy is the cost from fines or hiring a lawyer.
Pryor said her daughter is facing more than $1,000 in fines for a charge spurred partially because South Oak Cliff High School marked the girl as absent when she said it shouldn't have.
Another parent, Roddi Schoneberg, said she had trouble getting her children in Richardson to school on time in the mornings because of autism-related issues. A truancy judge fined her $600.
A Mesquite parent, Troy Chatman, paid a lawyer to defend his son Brandon after he was accused of skipping class at Horn High School. After the school couldn't produce evidence of the charge, the case was dropped. But the legal defense cost $1,000.
"If you can defend yourself, then at the tail end they're going to back off, but if you can't then that's where they make the money off of you," he said.
The courts collected about $2.9 million in fines last year. But it still operated at a deficit of about $1.25 million.
Fowler, whose group wants the Justice Department to force changes in the system, said the courts are too dependent on the judges' fines.
"There's an incentive there," she said.
Jenkins disputed that. He said the deficit highlights the county's commitment to keeping kids in school so their educational and earning potentials don't plateau at low levels,
"When kids don't graduate from school, they have no realistic economic future," he said.
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