Susan Ryan at Corn and Oil cautions: “I want to point out again…that the Regional Offices of Education are systematically pushing for daytime curfews in Illinois communities to rein in homeschoolers. It’s all over the state, but quite a few southern Illinois communities in a couple of Regional Offices of Education areas with anti-homeschool agendas have passed curfews in the last few months.” Click on Susan’s link to read much more.
Daytime curfew shines bright in Bedford elections Fort Worth Star-Telegram May 05, 2009
By DIANNA HUNT
Continuing controversy over the curfew has spilled into the campaigns for mayor and two City Council seats.
“It probably did bring some candidates out, initially, and for a couple of them, it’s probably still their main issue,” said Mayor Jim Story, who is running for re-election against political newcomer Kenneth Kimmons.
Says Kimmons: “It is an issue, and I think it’s an important one, but it’s not the only one.”
Accuse an opponent of a one issue candidacy and you could win points. But I have seen activists become involved in one community issue, and then take note of how leaders operate in that and other issues at council meetings. It’s a learning experience waiting for your turn and your issue at City Council meetings. Sometimes it leads you to try making a positive difference by running for office.
From the S-T article:
The council approved an ordinance in September that prohibits people under 17, with a few exceptions, from being in a public place between 9 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on school days. Violators and their parents can be fined up to $500. Businesses are required to alert officials if a youth is on their property during those hours.
The measure has drawn opposition from home-schooling families and civil libertarians, who say the measure erodes personal freedom and forces students, parents and businesses to go to court to prove their innocence. Supporters say the ordinance is having the desired effect of reducing truancy and daytime crime.
Mayor Story said that his leadership “accommodated home-schoolers in the ordinance“. But it appears that Bedford businesses and families (not on the 9-2:30 education schedule) have to continuously respond to authorities if kids go out and about during Bedford school district hours. The public front doesn’t appear to be a business or family friendly community, if anyone asked me.
One City Council candidate, Jason McCaffity, ( a police sergeant) said they should get rid of the daytime curfew.
“This is just another senseless or needless law that is on the books,” he said. “It doesn’t actually address truancy — it makes it illegal for children to be in public in the daytime.”
There are no useful “exemptions” to daytime curfew when you are guilty until proven innocent.
Home Education Magazine January-February 1997
Truancy, Curfews and Our Response- Janie Levine Hellyer
In July, 1996, the U.S. Department of Education in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice issued a “Manual to Combat Truancy.” The manual speaks of truancy as “the first sign of trouble,” and “a gateway to crime.” It encourages communities to involve parents, ensure that students face firm sanctions for truancy, create meaningful incentives for parental responsibility, establish ongoing truancy prevention programs in school, and involve local law enforcement in truancy reduction efforts. The manual then goes on to describe what it calls “successful models of new anti-truancy initiatives” in communities across the nation. Statistics are provided that hold up truancy prevention efforts beside crime reduction figures. Sources for funding, training and technical assistance to communities are offered. In response, communities across the country are setting in place ordinances and regulations. In early October, we asked families to tell us what they were seeing and how the new regulations were affecting their families and communities. [Continue reading the homeschoolers' observations of curfew regulations at the HEM site and within News-Commentary archives.]
Home Education Magazine March-April 1999
Taking Charge- Curfews and Homeschoolers
Larry and Susan Kaseman
As homeschoolers, we need to be informed about daytime curfews for several reasons.* Although only a few communities have enacted curfews so far, the number is increasing.
* Curfews undermine everyone’s basic freedoms.
* Our efforts to oppose curfews are much more likely to be effective if we act now, before curfews are proposed in our community, or at least are prepared to act immediately if they are proposed in our community.
* We may be drawn into debates about how curfews can be made less inconvenient for homeschoolers. This shifts the focus away from the serious issues. There are no “good” curfews. [Continue reading at the site]
More Cities Target Teens With Daytime Curfews
Wall Street Journal By LESLIE EATON April 26, 2009
DALLAS — This city is considering joining a rising number of others across the country that are imposing criminal penalties on kids who skip school to hang out at the mall or on local street corners.
Such juvenile daytime curfews to combat truancy and crime are drawing protests from groups such as the American Civil Liberties Union and from the parents of homeschooled children who, along with some parents of public-school students, object on grounds that such laws in effect criminalize otherwise law-abiding kids who may have good reasons for not being in school.
Homeschoolers, kids who attend private schools on different schedules than the public schools are targets to be stopped. Even public school kids within the same district who might be on year round schedules (or visa versa) will be detained with the assumption of guilt until proven innocent.
Daytime-curfew ordinances usually exempt children who can prove they are taught at home, but homeschooling parents say their kids are upset by repeated challenges from authorities when they shoot hoops in parks or ride their bikes while school is in session.
You’re not exempt if your freedom of movement in a public place is restricted by having to prove your homeschooling status. Texan homeschoolers don’t register or report to school authorities. But a walk to the library terminating in a ride back home in a police car does not sound appealing for homeschooled children. From the WSJ:
About 120,000 families in Texas homeschool approximately 300,000 children, according to the Texas Home School Coalition, an advocacy group based in Lubbock that is fighting curfews.
Home-schooling families were prominent among the roughly 80 people at a city-council hearing Wednesday, and also organized a protest outside City Hall on Monday. Doreen Fisher, a Dallas mother who homeschools her two young children, said she is also concerned about the impact of fines on low-income families.
“I was raised poor,” she said. “I know if I had come home with a $500 fine because I skipped school to get a tan for the prom, it would have been catastrophic.”
In Elyria, Ohio, the school principal and police chief opposed the daytime curfew proposal. Ohio’s Mary Nix posted on HEM Homeschool Support and Networking and here’s an excerpt from the Chronicle-Telegram in February of 2008:
The proposal is being taken up by the Council at the behest of Councilman Forrest L. Bullocks, D-2nd ward, who said he’s heard from several residents who were wondering why they see students wandering around during school hours. The Council’s Public Utilities, Safety and Environment Committee will hear the pros and cons — and that’s all it plans to do tonight, Councilman Kevin Brubaker, D-at large, said.
“I think we will have to look into what kind of benefit this would bring to the city,” Brubaker said. “Our Police Department handles enough keeping the city safe and shouldn’t have to deal with a matter that is best left up to the schools.”
Schools have truant officers and funding from taxpayers to chase down truant kids. Concerned taxpayers dislike the bureaucratic double dipping from the government to perform the same job.
I agree with Texan Doreen Fisher. A $500 fine and/or putting the parent(s) in jail seems inappropriate when kids aren’t engaged enough within the school to stay in the school.
Who and what is causing the real failure here?
Elyria High School Principal Quinn shows accountability to her students and the community. She knows a truant problem is her problem to take on. I think Elyria is fortunate to have Diane Quinn in their schools:
“People must remember that if someone is skipping school, that’s the symptom of a bigger problem, not the problem,” she said. “If parents work with us, we can address attendance issues and correct behavior without the need for a daytime curfew.”
Posted by Susan Ryan
From the Star-Telegram:
Under the curfew, people under 17, with a few exceptions, are not allowed to be in a public place in Bedford and Euless between 9 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. on school days. Violators and their parents can be fined up to $500.
Bedford leaves daytime curfew in place Mar. 11, 2009 Star-Telegram
Parents who home-school their children have said that the curfew erodes their personal freedom and holds students, parents and businesses guilty until proven innocent, perhaps forcing them to go to court to avoid paying fines.
Officers are required to determine that a student is not home-schooled before writing a citation, city officials said.
Since daytime curfews are one of my pet peeves as a homeschooler, I’ll add some more provincial information about Rockford, Illinois. That municipality initiated a daytime curfew in 2006. The success is questionable.
From the Rockford Register Star:
Truancy rates again on the rise in Rockford (01/19/08)
But a year after Rockford schools teamed with the city of Rockford, Winnebago County and the United Way in a unique anti-truancy partnership, a mid-year report shows truancy — a predictor of criminal behavior and high school dropouts — is once again on the rise.
The comparisons between the two cities in two different states are irresistible in these articles. From the March 11th Texas Star-Telegram article:
Since the curfew was enacted in September, the city has written two citations, while the number of unexcused absences districtwide dropped to 20,055 from 28,876 a year ago, officials said.
That reduction was also the story the first year the Rockford daytime curfew was initiated. Truancy rates dropped nearly 30%. But then increased almost 11% the next year. Determined teens will find a way out of the building.
7.7% of Rockford students were truant in 2008, 2 years after the daytime curfew was initiated. The Rockford school district offers ids to homeschoolers.
Isn’t that helpful of them?
posted by Susan Ryan
One part of the daytime curfew situation perplexes me: why is it needed when school is in session, but not during the summer?
School zones, curfew also return Monday, 24 August 2008, Greenville Herald-Banner, Greenville, Texas
The City of Greenville’s daytime curfew also goes back into effect Monday. Children under 17 should be off city streets between the hours of 9 a.m. and 2:30 p.m. school days. Juveniles are also forbidden from being on local streets between 11 p.m. and 6 a.m. Sunday through Thursday and between midnight and 6 a.m. on weekends.
I understand that part of the rationale for a daytime curfew is to give authorities a legal reason to question anyone who looks young enough to still be in school. I’m assuming a truancy law applies only to enrolled students, so that … there has to be a reason why the person looks as if he is skipping school? But, why isn’t the crime rate up enough during the summer to justify a daytime curfew when all the kids are ‘out?’
In the following article, it sounds as if the townspeople have not differentiated between truancy and a daytime curfew. The effectiveness of homeschooling is also touched on, although whether or not children learn well at home, as people generally assume they do at school, has nothing to do with the suspected juvenile crime concerning the citizens.
Home schooled children aren’t truants, home schooler says, 28 May 2008, Picayune Item, Picayune, Mississippi
Rigney addressed the school board for the Picayune Municipal Separate School District at its noon meeting Tuesday because of concerns raised at an earlier meeting by the Pearl River County Neighborhood Watch about truancy and whether all children who are supposed to be being home schooled actually are being home schooled.
There is a difference between detaining truants, that is children who are enrolled in a school and who are playing hooky, and a daytime curfew that forbids people under a certain age to be in public during the hours between, say, eight in the morning and three in the afternoon. One method targets specific children, the other targets all children.
However, Pearl River County Sheriff’s Dept. Chief Deputy Frank Vaccarella said later in the meeting that the sheriff’s department would like to help enforce truancy laws but now have to back off when they stop a child and the child says that it is home schooled.
Is it difficult to tell a truant from a homeschooled child? Of course. As yet, I haven’t read about any state that requires either group to sport an identifying symbol, temporary or permanent, so that onlookers can determine the child’s status at a glance. Even in our identity-badge-aware society, we are not all under house arrest and allowed to be out only with permission.
Another question I see is, what are the children doing when they are questioned? Are they committing crimes? Are they walking somewhere? Are they playing in their yards? What is it that catches the officer’s eye? Just their presence, or their activities?
If the school attendance reasons are, indeed, paramount, what prevents the school from maintaining a daily list of the names of absent students? Can the police not be given a specific truancy phone number to call to determine if Hudson Higgenbotham III is on the list? If Hudson is, then the officers take Hudson back to school and the principal calls Hudson’s parents. If he isn’t, then Hudson is not a truant. Hudson may be homeschooled, or he may be visiting relatives for the funeral of Uncle Hudson Higgenbotham, Sr. and was so overcome by the demise of his namesake that he had to take a walk to calm down.
I don’t mean to mock police officers while they do their jobs. I just think that the relationship of kids in our society to schools, and to authority, is not clear. Maybe to some people the changing status of children is still ’future shock.’ I’ll admit that the recent FLDS mess in Texas comes to mind, where young women who produced driving licenses to prove their ages but were taken into custody because they looked young.
Police judge criminal profiles based on who writers them, study finds, Ohio State University
“A profile is not intended to identify a specific person. A profile is only one of many tools in an investigator’s arsenal, and it is not my business to tell investigators what tools they should use.” But the results do suggest that anecdotal accounts of the accuracy of a profile are not a good basis for arguing that profiling is actually useful, [Andrew Hayes] said.
If “students” are truant, find out who the “students” are. Don’t presume that, like the FLDS women assumed to be children, that all children are ”students.”
Georgia
Data needed to take on truancy, 18 March 2008, WALB-TV, Albany, Georgia
Commissioners want to get serious with curfew violators including daytime violators who should be in school. They hope that will reduce gang activity.
…
Lott also wants to make sure that while enforcing the curfew, police do not violate anyone’s civil liberties by questioning young adults legally on streets who may look like teenagers.
Maryland
Curfew plans being altered: Annapolis council would apply law to entire city, 21 March 2008, Baltimore Sun, Baltimore, Maryland
Rejecting the possibility of a curfew limited to public housing communities in Annapolis, city lawmakers are instead looking into enacting a citywide curfew for youngsters to help reduce violent crime.
…
In 2006, the National League of Cities found that more than half of the U.S. cities surveyed had implemented a daytime or nighttime curfew to deter youth violence, crime and gang activity.
Oregon
Daytime curfew continues to keep kids in school, 26 March 2008, EastOregonian.info, Pendleton, Oregon
Pendleton Police and school officials report that after nearly three years the daytime curfew ordinance for students continues to be a success.
…
The ordinance, dating from 2005, prohibits students of Pendleton School District, ages 7 and older, to be in public places during school hours. The only exceptions are if the students are accompanied by a parent or guardian, traveling between school and home, or working on a school assignment.
posted by Valerie
Proposal could add daytime curfew for teens, 4 March 2008, WCNC, Charlotte, North Carolina
…
“A lot of times we get kids (truant) who have never done anything,” said Officer Jeff Miller, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department. “They get out with the wrong group of people and make a bad decision.”
…
Police say curfew laws are a tool that allows them to approach young people in the streets and hold parent (sic) accountable.
Lights out in GBC?, 14 March 2008, Athens Daily Review, Athens, Texas
City considers teen curfew
…
Council members appeared to be in agreement that kids should be in school during the day, and in bed well before sun up, while allowing that there are exceptions when kids would not be punished for being on the streets after curfew.
Since some parents home school, their children could be on the streets at different hours.
California
Napa councilman proposes youth curfew to stem gang violence, Napa Valley Register, Napa, California
Two decades ago, Napa tried to adopt a daytime curfew, but ran into opposition from parents who home school their kids.
…
Police also advocated a daytime curfew to prevent gang members from hanging out near Napa High School and causing fights, he said.
“We couldn’t figure out how to make it fair,” Monez said of the day curfew idea. Police ended up enforcing a penal code provision against loitering near school campuses and the daytime problem went away, he said.
Faced with a recent increase in gang violence, the city and local law enforcement agencies intend to create two task forces. One will involve law enforcement in a countywide gang suppression unit. The other will bring together community groups to devise a prevention plan.
Yreka: Parking fines to increase, daytime youth curfew considered, 12 February 2008, Siskiyou Daily News, Yreka, California
The council also discussed amending the city’s current curfew ordinance to create both a daytime and nighttime curfew and include parental liability for lack of supervision and cost recovery.
…
According to council members, juveniles who are absent from school without a lawful excuse ‘frequently congregate and loiter in public parks and other public places in and around business’ during the day.
Ohio
Police oppose curfew, viability of enforcement questioned, 13 February 2008, The Chronicle-Telegram, Elyria, Ohio
The Police Department isn’t embracing it. Nor are school officials.
But nonetheless, a City Council committee tonight will take up the issue of whether the city should have a daytime curfew.
Police Chief Michael Medders said he cannot see how such a law would be beneficial to the city or his officers.
“I don’t know what something like that would accomplish and it would be very hard to enforce,” Medders said. “Right now, Elyria gives some of their students lunch passes, so what would we be expected to do? Determine who’s skipping school and who’s out for lunch?”
What I’ve wondered is, what happens during the summer? Do the bad kids suddenly reform?
posted by Valerie
Last week I learned about a proposed daytime curfew in a neighboring town in Curfew reports around the country that was posted here at News and Commentary by Valerie.
Often we only hear of a few lone parents who oppose proposed daytime curfew laws, but I am happy to report that there is strong opposition in high places to this proposed law. You can read all about it in Police oppose curfew, viability of enforcement questioned by Lisa Roberson of The Chronicle Telegram.
Congratulations to Elyria High School Principal Dianne Quinn and Police Chief Michael Medders who appear to realize that that such a law would infringe on basic rights, would be very difficult to enforce and know that there are already laws in place to deal with any difficulties that may arise!
posted by Mary Nix