children out of school in america - University of Tennessee Digital ...

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families. Rather than handling quietly or overlooking
truancy problems as in middle-class neighborhoods,
penalties are brought to bear heavily on poor
and minority people. A black mother in Macon,
Georgia noted: "I can see ... school officials using
this [compulsory attendance law] to harass black
people. If a person disagreed with his [the Superintendent]
having the police at the school and they
had a child out of school for two weeks, he would
probably have them arrested." A Portuguese mother
in New Bedford said the compulsory attendance
laws "... are enforced for some but not others.
They ignore the kids that aren't from here [low income
area]." A white mother in Portland, Maine
said: "Kids whose mothers get state aid are sent to
court more often if they skip school than kids in
families not on welfare."
The enforcement of compulsory attendance provisions
among non-English-speaking populations presents
even greater problems. Different lifestyles and
needs, plus language barriers, often contribute to
unfound or ignored truants. "Absenteeism is not
looked upon as a bad thing in Puerto Rico."sO
"Many of the parents of the Puerto Rican children
have not gone beyond a third grade education. They
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generally come from rural areas of Puerto Rico and
did not have the opportunity for education. Once in
the United States, parents often must use their children
as translators, and think nothing of keeping
their children out of school for the day to help them
go shopping, visit the dentist or pick-up a welfare
check. "40 One school official feels it is especially
difficult to keep track of New Bedford children of
immigrant Portuguese families from the AzQfes,
where school attendance was not compulsory. The
same is true of Puerto Rican children. "Changes in
residence, of which schools involved have not been
apprised . . . make the task of home visits and the
location of the student a long and time-consuming
project. Within the past few months, serious fires
have displaced many families. Urban renewal has
also forced families to seek new residences, often
with relatives and in some cases a return to Puerto
Rico....41
At the Lincoln School in Springfield, Massachusetts,
the mobility rate is very high: in the first two
months of the 1973-74 school year there were 247
new enrollments (171 Puerto Ricans, 76 whites)
and 161 dismissals (86 Puerto Ricans, 75 whites).
Apparently a lot of the mobility is due to housing
changes. With the energy crisis and a cold winter,
the principal predicted another migration back to
Puerto Rico. 42
A particular attendance problem exists among
older immigrant children. "Some of these boys who
come from foreign countries are men and they just
don't fit in. "4S
The problem of heavy absenteeism in non-Englishspeaking
and immigrant or migrant communities is
exacerbated by the absence of Spanish and of Portuguese-speaking
truant officers. In Massachusetts,
none of the five districts we visited had attendance
30 Interview with Sister Joyce Smith, Casa Maria, Holyoke,
Massachusetts, 12/11/73.
40 Interview with Sister Anne Marie, Education Coordinator,
Casa Cristo Rey, Springfield, Massachusetts, 12/11/73.
41 Interview with Thomas Ingham, Director of Pupil Personnel,
New Bedford, Massachusetts, 11/26/73, and Richard
S. Golden, Report 011 Truallcies (Holyoke School
Board, Fehruary, 1973).
42 Interview with John O'Malley, Principal, Lincoln School
and Jefferson School, Springfield, Massachusetts, 12/6/73.
43 lnter-:iew with Richard Nixon, Supervisor of Attendance,
Cambridge, Massachusetts, 10/10/73.