Truancy officer since 2019 
Has worked in the Regional Office of Education since 2014
Cell: 815-530-2275
Email: TPDempsey@mchenrycountyil.gov

• Conference(s) with student
• Parental contact(s) (phone/letter)
• School conference(s) with parent/student
• Counselor interventions(s)
• Social worker intervention(s)
• Change student schedule/program
• In-school team meeting
• Multi-disciplinary staffing
• Testing as indicated (not necessarily special education)
• Call truancy officer for support/advice
• Other

• Truancy letter sent; copy to school officials
• Parent/student contacted
• Gather information; determine previous agency involvement
• School conference
• Medical contract
• Referral to adult family counselor
• Meet with family and assess their needs
• Referral to community based agencies

• Parents, student, truancy officer, adult family counselor, school officials
• ISP drawn and signed
• Monitoring continues

• Adult court
• Juvenile court
• Truant in need of supervision
• Review dates
• Contempt for non-attendance per court order

1. Attendance patterns: frequent excused absences, suspicious excuses, frequent tardiness
2. Poor classroom performance in general
3. Limited participation in extracurricular activities and physical education
4. Physical appearance: dress, personal hygiene, size, health
5. Eating disorders: anorexia, bulimia, obesity
6. Frequent change of schools and grief and loss issues for child
7. Sibling performance in school was negative or sibling was a dropout or truant
8. Family environment reveals problems, e.g. overprotective
9. Two or more years behind in reading and/or mathematics
10. Failure of one or more school years in elementary school
11. Friends not school oriented or dropouts/truants
12. Friends much older or substance abusers
13. Feelings of not belonging/social isolation
14. Behavior problems requiring disciplinary measures
15. Recent divorce in the home or single parent home
16. Recent death in the home or terminally ill parent
17. Alcohol and/or drug abuse and/or child of alcoholic family system
18. Emotional problems/psychosomatic illnesses: asthma, colitis, ulcers, eczema, enuresis, encopresis
19. Absent from home without parental consent
20. Lack of parental supervision before and/or after school
21. Abused and/or neglected (Spouse or child)
22. Disconnected or no phone during the last school year
23. SED or LD placement
24. Moved 4 or more times in elementary school
25. 20 or more absences in kindergarten or 1st grade
26. Separation issues of parent/child

The following is a partial list of ways parents can help students stay in school. The key to regular school attendance is parent involvement. When parents are concerned about the educational experience and take an active interest in the educational process, their children are less likely to have attendance problems and are more likely to graduate.

• Make education a family priority.
• Build the child's self-confidence as a student by recognizing when he or she does well in school.
• Help the child develop good study and work habits.
• Develop a system of praise and rewards for good study habits, good grades, and other good school-related behaviors.
• Schedule a daily period of home study time.
• Help with homework when needed.
• Meet the child's teachers and other school personnel. They can provide important insights into the child's school performance and suggest ways for improvement.
• Get to know the child's friends and classmates. They can influence the child's school performance. Lack of friends or problems with classmates can also affect school performance.
• Find ways to discuss issues, subjects and course materials being covered at school.
• Help the child develop an interest in extra-curricular school activities such as sports, band, clubs, etc.
• Get the child tutorial help with subjects that pose learning difficulties.
• Help the child develop and achieve academic goals.
• Emphasize the important role education plays throughout life.
• Get involved with the P.T.A., P.T.O., or school board in order to better understand and help change the problems related to school attendance.
• Develop a phone-in policy with the school to check on the child's daily attendance, or have the person in charge of school attendance alert you about non-attendance.
• Explain how dropouts have more trouble getting and keeping jobs and make less money than graduates.
• Develop a school or community program designed to educate parents, taxpayers and students about the topic of school attendance.  

The following is a partial list of ways educators can help students stay in school and benefit from the total educational experience. When schools are concerned about EVERY student's educational experience, they usually develop students who are less likely to have attendance problems and are more likely to graduate.

• Develop programs designed to identify potential truants and dropouts at an early age.
• Find ways to boost each student's self-image.
• Help each student to feel an important part of the school.
• Support and encourage students with school-related difficulties, rather than ignore or discourage them because they pose problems.
• Set achievable standards for students with learning difficulties.
• Provide tutorial service for all students in need of extra help.
• Provide student assistance programs.
• Provide full (K-12) counseling programs.
• Help socially isolated students learn to develop and maintain friendships.
• Design a "buddy system" that matches one concerned staff member with one student who is experiencing school-related difficulties.
• Encourage, invite, even assign students to participate in at least one extracurricular school activity.
• Make sure parents who are recent immigrants understand the compulsory attendance laws and policies.
• Develop an attendance policy that checks directly with parents whenever their children are absent.
• Experiment with new programs to help truants and potential dropouts remain in school.
• Offer alternative educational experiences and programs both within and outside of school.
• Make strong ties with local industries and develop work/study experiences and programs.
• Provide easy re-entry programs for students who have already dropped out.
• Convince the school board of the need for spending money to help truants and potential dropouts stay in school. The loss of state reimbursement for absenteeism can be greater than the cost of preventive programs.
• Develop a school or community program designed to educate parents, taxpayers, and students about school attendance.

The following are offered in the spirit of collaboration that I hope has been established in our joint efforts to ensure good attendance for the students of McHenry County.

Attendance High Profile
Establish a value for good attendance by making it high profile throughout the district and throughout each building. Local administration and teachers can accomplish this goal in a variety of locally generated ways more creative, more complete, and more fittingly tailored to local circumstances than any program initiated by a central source such as the Regional Superintendent's Office.

Regular Reporting
Regularly report good as well as poor attendance to parents.

Intervene Early
Contact parents regarding attendance concerns. In addition, meet with the student to discuss attendance concerns.

Record Keeping
Recognize that it takes two parties to create an excused absence, a parent/guardian presenting information and your acceptance of that information and recording it as meeting one of the statutory exemptions to the compulsory attendance statute. Multiple, continued excused absences unchallenged by the school administration typically increase as the child progresses through school. Finding in hindsight that one has enabled such a situation to continue and worsen is an uncomfortable place to be.

Distinguish in the school record among excused absences, unexcused absences, excused tardies and unexcused tardies. Check marks and X's do not communicate well to parents and will not stand the challenge of judicial scrutiny when a truancy petition is filed either in the adult or juvenile courts.

Medical Excuse Policy
Implement a requirement for medical documentation beyond a reasonable number of parent excused illnesses. The written medical excuse should be on doctor's office letterhead, indicate the date the student was seen, the diagnosis, the dates medically excused, and the date the student can return to school. Reasonable as above is a local interpretation.

The McHenry County Workforce Network Young Adult Workforce Program works with eligible in school and out of school young adults to discover and thrive within high growth career pathways. Our initial goal at the Workforce Network is to work with each young adult to understand local labor market information including what careers are in demand, the pay rate for those careers, and needed skills to get into the careers. We then work with the young adult to identify their desired career path and utilize a variety of services listed below to aid the development of that career pathway. Our end goal is to see the young adult in a long-term educational program or has secured employment within their desired field. All services offered are free. Services can include GED, career training, and additional supportive services.

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Contact details

Elizabeth Del Rio
EXDelRio@mchenrycountyil.gov