The All-Sports Ministry of PA NJ & DE - Executive Summary Start-Up Budget & Prospectus

Williams said former School District Superintendent Arlene Ackerman and former
deputy superintendent Leroy Nunnery gave him that information firsthand, and also
discussed with him the district’s truancy woes.
But School District spokesman Fernando Gallard said the dropout rate for the class of
2014 was just 26 percent.
Beyond the numbers, there’s a bigger disagreement here between the two entities.
Williams wants to partner with the School District on a D.A.’s Office initiative that at least
54 local charter schools participate in. The district says it’s prohibited by federal law
from playing along.
Sounds weird, right? Hang on.
The initiative works like this: If a student is absent 10 or more times in a marking period,
their personal information is shared with the D.A.’s Office, which in turn sends a letter to
the child’s parent.
Williams said the parent has 14 days to contact the child’s school and hash out the
problem. If the parent doesn’t respond, the D.A.’s Office sends out another letter, with a
warning to contact the school within 14 days, or face the possibility of being charged
with reckless endangerment.
If the parent still doesn’t respond, a third letter arrives, breaking the news that reckless
endangerment charges are indeed being filed.
“It’s the worst case scenario,” Williams said. “But if a parent thumbs their nose three
times, and the child remains chronically truant, then we’d have them arrested.”
The goal, he said, isn’t to fill up an entire prison wing with parents of truant students.
Ideally, the parents would end up in front of a judge in Family Court who could get them
the help and services they need. If all goes well, the charges are dropped, and the
parent’s record is wiped clean.
“People say you catch more bees with honey than vinegar,” Williams said. “But some
people need the vinegar. We have to say, ‘Look, your kid’s not going to school, we
might charge you.'”
But Lynch said the school district can’t participate in the D.A.’s initiative because of the
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), a federal law that protects student
education records.
“FERPA identifies what data can and cannot be shared,” she said. “Basically, we can
share directory information. We can tell [the D.A.’s Office] a student’s address and
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