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11 cases referred to truancy panel; ‘many more’ expected
Approximately 11 cases have been referred to the CNMI State Board of Education’s School Attendance Review Committee, according to legal counsel Adam Hardwicke, who believes “there are probably many more on the wings.”
He described the groups handling SARC cases at this point as a “finite” number of people. SARC was newly formed this year.
“I requested and did education and training for counselors, asking counselors to agree to volunteer to handle at least one SARC referral other than the ones they are referring within a school,” he told board members last week.
This, he believes, is now in the works, he said.
The SARC committee is also preparing to attend a Parent Teacher Student Association meeting for a “question-and-answer” session sometime within the next month, he said.
“The SARC committee is trying its best to get out there quickly as possible but trying to not bite off more than it can chew,” Hardwicke said.
“It’s going to be something that the Public School System is going to be responsible for…forever. So [SARC] is doing a very good job but it’s also very deliberately reaching out,” he said.
SARC was formed early this year to provide public schools with intervention for juveniles and their families in addressing truancy, irregular attendance, or insubordinate or disorderly behavior in school before referral to the juvenile justice system.
The committee is composed of a parent of a school-age child, representatives from PSS, the Coalition of Private Schools, the juvenile probation unit of the Division of Youth Services, the Child Protective Unit of the Division of Youth Services, and the Department of Public Safety.
